The Book is Done!

Thirty minutes ago I stood from my computer and walked triumphantly away after I saved my book and removed the flash driver to transfer it to my brother's computer.

It's not the first time I've felt the elation of completion of a huge project. Actually it's really only the second time. The first was for my 70,000 word novel "Kill Clyde," which still hasn't recieved any interest from an agent. That was in October, 2003. Eighteen months later I have typed the last words and punctuated the last sentence of the first draft of my second novel, "The TADPOLE Plan." This one is also a thriller, but is 100,000 words long. I hope I'm not starting a trend that will lead my next novel to be 170,000 words and the one after to be 250,000 words. That will make writing a synopsis a bigger bitch of a task then it already is.

Stephen King said in his book "On Writing" that a writer should put the first draft away and not look at it for about 6 weeks. Then he should remove it from the drawer and read it with "fresh eyes." This allows you time to detach yourself from your work. I agree, but am always so anxious to start on the marketing part that I give it a week and then tear into the second draft and then the third. At least, that's what I did the first time. (I ran out of steam on the third draft and put it away for about three or four months at that point. Then I started TADPOLE in earnest and didn't finish the third draft until a year after the first draft.)

My job on the boat will keep me busy for about eight weeks, during which time I'll work on some other stories in my head: one is a travel memoir about my sailing experience in 2003 from Phuket, Thailand to Darwin, Australia. I remember things about that trip so vividly that I can't avoid it any longer. The other story going through my head is about me as a 10 year-old and the things that happened on the street on which I grew up. It will be fictionalized, of course, and some names will be changed to protect the innocent and not so innocent.

For today, though, I'm just going to crack one cold beer, sit back, and soak up the feeling of accomplishment. I think I deserve it. Don't you?