Nearing the Finish Line

It happened months later than I'd hoped, but I finally finished revising my novel. I wish I were better about posting regularly to this blog, because it's good for me to have a record to look back on. I was trying to remember, the other day, when it was I'd finished writing the first draft, and I was able to tell from looking at the blog that it was August 21, 2008. So on January 4, 2009, I finished the revision. I spent the next two days formatting it and then gave it to the seven readers I've chosen. They are all reading it and making comments.

I feel like a little kid at a dinner party her parents are throwing for their friends. I've come out of my bedroom and interrupted their conversation with, "I HAVE A DANCE I'D LIKE TO PERFORM FOR YOU ALL." They politely ooh and aah at my awkward steps and sludgy choreography, all the while thinking, When is this kid gonna go back to her room? No one is as proud of this book as me, no one is as excited. The other night when my sister was over I ACTUALLY SAID, "Do you want to hold my book?" Thank GOD neither she nor my husband heard. I've been embarrassed about it for 36 hours.

But I love to hold my book. It's a 400 page manuscript, though I've printed it single-spaced for now, which is 200 pages of beautiful, clean, white paper containing over 99,000 words I've carefully placed, one by one. I hold it and marvel at what I've done, its weight, its potential. I am actually unable to say whether I think it's good or not. I'm depending on my readers for that.

I hope to get it back from them by the beginning of March, when I'll start looking over their comments and making revisions based on them. I'm reading a fabulous book called The Sell Your Novel Toolkit, by Elizabeth Lyon. It's a great, step-by-step guide to publishing a novel. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I've started working on a screenplay idea I've had for years. It's a good, short-term project to do while waiting for my manuscripts to return to me. I'm having fun with it. It's light hearted and easy for me. Dialogue is my strong point, I think. I'm using a book called Writing Your Screenplay, by Cynthia Whitcomb as a guide.