First, I’d like to thank all my blogging friends who continue to stop here and say hello, even though I’ve been absent from most of your own blogs recently. That darn day job has really eaten into my blog reading time! I feel like it’s all I can do to get a blog posted here three times a week, and if I can find two days a week to read other people’s blogs, I count myself lucky!
Of course, being in the grip of the climax of my WIP has also kept me away from the blogosphere. I know most of the writers out there will understand – it’s hard for anything to compete with your WIP when it gets to that point! And now – IT’S FINISHED! The first draft of The Caged Graves is complete, at 72,500 words! Of course, I already know there’s a bunch of things wrong with it – plot holes, clues left dangling because I changed my mind, irregular pacing, characters who should have been introduced early on turning up unexpectedly in the middle, etc. I’ve already started digging into it and changes are underway …
In other exciting news, I was the guest of a book club in Charlestown, Pennsylvania last week. Thank you, Ellen Behrle, for inviting me and for hosting the book club meeting. It was a fun evening – great food, great wine, and lots of laughs. I’m so glad everyone enjoyed We Hear the Dead, and I loved sharing the biographies I used as resources – especially the photographs of the real people. (We also spent some time trying to “cast” the dashing Elisha Kane for the film …)
Anyway, back to work on The Caged Graves …
Congrats on finishing your WIP. How exciting. Now the fun begins with all of the revisions. Actually, it’s one of my fav parts, massaging and nipping and tucking to make it just right. What fun! Must be the editor in me. Have a super rest of the week, Buffy
Sheri’s doing the first draft dance…chah, chah… Wowza, good thing you can’t see me. Congrats!
Congrats on the first draft and happy revisions. 🙂
Being in the grip of a climax can do that to you. 😉
And CONGRATULATIONS on finishing your first draft! Always a great feeling. 🙂
Congrats on finishing your first draft. I’m starting mine this week. Can’t wait to be at your stage. I prefer doing the revisions, which is just as well since they take longer.
Congratulations on finishing your first draft! I hope school is going well for you and your kiddos. 🙂
awesome! I totally know what you mean- I went through the same thing with my WIP this last month (as you know) and am just now getting back into the blogging swing:) Have fun with revisions. I know I’m not. lol.
Congratulations on finishing the first draft! Hope the revisions go well.
Congrats on finishing that draft while keeping up with a day job, book signings and household chores.
Malcolm
Household chores? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Malcolm, that’s pretty funny!!
Thanks, everyone! I actually love revisions, so I am really excited about working on them. This is where I can stop looking at the trees (each chapter that needs to be written) and concentrate on the forest (the work as a whole).
Huge congrats! Keep us updated on revisions. I can’t wait to hear more.
congrats, Dianne. I know how hard it is trying to write, blog, read other people’s blogs, comment on those blogs, and go to work -which is just a massive interference in my opinion. I can’t imagine trying to do all that and have two girls plus work after work (papers to correct, lessons to plan, tests to grade). Not to mention everything else you do…You go girl!
Very cool!! That picture you posted of the caged graves lives on in my head. What a great point of inspiration!!
Yay! Congrats on the draft! So amazing that you do so much.
I pretend my first draft is perfect and that I am the only author in history to have churned out a totally mistake-free novel on the first try. After a week of that la-di-da thinking, I give myself a good hard slap and get on with the editing.
Happy revising!