The End is but a Beginning

This morning I wrote over 1200 words and it is now official. I have reached the end of the first novel. Equally important, that figure puts me at over 4000 words for the week, so I have attained my weekly goal for a third time in four weeks. A few other random figures:

I have written 27,477 words since coming to Vegas.

The final first draft total is 103,806 words. (The file has 291 pages if you prefer that as a standard no matter how vague.)

I just spoke with Moose and read him the last seven pages and he likes the ending. So it is partner approved. Nothing is effectively resolved and I am not sure it is a solid breaking point for ending the first novel because of this, but it is where I wanted to be when ending the first novel, so as far as I am concerned it is done.

In some sense, this fulfills one of my childhood dreams of writing a novel. It is a bit hollow as far as victories go seeing as how the story is completely unfinished and in some ways just beginning, but it is a completed work nonetheless. I suppose I could die now and be happy in this goal even if it is a very minimalistic achievement. Naturally, I won't be truly happy until the full story is told.

Also, Moose and I both agree that there are a number of necessary underlying themes that I have not been successful in portraying and this will need to be fixed in the second draft, but as I have said before, the first draft is merely the vehicle that I am using to get me to where I need to go, namely, the completed story. Tying things together will be much easier the second time around now that I know the details long before I write them.

I think the rest of the weekend will involve me updating the character sheets, something I have been avoiding, so I have a little more to do before starting the second novel. Most importantly, I can say that I finished the first novel on schedule. I wanted to be done in mid-May and it is currently May 16th. It doesn't get much more mid-May than that.

I am curious as to whether or not I can finish the second novel by the end of the calendar year as per my secondary goal. We shall see. I'll likely start it on Monday. I had intended on taking a little break before continuing, but since I took most of last week off, I'll forge ahead and take my break when Kim and (maybe) Charles come out to visit at the end of this month.

At the moment, I have more important concerns. It's time for lunch.