Closing in on a First Draft

After months of delving into Eleanor’s early life, I am closing in on the first draft of TO BE QUEEN.  I find myself moving into high gear, as I always do this close to the end of a novel. Of course, once I have the draft completed, re-writes begin.

Re-writes are an adventure, too, but a different adventure altogether. Writing is hard. Staying in the chair with a deadline looming is harder.  But there is a special magic to a first draft, a kind of alchemy. Though I love each incarnation of my novels, in the first draft, I get to hear the story, unedited, from the lips of my characters. In re-writes I have to go back and fix all my mistakes, and the mistakes that my editor finds. With this first draft, there is only me and Eleanor, working together toward a shared goal: making her live again.

I have almost reached that goal once more. I am almost sorry to see this first draft completed. But along with a sense of accomplishment is the joy that, soon, I will sit in the chair again, and start on the second draft.