I FINISHED MY REVISION! Woooooo!
Is it “finished” no…but it’s so much closer to that stage. It took almost a year to work through re-reading, critiquing, and re-planning the novel. The writing alone took 9 months to finish. But, honestly, I’m thrilled.
I had planned January 1 to December 31 for this project. The fact that I finished at the beginning of September is AMAZING! I have the next 3.5 months to work on different projects, start the second phase of revisions, and refuel creatively. That’s a lot of time in the grand scheme of a year! I’ve finished zero drafts in less time. (zero drafts are basically like a version of the story that you KNOW needs plot changes, but you just tell yourself the story first).
The thing that hit me when I finished was that there is very little celebration/momentous feeling around finishing a writing project. It’s been 9 months of writing and a full year of working on just this draft of the book…but…when I finished it I just went on with my night. It was a normal weeknight.
This is why I find it vital to “treat myself” after finishing something this big. I’m not spending hundreds of dollars or anything like that but simply giving myself something I wanted for all the hard work. I got a couple of candles for when I’m writing, a deck of writing prompt cards for short stories/practice, and of course a book.
The completion of a stage within a draft is where the loneliness of writing comes in. There’s no “launch” day for it, there’s no recognition for it unless you make it yourself.
So make a big deal out of finishing parts of your projects. Milestones are important!
I rewrote 62k words in nine months! I’ve proved to myself that I can finish a revision! I’m going to celebrate that for as long as I can. 🙂
Happy Writing!
Rachel
Subtle Stories 