Tuesday, February 26, 2008

It's Done!

A germ of an idea that started early last July has turned into 65,493 words and what I hope will be the first of a series.

The first draft is done.


It still doesn't have a title, the ending needs serious work, and I'm worried that I'll find major plot holes and continuity issues when I do my read-through.

The first draft is done.

It's a sweet, sweet feeling.

Happy Tuesday!

47 comments:

Unknown said...

Jen, What amzaing news! Congratulations on your achievement. Don't sweat the plot holes...a first draft is supposed to suck. The achievement is having got all that down in order to improve upon it. I'm envious, but mostly I'm happy for you. Hoist a glass of your favorite beverage(and then get to work on that 2nd draft!).

Sai Hijara - Ferraris said...

Congratulations! I can't out for it to be out so I can add it to my collection! ;)

Jen said...

Greg - my favorite beverage of the moment is coffee, considering I finished around 8 a.m. this morning, lol. But I think I need some down time to do some additional research reading and let things incubate before starting the second draft.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mariposa!

Anonymous said...

That is awesome! What a gargantuan project (well, I'm speaking from a layman's perspective). With fiction you write first and propose second, right? I've explored with non fiction writing (i.e. bought a book on how to do it! haha) and I think you propose first, write later. Good luck and congrats!! I am thoroughly impressed.

Jen said...

Yes, Busy Dad, you write first (and rewrite and rewrite and maybe rewrite again, and THEN query). And yes, I believe it's the opposite with nonfiction, in general.

Maybe I should be smart and switch to nonfiction, lol.

Emily Marshall said...

Jen, congrats on finishing the first draft!!! That's so exciting.

Jen said...

Hey Emily! How fun to see you here. This saves me an e-mail - I was planning on letting you know!

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Congrats!!! I hope you are planning to celebrate a little before you plunge into your rewrites.

Jen said...

NYC - I sure am! Not sure how, yet, but I need to for sure! It's still sinking in. You know, it's still in that kind of "empty feeling" phase of shock, lol.

anno said...

Hooray!!!!!

Now, when do I get to read it?

Jen said...

hey Anno! Well, when it's a lot more cleaned up than it is now, lol. A few weeks, perhaps? (Like you have the time, dear friend) ;-)

Anonymous said...

That's fantastic! Veel gelukkig! And all great works had to go through tons of editing, but you got the major hard part out of the way already. Great job!

thailandchani said...

That's great! I can't imagine the amount of work you had to do to finish it! Now perhaps you can give us a hint. What's the plot? :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, wonderful! This is fantastic news. Remember, you can do anything now that you have a draft, but it's impossible to revise "vaporware."

Congrats and even more congrats. I can't wait to read it.

Charity

Maria said...

Wow! Congratulations! :)

Jenn in Holland said...

I was watching your word count on the side bar and wondering when this announcement would come! Congratulations! That is a stellar acheivement and I am very very impressed.
Tip back a glass and celebrate, friend!

Jen said...

Charity - thanks! And I'm not sure I would have gotten there if you hadn't kicked my butt and suggested I read Keyes's The Courage to Write last summer.

Maria - thanks for the congrats and for stopping by!

Chani - I'll e-mail you about that. ;-)

Jenn - oh... I'm planning on it! I already ended up revising the ending some this morning, though, lol.

Jami said...

YAY!!! - just YAY!!!

Jen said...

Thanks, Jami! I couldn't agree more!

Thistlemoon said...

CONGRATS JEN!!!!!!! That is such awesome news!

Jen said...

Thanks, Jenn!

Marianne Arkins said...

YAY!!!

Now... to meet my goal (as in: the goal we set together) I need to write (pulls out fingers and toes) 21,000 words in three days... so that would be (fingers and toes again)... um... 7,000 words a day.

Easy peasy.

Seriously, though. I'm so thrilled for you.

Jen said...

Thanks, Marianne! And um... hey, I would have rather had a book released this month - nudge, nudge. You'll get there. I need you to. You owe me some critiquing back and forth! ;-)

Anonymous said...

Jen, that's amazing! Congratulations! I'm so happy for you.

BTW, do you still want to do the Italian-American interview thing?

Sister Sassy said...

WOOOOHOOOO! What an accomplishment! WOOHOOO!

Jen said...

Yes, CG, I'd love to do that interview.

Thanks for the whoooohoooo, Sassy!

Momisodes said...

That is just amazing!!! Congratulations! Savor the moment :)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I'm so excited for you.

Carol said...

This is HUGE! You are to be commended, wined and dined, spa-massaged, and bouqued! (I made that word up...)Congrats!

Carol

Flower Child said...

congrats! can't wait to see it on the bestseller list. can I get an autographed copy?

Jen said...

Lilac, sorry I overlooked you earlier - thanks so much!

Sandy - I am savoring, believe me!

Jerseygirl - thanks so much!

Carol - Well, we're going out to dinner tonight to celebrate, so I guess that counts!

Flower Child - um... I'll see if it sells first, lol. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Yay Jen! Congratulations! It's so exciting! You may still have work ahead, but allow yourself to enjoy this moment! You've come so far!

Jen said...

Thanks so much, Leslie! I just came back from major celebrating, which I'll be writing about tomorrow!

Alex Elliot said...

That's fantastic!!! Congratulations. I hope when it's out you'll consider doing a virtual book tour at my blog. I've had two guests so far and it's been fun.

glamah16 said...

Hey, thats the hardest part I figure. Now its just fine tuning. It will all fall in place now.Congrats.

soccer mom in denial said...

Wow! Oh WOW!! That is just awesome. I've been watching the ticker thinking "she's getting there, she's getting there!"

And now you are THERE!! Yipee

painted maypole said...

hooray!

time to celebrate with a little disco dancing! :)

Madam Crunchypants said...

YAY!! WOOOOOOO!! Woo and Yay!!!!!!

Shan said...

Congratulations Jen. That's an incredible accomplishment.

Jen said...

Alex, thanks for the offer - if/when I get to that point, I'll definitely take you up on it!

Coco - thanks so much! I actually find the rewriting more frustrating, but I completely agree - once you have the main one it falls in place

SMID - THANKS!

Maypole - it's funny you should say that, because one of the first things I did was crank up (not disco) but Santana and let loose during my workout!

Thalia - thanks, and I know you understand what that's like!

Shan - thanks so much for the warm congrats!

Goofball said...

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah yeaaaaaah :)

so how does that make you feel?

Jen said...

Actually, Goofball, it's a great feeling! But I also know that the road has just begun...

Karen Olson said...

I've been laying low, working on my own WIP, so I missed this yesterday!

CONGRATULATIONS!

While you say you still have work to do, this is the easy part, having the whole story there and now just playing with it. It's my favorite part of the process.

You deserved that great dinner last night!

Jen said...

Thanks so much, Karen! I'm feeling pretty good about it. But now I'm wondering what footwear Julianna needs, lol. Your post reminded me of the old Alias episodes when Jennifer Garner would jump out a three-story building in 4 inch heels and an evening gown and land on her feet and keep running...

Anonymous said...

Wow! Go you! Don't worry if the first draft is all muddled. That is totally normal. Hemingway said the first draft is, well, crap (or some word like that). The important thing is that you finished it. That is more than 90% of ppl do (me included).

Dru said...

Congratulations!

Jen said...

Jane and Dru thanks so much for the congratulations and stopping by!