Thunder rumbled in the distance as rain pattered against my window. It had gotten dark since I first sat down in front of my computer to continue my work. The glow from the monitor was all that was giving illumination to the room.
Two years of work would be coming to an end in just a few short months. I sifted through piles of notes to find useful data to update my manuscript. I had received many helpful suggestions from the members of the Rochester Writers Association on parts of my novel. Now I was taking the best of those suggestions and integrating them into my story.
Over 40,000 words had been written in June 2008. I had fallen short of my goal for those thirty days but I knew that my story would be worth completing. Over the two years following that real life began to interfere; large projects at work, other writing, research for another blog.... weeks turned into months and my draft remained uncompleted.
But on that dark and stormy night not too long ago I gathered my notes, printouts, index cards, and source material to begin working to finish that first draft.
Will my draft be ready for publishing when it is completed by this fall? Certainly not! That's why it is called a first draft and not a completed manuscript.
No, instead the draft will be printed and given to a handful of trusted reviewers for further critique. Then comes the next round of updates and re-writes. Perhaps by May 2011, nearly three years from the first word being written, and over four years since research began, will I finally be ready to begin the quest to find an agent.
I would ask for luck, but hard work and stubbornness have usually served me better.
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