As it turns out, I wasn’t able to finish the first draft of EHP in 90 days. It took me 96.

Emmeline – the first draft, anyway – clocks in at 85,334 words. And it’s nowhere near done done – it still has to go through my early readers, and the time it’s with them gives me space to get a little distance so when I go back in with my own edits, I’m not so close to the text anymore. (Crucial for editing.)

I wrote in a frenzy last night – the words just kept on coming. There was one panicked moment during which my computer completely froze, and no amount of waiting or the escape key or any other key combination would free it from its evil pause. (I blame my husband texting me and the google hangouts chrome extension constantly popping up over my writing program. That extension has been DELETED.) Luckily, Scrivener is AMAZE and thanks to its auto-save feature, even though I had to force-restart the computer I only lost half a sentence. That’s a problem I can handle. I re-wrote that half a sentence, finished the final showdown and the epilogue, and that was…it.

You know that empty, tetherless feeling you get after you finish reading a good book, like you don’t know what to do with your life after it’s done? It gets that way when you finish writing a book, too; at least for me. But I can’t wallow in the feeling too long – I’ve got to get it ready for my early readers to pounce on. They’ve been an amazing resource and great sports so far, and I’m really grateful for their eagerness to help me out.

Now I need to erase my chalkboard and start mapping for the next book. The fun never ends!!!! ^_^

What are you up to this weekend?