Al...Most...There....

3:00 PM: It's official...the ms is 50,038 words:) I know...barely over the limit, but it's DONE! Okay, not done as in finished and ready for publication. Huh-uh. Far from it. This is probably my worst first draft ever. And I already know what is going to be headed for the delete button.

But I'm happy. I managed to accomplish something which intrigued me last year, and I don't know if I'll be so enthusiastic to try again next year. We'll just have to wait and see.

As AJ says, time for a glass of plonk. Or in this case, a bottle or two of White Russian Kahluas...hell, I may even drink all 4 tonight. I'm celebrating:)

I am less than 3 thousand words away from my goal.

And I am so sick of my characters I could scream.

I never thought I'd ever say that, but it's true! For the past 30 days, I have been immersed in the lives of these fictional people, who meet, connect, lose contact, reconnect, ignite the flames of passion, fight their growing feelings, and a whole lot of other stuff. The book has even tried to come to a natural conclusion 3 times. But the rules say I have to have 50K words, not merely 32K! So I've added some mindless conversations; idiotic descriptions of everything from preparing a meal to whatever room the characters happen to be in. I'm not planning on even touching this wip until at least 3-6 months, so I can let my brain clear before I start deleting huge blocks of text.

And I'm not normally this way.

Take my Arbor U series...I've been with these characters for twenty years, and I'm still not tired of them. Granted, I've not devoted 8 hours every day to their stories; in fact, I'm trying to write Lynne's right now, and the words just aren't coming. My initial goal for this month was to work on both wips, but Head of the Class took over early and pushed Love is Color Blind out of my brain.

This didn't happen when I wrote Wild at Heart in 4 weeks, but then, it's only 40K words. The longest wip to date is an untitled work that would have my BFF horrified if she would ever read it...it kind of parallels some of our histories, some I wrote before it even happened! So you see why I'm reluctant to finish it...and I worked on it steadily last April, and now some of the events are unfolding as I write this! Scary...

So this revelation this month has me wondering, am I simply not a person who can deal with a deadline when it comes to my creativity? Is it a good thing I've gotten a head start, so if I do get a contract for the rest of my books, the next five are practically ready to go? Or am I simply one of those whom 'the muse will not be rushed'?

I feel drained. As soon as I complete these final words later today, I am taking some of my hard-earned cash and treating myself to my favorite adult beverage for the evening. And tomorrow, I'll be off to the Author Showcase to sign and sell copies of my books, meet Tracy in person again, and buy hers. And spend a solitary evening in a motel room and pray the roads are dry on Sunday as I drive home. And beginning Monday, I start baking cookies. The only writing I expect to do the month of December is posting my blog; making comments on others; sending out Christmas cards; and email correspondence.

Of course, if the muse gets a hold of me and demands I write, I cannot be held accountable for retracting the above statement!