Friday, August 29, 2008

Finished

I am finished writing my novel.

(I'm waiting for lightening to strike or for my computer to blow up... still waiting... no?...sigh of relief)

Okay, so I am finished. I've been working on this all summer in my moments of quietude during the day (because there are SOOOOO many moments of quiet with two boys under foot in the summer time) and usually late into the night when the creative juices are flowing.

It's finished. I printed and edited it this week and just finished printing it again tonight. It has 83, 279 words in it. That's actually quite a lot of words when you really think about it. Single spaced with smallish margins, it is 130 pages in length.

I know there are still things that I haven't caught. But I just can't look at it again. I'm finished.

Now I need to make some decisions regarding its publication. I still have the offer from Tate Publishing, but I am wondering if I should try other publishers first before just going with my first offer. In all honesty, most of me is so incredibly eager to see my writing in officially bound print. I know this is totally dorky, but as a grad student at Harding I wrote a thesis on the impact of writing centers on freshman comp students. Harding bound a couple of copies of the thesis and I have mine proudly displayed on my bookshelf here at home. Isn't that kind of selfishly dorky? I realize that it is, but I also realize how much work I put into that thesis and it's just a good feeling to see that hard work in something tangible. Same thing with the novel. I started writing it a year ago. Most of the work has been done this summer, but it has been a creative brainchild for over a year and the thought of it being in print is really exciting.

Anyway, I just wanted to make it officially known that I'm FINISHED!

4 comments:

Kathryn said...

Wow! Congratulations! I can't wait to read it, and whatever decision you make about publishing will be the right one for YOU. This is an awesome accomplishment!

PS - make a back-up of the file, and a back-up of the back-up, and so on. :)

Robin said...

That is so incredibly great! I'm thrilled for you...and I know it must have seemed like a long year to you, but I think completing a novel in that amount of time is AMAZING!!! I'd love to hear more about it. And of course I can't wait to read it myself!! Check out my friend Elizabeth's blog at www.mommytown.blogspot.com because she's a stay-at-home novelist, too!

Blessings,
Robin

Cara said...

Congrats, Andrea! What an accomplishment. I'm so proud of you and can't wait to read it!

Sara said...

Looking forward to enjoying your book. You are not a dork to want your novel bound..Jim is the same way about his dissertation. It feels 100% complete when it is bound!

Good F words

Hey! Not all F words are bad. The best words in the world are family, fun, food, and fabulous! I'm challenging myself to expand my own appreciation of the fabulous F words out there. I'm starting a list of words that I'll eventually write about. Let me know if you think of another fun one.



Family ~ Father ~ Fast ~ Fanatic ~ Fanciest ~ Festive ~ Fanciful ~ Freedom ~ Friday ~ Flower ~ Flagrant ~ Fixable ~ Forceful ~ Forbidden ~ Foray ~ Foppish ~ Fledgling ~ Frappacino ... hmmm... maybe ?