I finished!!! I wrote the last scene and the last word of my first draft  (tentatively entitled Pride and Proposals) ! This is the hardest part of the process — for me and for many writers, I believe.  Once you have something on paper, and you’re not facing a blank screen, it’s so much easier to revise.  Even if you have to throw out pages and pages (and I have), you’re better off having something to work with.  That’s why I always try to write the first draft quickly (I’m not always successful) and give myself permission for it to be crappy.  If I worry about each sentence construction or word choice, I’d never get through the first page.  Those considerations are for the next draft.

So, I’m going to celebrate with some chocolate and then start on the second draft.

The funny thing is, when I finish the first draft, I always think it’s awful (because I wrote fast and didn’t worry about a lot of details), but then when I go through to revise I often think, “Hey, this isn’t so bad!”  Of course, sometimes that doesn’t happen, which is a sign that my first draft needs major surgery.  Nothing to do but get out the scalpel….

Does anyone else have this experience with their second draft?