Draft 1 is finished

At 6:55 pm, the novel came to a close. At nearly the same time, I realized what this book was actually about. This leaves me about five hours to clean it up, and make changes that will strengthen that theme.

This feels like an insane luxury, but the writing today was easy, and I will take it, because frankly, this book is a mess.

Anyone wishing to read this tangled wreck is invited to contact me, but I'd advise you wait until I've gone through it.

It's currently 31,398 words. That's about 2000 words shorter than last year.

Unlike last year's novel, though, this has a beginning a middle and a definite end. There was no hasty drive to the conclusion this year. Last year I had done so much pondering and planning in advance of the writing that I had too much story to tell, I had to pick an end point and find a way to stop.

This year, I had literally no idea half the time what was going to happen, but I did know what the very end of the book would be.

So I built this crazy, chaotic story that ends abruptly in the spirit of that madness, and then I drop him back in his little bubble of peace, and hopefully, the reader understands a little better how he wound up there.

So I'm happy with the actual very end of the piece, and I'm happy with a lot of the early parts, but the whole Frankenstein plot needs some tightening up and some clarifying...but only some.

And I need a name, but I don't know what it is yet.

I also wonder if this book will get bigger or smaller before midnight.

Huh. I think I'm going to celebrate with a shower and some vigorous dog bothering before diving back in.