Completing a First Draft, Part Two

Self-Portrait with my Psychedelic Camera

To quote myself from just a few days ago concerning my reactions to completing a first draft:

"So how do I feel? Elated?  Nah.  Filled with energy?  Nope."

Yeah, so, about that.

A little over two hours ago I officially completed Draft One.  I had spent most of the late afternoon and all evening working on round two of the line edits.   I zipped the file, typed out an email to my wonderful beta readers and sent the whole shebang off.

It's a great moment--that first moment when a story is kicked out of the nest to fly or fail on its own.  There is a certain elation to it, a sense of accomplishment that I don't get from anything else.  Even if I had any laurels, though, I wouldn't be resting on them.  I know this is only the first of many public steps for my story and I'll have to spend more time with it after I get all of my beta reader's comments.

However, it's now pushing towards one AM in the morning and my first attempt at going to sleep has been a big fail.  After laying there, my head buzzing about everything and nothing, I decided to get up and make myself some warm tea.  (Hello, Sleepytime Extra)

This is not, necessarily, a buzzing that can be associated just with finishing Draft One.  It's actually the same buzzing that happens anytime I have a very productive writing session.  Unfortunately, those very productive writing sessions almost always happen at night.  And, rarely, do they coincide with a day off from work the following morning.

So, tomorrow I'll be hitting the green tea in the refrigerator to keep myself alert and functioning for the morning--and looking forward to the bus ride home where I can catch a nice nap.

Happy writing, everyone.


-- Tom