I think I can I think I can . . .

I am thiiiiiiiis close to finishing the rough of Trial.  Pushed through on two of the hardest chapters today, the first one I've been dreading since I outlined it because it involves a plot device I'm not good at, and the second because I realized in reading my outline that I'd stuffed way too much into it and half of it belongs in the next chapter.

But they're done, and I managed 2900 words today, which is pretty decent considering the dearth of writing lately.  I'm just so ready to be finished with this rough, because it's the editing process that's going to make the book worth anything, and I'm not going to get there till I finish the rough.  Writing this thing has been like the death of a thousand cuts--the chapters are short, the book is short, there's nothing complicated, but because it keeps getting backburnered, I've been writing it for months!

*breathes*

The end is in sight, however, and I know I'm going to get there.  This'll be the first novel ms I finish since Skywatch, which was--geez, three years ago almost exactly.  That's depressing.  On the other hand, in between I've been published twice, moved two thousand miles, and changed jobs.  Plus started two other books that I had the foresight to realize weren't going anywhere as they were, and thus stopped.  Failure matters--it's what a good writer calls a learning experience, and it's worth a lot.

Editing Trial is, I think, going to be very different from editing Skywatch.  Skywatch only took me a few months to write, I never took any long breaks, and it was 20k longer than Trial is going to be.  Skywatch was always all of a piece.  Trial, I suspect, is going to be very disjointed, both because of the story structure itself and way I ended up writing it.  But I have a lot more editing experience now than I did the first few times I went through Skywatch--I have Skywatch, obviously, but I also seriously revised The Novel.  Every little bit helps, or so I hope.

22 chapters down, 4 chapters to go!

Each happy ending's a brand new beginning

Coming in at 31,426 words: the rough of Trial is finished!

And I've continued the tradition established by The Novel of blasting Ever Ever After when I finish a rough draft.

I reached a natural stopping point after writing three chapters in pieces throughout the day today and took a look at the clock.  It was just after eleven, I had one chapter left, and I basically went, That's it, I'm doing this.  Finished just before midnight, wrote over 3k words today, and now I might be listening to Ever Ever After on repeat.  After the drawn-out process writing this book has been, I did not expect to speed through the last six chapters in two days.

Now I need to go ice my wrists, which, if I recall from finishing Skywatch, is also a tradition.