On Finishing the Book!!

This'll be a quick blog about finishing the manuscript, cuz I'm in the midst of finishing the manuscript and I can barely stop long enough to blog. It's weird how, at the end, it suddenly all comes rolling out of the brain. It's the characters talking and trying to get their roles wrapped up, I guess.

So, how am I feeling about it? Happy. Sad. Worried. The usual!

First, I'm very excited to be finishing. Then I'm sad to be ending my relationship with these characters. And finally, I'm worried that it won't be good enough.

It's always a great feeling to finish a manuscript. Its' like dancing on air. Writing a whole book, a full story centered around these people's lives is just such a huge undertaking for me. It took me a year to write this book. A year's worth of sitting on the sofa, thinking and typing, hoping what I created was the perfect little scene for each moment in the characters' lives.

I'm sad because Rafe was so hurt. Then he was so into Jolie. Then he was so set on leaving her. And *then* he was so wrong about it, and had to make amends in a big way. And it was sad leaving Jolie because she was fun-loving, gentle and looked at the world with a glass-half-full attitude. Though she'd been through some tough moments in her life, she recognized others' troubles and felt they were worse than hers. Both really cared about their families. I like family people.

And finally, I'm worried because even though I think this is the best story I've written, maybe I'm the only one who'll think that. I so want an editor to read this and go, "Wow. These seem like real people, and I'm rooting for them to get what they want."

Okay. Now I have to run because the *other* characters in my life are becoming loud and demanding attention. That would be my husband and kids.

I'll blog when I'm really totally finished! Then the fun part starts: the tightening. Actually, I love revisions because I've got more than a blank page to work with, as they say.

Talk atcha latah!

Mel