Now I am Done

Ahh… Done. That feels really nice. I have finished the novel, written the last chapter, crossed every last T and dotted all my Is. I could have been done a lot sooner if I had just done it. Without the intense need to write that NaNoWriMo creates however, I just can’t seem to focus the same way. I let myself do other things…

In any case, it’s done. Well… Having now come to the end I see that there a couple passages that need major expansion. One got skipped over just in the rush to finish. I thought I would get around to at least following up in a later chapter. That did happen, but it’s still not certain enough for me. Now I have to go back and insert the actual event so that we know what happens to Articka. Her final chapter kind of ends in the middle of mayhem of the last battle. I think I need to be explicit about what happens to her in the aftermath. She’s one of my main characters and hers is the only story that just stops. As is fitting an alien in an alien novel she has to survive in some form so that there are still aliens around for the sequel.

Sequel? Yes. Now that I have written all this stuff, I have so many ideas that didn’t quite make it in or ideas that clearly follow from the things I describe in this novel. I think I could do two or three more stories with some of the threads I’ve laid down here. That’s great! But first things first. I’m going to insert that one passage about Articka and include some more of Meghin’s reflections on the events of the book in her final chapter. After that I will let the thing mellow before I consider looking at it to do a revision. I already see problems with this draft, but I can’t tackle them all so soon. Let it mellow in my mind and then come back to it in a month is what everyone advises.

So next? I’ve got plenty of other novels I can start writing. I think if I can manage to do 800 words a day or a couple typed pages, I’ll be able to finish another novel in a couple months here. There’s the one about the trader who gets caught up in a clash of empires, there’s the one about how the Atlantis is connected to South American and Greek mythology, there’s the one about Beowulf and the one about the further adventures of Julias Rodman. So many ideas. Where to begin?