urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire The Journal of Seanan McGuire Seanan McGuire 2012-07-24T16:22:06Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire:397883 2011-10-21T05:08:09Z 2012-07-24T16:22:06Z Jeff and Maya, "My Wand Has Broken." Words: 15,820.<br />Total words: 116,181.<br /><br />Reason for stopping: draft one is finished.<br />Music: lots of Counting Crows and modern folk.<br />The cats: Lilly, in my tank top drawer; Alice, on the cat tree; Thomas, occupying half the kitchen floor.<br /><br />There we are, then; draft one is done.<br /><br />I have edits to process, corrections to make, structural elements to adjust, and lots and lots of trimming to do&mdash;the book is currently somewhere between five and eight thousand words longer than it needs to be, the length of a short story, if you wanted to write a short story made up mostly of "just," "that," and assorted wishy-washy modifiers. But the words are on the page to be mucked about with. The first draft is <i>finished</i>.<br /><br />I am so relieved. I will spend the weekend in Ohio working on the page proofs for <i>Blackout</i>, and attach <i>Ashes of Honor</i> with renewed vigor when I return. (Oh, who am I kidding. I'll be editing this puppy all weekend. But I'll also be getting ready to write something new.)<br /><br />Life is good.