It took me up into my lunch break at work, but the rough draft of my cowboy story is done. Finishing a manuscript is about as difficult as it is to start one. In the beginning you work hard to make your characters interesting enough to want to get to know them, and now I am saying goodbye and sending them away to their HEA. It is a big responsibility to get it right. To make a reader feel like it was worth their time. I think that is why it took me so long.
I kept trying to make Trey and Greta do things that they didn’t want to do (like have a long conversation). It didn’t feel right or natural. These are people with a long history together. They resolved their differences and just want to be happy. A long speech wasn’t going to add anymore to that. All they wanted to do was cuddle, and that also isn’t too exciting. Finding the balance was what took me so long to figure out.
There was a departure involved I didn’t see coming until I put it on the page. That is what is fascinating about writing. Here was a character doing something I didn’t want him to do, but he wouldn’t listen. He’s my creation, right? How come I cannot control him? I guess that is when you know you are on the right track. When you characters create their own reality and just show it to you. You are telling their story, not your version of it.
So now I am at the exciting part. Rough drafts are painful for me. I am much better at tweaking. I will read my story about eight or nine times in the next two to three weeks, and each time it will be different. New surprises will pop up, one of the ranch hands is going to get pushy and want more page time (it’s already starting), or I’ll learn something new about them that starts a whole different story. Polishing my work is when I laugh at myself hysterically. This is where I can’t believe I created a world and these people sprung from my head. Now, whether it is any good, or people will like it, or, more importantly buy it, is a whole other matter. But it’s my world. And for this brief moment in time, it’s all mine.