I have just four chapters left. Everything feels pretty good, especially for my characters. I think they are ready for the end as well: prepared, with a feeling of “rightness.” I’m supposing about 10-15,000 words more or so and a finish in early January.

After that, a month or two in the deep freeze–if I can–before I take a first real look at the manuscript as a whole. I’ve described the first draft to be very similar to the “safe start over point” in a painting. That’s the place where the hard and ugly work is finished. You’ve checked all the proportions. You’ve blocked in the values and the colors. After this, the line drawing comes off and the refinement begins.

That’s pretty accurate a thought for a rough draft. All the really hard ugly work is over. But the difference is, you are just beginning to check the proportions and the values and the colors. Close to refining, like one step before. A set of edits need to be made after the first draft before you can refine, I do believe. Structural edits, before the real refinements of prose and rhythm, character and description, tension and mood, symbolism and theme. I’m worried about plot, plausibility, emotional logic–the things I consider to be that underlying structure. The rest is the butter cream roses on top of the cake.

I wholly expect another six to seven months in editing. It sounds ridiculous to read that–and I think I may be conservative in that estimation, but perfectly reasonable on my time line. It took roughly 7 months to write this current manuscript. That’s about my average for a first draft–remember, this is my second storyline written for this project. Two in 14 months.

I’m working almost everyday. Habit now. One that I miss when I’m not doing it. So, another half a year with my characters sounds lovely, actually. It’s going to need that level of attention to detail. And I have the time, at least I suppose that I do. We can never be sure, but I do hope. My next post on this topic ought to be the one where I say I’m finished.