Monday, November 09, 2009

These are a few of my favorite words...

The End.

It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

I proudly typed those beautiful words last night 9:30 p.m., sitting in my bed, eyes glazed, shoulders hunched, yet somehow basking in the glory of a finished novel, or in this case, novella.

I'm done.

Of course, an author is rarely ever done-done. There's always last minute edits of your own choice, then those by your editor and then line edits and copy edits and...okay, I'm losing my joy.

But for now, The End is typed on the last line of my Christmas Novella, entitled The Gingerbread Season and releasing October, 2010 as part of a Steeple Hill compilation book with author Marta Perry.

What about you? Where are you on your WIPs? Is The End near, or are you at The Beginning? Do you like finishing a novella, or are you sad to see your characters go? Sometimes I'm a little nostalgic to say goodbye to my characters...but this time, I'm eager to see them launched and hopefully appreciated. This was my first novella, and it was hard. It's more difficult than you might think to condense a full story into half the typical word count. There is zero room for fluff, extra words, unnecessary dialogue...you gotta be sharp, and I guess I like to drone on at times =)

This was a great experience, one I really learned from and appreciated. I hope you'll all enjoy The Gingerbread Season next year.

(and if you don't, don't tell me. LOL)

THE END

5 comments:

Georgiana Daniels said...

HAHA, don't tell if you don't like it. LOVE the honesty!

It's an adorable story and I'm sure it will be enjoyed by all!

Edna said...

I love your books, and would love to win one.


mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net

Erica Vetsch said...

Yay!!! Congratulations!

My WIP is at 10K words...but tomorrow that's going to change!

Katie Ganshert said...

I already can't wait to read it! Just finished REturn to Love on Sunday. I let my son take a nap in bed with me while I read the entire second half of the book. Loved it - especially the ending! Can't wait to read your others, Betsy. :)

Christiana said...

Congratulations on typing "The End!" on your final page of the novella! That's quite an accomplishment, so hang on to that joy.

And YAY for working with Marta Perry! I've never met her, but she's a fellow Pennwriter, as am I!

Six degrees of separation and all that...