I have three chapters left to go on SEVEN STARS. It’s been going slower than anticipated this last week or so. It’s not that I’ve lost enthusiasm for the story or don’t know where it goes from here. Maybe it’s spring fever. Or maybe I just don’t want to finish it. Sometimes, I think, like reading a good book, I just don’t want to get to THE END. I want to stay in the sandbox and keep playing with these characters.
Of course, on a first draft, THE END isn’t anywhere close to really being the end. There’ll be several revisions. I’ll only be saying goodbye to these characters for a little while. It’s just a brief vacation so I can come back to the story with fresh eyes for the second draft.
So, what I have to do now is just pull my (figurative) writer hat down firmly on my head and power through. I know what happens next. And the writing doesn’t have to be perfect or even close to it in the first draft. That, after all, is what revisions are for.
If you want to be a writer, you can’t be a wimp about it. Some days it’s just butt in chair and get the job done, like any other job.
Meredith Mansfield, Author 
What scares me the most about finishing the first draft is what comes next. Revisions are tricky and messy. But I am learning as I go so each step is a bit scary for me.
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Ah, I just take the revisions in stages. Then again, the reason I have to let things rest so long is I have this really tricky memory that wants to remember every little detail. That can be a curse, sometimes, when you’re trying to take a fresh look at what you’ve written, but it might make keeping revisions straight a bit easier.
Still, breaking the revisions down into manageable chunks works for me. Of course, a couple of readers, after the revisions, to find all the holes and inconsistencies is a big help, too.
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