I wrote to the end of my book yesterday afternoon. Technically, if you were being generous, you could say I finished my first draft on the final day of 2009, as I was really really hoping I would. I admit I celebrated as if I had, but in reality the final chapter is rough and I’m back into doing line edits on it today. After today it will be officially a completed novel—give me a few hours. Who knows, because after that I’m going back to Chapter 1 to make a whole bunch of fixes and cuts before my agent sees it next week, and then I’ll keep fixing it and keep fixing it and keep fixing it until my editor sees it February 1, and then she’ll have me fix it more, multiple times, until, by the end, who knows if any of the original sentences will still be intact by the final draft. But still! Wrote to the end yesterday, yay.

I also succeeded in making myself sick from nerves (nervous about: people reading book; people liking book; other book-related activities; work; lack of work; apartments; health; others’ happiness; staying afloat; too many things to list here; stop writing them down…). Anyway, I might be having some kind of nervous reaction (again), so it really is a good thing that I’m close to being done and will likely meet next week’s deadline.

Once I hit Send and my agent has my manuscript, I think I might need someone to come over and calm me down. Or a spa treatment. Or a sedative.

And in case you were wondering: In the baby vs. novel race, baby took the lead and emerged December 29. Congratulations, Annika and Grace!

And I’m not the only writer to finish her first draft in 2009. Major congratulations to the talented Christine Lee Zilka! I’m so proud of her and so excited to read her book and watch for the wonderful cake-worthy accomplishments to come!