Central Park
Last week, I finished the first draft of my newest book. Cue confetti cannons and heart eye emojis. I’m so excited for this one, and excited especially since it’s been an idea that was kicking around in my brain for a while before getting down on the page.  Despite a week of soggy, gloomy weather here in New Jersey, I enjoyed the days after my draft was done, feeling the high of completion and the happy sigh of reaching the end.
The celebration won’t last forever; I’ll be neck-deep in heavy revisions before long. This draft, like all first drafts (or all myfirst drafts, anyway), is extremely rough. I’m very excited by the characters in this story, but I know much will change in their world by the time this book is ready for anyone else’s eyes.
A funny thing happened after my draft was done, as it almost always does. When I’m drafting, it’s go go go to the finish. No stopping, no looking back. I’m a pantser (meaning I don’t plan or plot at all), and I’m often figuring out the story as I go along. I usually have a vague idea of where it will all end up, and I write straight through the first draft without stopping, revising, or reading back at all. I don’t even stop for typos when I’m in the zone! But as much as I want that first draft done, so I can get into the fun and nitty gritty of heavy revisions, where the story really comes alive and all the hardest work takes place, something odd happens. Once I’m done with a project, I immensely miss it. I miss the rush of first drafting, and the writing itself. Revisions are where the real magic happens, in my experience, but that first draft feeling is hard to capture at any other point of the writing process.
The sun managed to come out again on Sunday and we spent Mother’s Day in the city – doing some of our favorite things, visiting The Museum of Natural History and Central Park and going out for a nice dinner. It felt so great to have the sun on our faces again after all the dreariness of last week.
This week will be all about spring time, so I hope the good weather stays. I’ll be gardening and brainstorming, getting ready to dive back into the new book for revisions soon.
Happy spring week ahead to everyone! Hope you have a good one.
Xoxoxo,
Jenn Central Park