So close!

I am down to just two things left to do with this novel draft: I have to add a couple of early references to something that is important later, and I have to go through and check my descriptive elements. This seems like a somewhat mechanical approach, but it's simply something that I don't include much in early drafts. It seems to work much better for me if I concentrate only on that aspect on a run through the entire manuscript.

So this means that I think I will be finishing it up tonight or tomorrow. Wow. I can't believe it. I feel very positive about it--it's improved so much since I rewrote it following the competition. It's taken me longer than I thought to arrive at this point, but it sure feels good.

I think I've learned that one thing I absolutely must try to do is make myself stay with a project like this with dogged determination until it is finished. There are things that I feel guilty about not doing this week and last, but that's what always happens to me--I am working on something, leave it to fulfill other obligations, then take months (or longer) to get my head back into the right space to work on it again. This time I've been ruthless and simply not let myself be called away. I don't know what my family thinks of this, or even if they understand the reasons why I'm not helping out with certain things, but hopefully I'll be able to explain once it's done.