Done and dusted

A few weeks back, I realised I was quite close to finishing my SFD. Exciting times! But when I looked at the calendar, I broke out in a cold sweat and ever since then it’s been a race against time to get my SFD done before my kids start school holidays - THIS FRIDAY. They’re good kids, but in the holidays we tend to end up with the neighbours’ broods here as well, and when there are seven kids between the ages of four and eleven running riot in the house, writing becomes a little … well, impossible.

So, all was going well with my writing schedule. It would be tight, but as this week - the final week of school - rolled round, I was quietly confident I would finish my book on Friday, my last child-free day of the year.

Except I then remembered my DH and I would not be here on Friday; we have to go interstate for his work’s Christmas function. Rats! Scratch one day. It wasn't ideal, but still, finishing seemed doable … but I’d also forgotten the small military operation that must happen in order to handball my three kids to their grandparents for two nights - the washing, the packing, the food shopping, the sorting and organizing. I knew I’d have to kiss Thursday goodbye, too, leaving me with only three days to finish my SFD.

Bloody hell!

This is when I’m glad I married the man I did. He offered to do the morning school run on Tuesday and Wednesday, giving me an extra hour to write each day. Phew. And didn’t bat an eyelid when I told him I was going to write all night if that’s what it took to finish.

And it nearly did. Wednesday, I wrote from 8.30am to 2pm, then back in the chair from 8.30pm to 2.30am this morning … and 9491 words later, my first draft of Blood of the Heart is done! Oh, I am exhausted beyond words, but deliriously, goopily happy (hmm, I seem to remember saying those same words after giving birth. (g))

So, although I began drafting a post on Monday about … well, I forget what (which tells you how riveting it must have been), in draft it will remain, because even writing this post is making my brain hurt. I’ll be back with something a little less “it’s all about me, sweetie” next week … but then again, All the World’s Our Page really is about sharing our writing journeys, and this is a significant point in mine - a point I sometimes thought I’d never reach. Yet I made it, and if I can do it, anyone can.

And now? Well, I intend to avoid my manuscript like the plague until at least late January, then jump in, red pen and chain saw at the ready, and start revisions. And I think I’ll have a whole heap to blog about, then …