Well, dear readers, I have finished my eighteenth book. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, have finished my eighteenth book. That happened yesterday around four o’clock. It was a few less pages than I thought it would be, seven less to be exact, but that’s fine and I’m probably going to add a few things when I futz and finesse. I had an instinct about the final page early in the day, a bit different than what I’d been planning, much simpler. I then second-guessed myself and wrote an additional paragraph and that kind of made everything too obvious and came a bit out of the blue. But I couldn’t see that right away, so I began writing alternates, trying to smooth it out and make it work, but in the end I think when I futz and finesse it this morning it will go back to the very simple version that I’d thought of earlier. That’s what Muse Margaret will get and I’ll also include an extra page just so she can see the longer version and two alternate ways of doing the slightly shorter version.
I was up by ten and began futzing and finessing almost immediately, smoothing, adding, and subtracting. Once that was done I wrote three pages, then had some lunch. Then I went and picked up a couple of packages and one piece of mail, did some banking, and then came back home. Once here, I began writing again. It took a while to get the rhythm of this final sequence, which kind of ties up the book so it had to be just write. I kept revising as I went and finally got it to where it felt pretty good and then it was just a question of writing the final two paragraphs. Before doing them, I took a hot shower, got an idea how to smooth out a couple of things and came up with something good to add. I wrote all that and I was done. I called Muse Margaret and told her and she was excited. Twenty-three days for this one, which was a few days longer than Thrill Ride, but I was relentless about my schedule for this one and writing every day at least ten to fifteen pages. And when I get to the last twenty I can’t move slowly because the whole thing has been building to that and I just have to get it on paper and worry about smoothing it later. But my first thought whenever I write a final two or three paragraphs is that I’ve ruined everything. I certainly felt that way with Thrill Ride, but then I read it and it was fine and I never changed one word of it. So, we’ll see how I feel this morning and hopefully I’ll like it and that will be that.
I also had a brief thought about ending the book before the final sequence, but that didn’t feel right, although I think I could probably make it work.
I was completely exhausted and completely emotional as I always am when I finish a book. Normally I celebrate with someone, but I’ll do that tonight instead because I’ll really finish it this morning once I’ve futzed and finessed. This book has been both fun and excruciating to write, partly because of getting the character in part one just right, which I think I finally did, and having to revise a supporting character in part two to make that character work better, which I also think I did. This one had a fair amount of research to do along the way, too, but so did Thrill Ride. This book is almost fifty pages longer than Thrill Ride, but it covers a lot more territory and has many more characters. Anyway, it feels great to have finished, but now I’ll have to deal with not writing every day, which will take some getting used to.
Other than that, I did absolutely nothing else during the day or evening, other than eat. I have eaten more food during the writing of this book than any other book, so I’m guessing I probably put on ten more pounds that I absolutely must lose in the next six weeks. And I’ve got to train myself not to be putting food in my mouth at every opportunity. But this always happens when I’m writing like this.
Today, I’ll futz and finesse until I’m happy, then I’ll print out the pages and get them Xeroxed and over to Muse Margaret. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’m having an early celebratory dinner.
The rest of the week is catching up on stuff. I had a quarter of a miraculous miracle yesterday so that was helpful, but we really need the other one and three-quarters to survive this week so do keep sending those most excellent vibes and xylophones for miraculous miracles. I think I’m seeing a high school show on Thursday afternoon and I’m attending an opening night at the Group Rep Theatre on Friday night. Don’t know what the weekend holds.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, futz and finesse, print out pages, Xerox pages, get pages to Muse Margaret, and have a celebratory meal. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear readers any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, feeling proud and happy to have finished my eighteenth book.