Annnd Done

So after my plot epiphany, I mapped out the characters, finished outlining the major plot points, and then sat down and well, you know, WROTE.

The story was all down on paper and embedded in my mind, and after writing it almost all the way through one time and being unsuccessful, I knew what I didn't want to happen.

I turned off my inner editor - something I've NEVER done before and just wrote. I'm talking hardcore writing. My loverlies (Tina Lynn and Kristen) and I bribed each other with pics of Jared Leto amongst other things I shall keep a sekrit.

My fingers nearly bled, I typed so fast and furious.

I didn't even go back and reread what I had already written to gauge how it was sounding because from previous experience I knew that it either a.) would read like a NY Times best seller that might as well be already on a shelf (in my glory moments) or b.) was made of suckage and needed to be rewritten immediately (does See Spot run count?). And either way, I knew it was a skewed way of looking at things, so I decided to write with abandon.

I put a song on repeat (I swear I listened to a song 27 times in a row) and glued my rear to the seat (with the occasional potty and mint chocolate chip breaks. Not simultaneously, you freaks.

And I wrote. I wrote the whole thing. It's a middle grade, so it's totally doable to write a book in a week, especially when it's well plotted (the thought!). But the amazing part to me is that I started writing this book last year.

When I told my daughter that I was going to finish the book last night, her response was: "You shoulda been done a long time ago. You've been workin' on that stinkin' story since I was in kindergarten!" (She's only in the first grade this year...)

Wow. Thanks for the support. LOL. But she was right. One day this past week I wrote 12K in one sitting, when the most I had ever written was 2K at time. The writing with abandon was freeing.

My first draft was finished at midnight last night and clocked in at 38K.

And now I'm here twiddling my thumbs. I so bad want to jump right in and reread what I've written. To see if I wrote 38K of junk or if it makes sense or if it is all a bunch of gibberish.

I know I should wait. I want to wait. But I don't.

Would it be so bad to do a quick once over and read it all the way through and THEN let it sit for a month before editing and revising?

You guys tell me. When you finish a rough draft, what do you do? And how long do you wait before you delve back into it?

Someone might have to tie my hands behind my back, because I'm guessing it'd be hard to revise a book with my nose.