Last night I finished my sixth novel, Blackstone: 450 pages and 108,000 words. Today I edited and corrected the last chapter, so now I have a first-pass rough draft. Getting the story down onto the page constitutes the largest portion of work that goes into writing a manuscript, probably sixty percent or so. The rest is executed in the coming months, rewriting and polishing through multiple rounds of proofing. And once I’m pleased with the final product, it’ll go on sale.
This is no time for celebration though; there’s still work to be done.