Finishing What Was Started Part 2, the end of the beginning

I have no idea why I was unable to abandon this project. I guess it's only because I worked on it for so long that I was just unable to forgo it. I'm also that type of person who has to finish something. Not everything, but everything that I've given any time to. I have begun stories that I thought might become something, but after a few scribbly-scrawly pages I ditched them. This was not the case with Coppertown. I wrote and wrote and wrote all sorts of small vignettes, then I began writing the story.

I also began to write the story many times. In a way, the entire first half of the manuscript is the beginning of the story three times.

I remember reading I, the Divine and loving that it was nothing but the first chapter written over and over and over again. It was a well thought out book and one that was well written.

Not the case with Coppertown.

If I can draw experience from all the other manuscripts I've written over the years, it is this: write them fast. I never spent less than six weeks and never more than three months on a manuscript. None of course accept this one. Something else I've learned is that the first half of a story takes about 90% of the time, and the second half goes very quickly. At least for me.

The end of the beginning has taken place for months. Every time I opened up this manuscript and began to write anew, it was, in a way, a new beginning. What a hassle.

Moral? Just write it. Sit down and do it. Don't drag it out.

Next time:

Finishing What Was Started Part 3, the middle