Just reached the last page of the first complete draft of Darkness!!!!!

It came in at 70,159 words! A good-sized creature. It will do for now. Gonna let it settle for a while, will return to it tonight to clean up the last 100 or so pages. I’ve had less time to clean and shape them than the rest of the novel.

I liken my novel-writing process to fly-fishing…. I cast out my line, i.e. write as far forward as I can, then, when it can go no further, I reel the writer in and edit the existing material. So what happens is that I end up with a novel that’s rather polished at the beginning, and then gets rougher and rougher toward the end (where I’m running out of time so I’m just trying to forge ahead without polishing what I’ve left behind).

WHHHHHRRRRRAAAAAAAAhhhhhh! (Sticking out my tongue and holding up pinky, forefinger and thumb of both hands…. <grin>)