I really thought I was going to finish this draft of my novel in November, but as I write this the clock has just ticked over into Christmas Eve. It seems that (not for the first time) I underestimated the difficulty of the task at hand and overestimated the time I had available in which to do it.

That being said, it’s now done. As of approximately two minutes ago, it’s finished. This draft is finished, I mean. It’s cohesive from start to finish for the first time in forever and I’m extremely happy that I got this out of the way in 2017. Am I happy with it? Will it improve when I go back and tie up all the loose ends and paper over the cracks? Yes to both of the above. Watch this space.

It comes in at just under 83,000 words… a pretty decent length for what I am going for, but I think that number may grow a little in the coming weeks. I would ideally love to have the tidying up process completed by the beginning of February, and I think with a little dedication I can get that done.

I have to get up for work in less than five hours, but at this precise moment I don’t really care that I’ll be tired tomorrow, or that my day will end up dragging long as a result, because I’ve taken a step towards where I want to be and – more importantly – where I want this story to be. I can ride this high all the way until the end of the year and beyond.

2017 is certainly shaping up to end much better than it began.