the homestretch

I got super inspired and motivated during the hurricane and wrote about 10K words.  Now I'm just on a roll.  I'm leaving for a mini vacation in my favorite city and it would be really special for me to finish my draft there, so that's my plan. 

I'm at 92K words right now, meaning I'm about 7K words farther than I had originally projected for the ending.  I guess I just can't wrap things up as succinctly as I thought I could.  I wanted more words to develop the relationship between my main characters. 

I had a little crying jag on my contributor/lover's bed this weekend.  I finished Chapter 18 and the tears just flooded my eyes.  He came over and held me and told me how impressed he was with what I had accomplished in so little time.  He's been absolutely wonderful in helping me frame a whole series of questions to ask myself as I start to heavily edit my draft.

One of the things he asked is if it will be apparent to the reader how the main character has changed, or if she has changed, from the start of the book to the end.

As I'm in the homestretch, I believe that change is becoming fully realized in her character through every word I write.  And I could write a whole other book about how this one has changed me.