Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Terminus Est

As fans of Gene Wolfe--or indeed Latin-speakers--will know, "Terminus Est" means "this is the end".

And this morning I have finished the first draft of The Last Free City. That's right. Finished. Reached the end. Have a whole story from start to finish. Its quality remains to be seen, and editing will start soon (there's already one fairly major structural question I can see that I need to answer) but none of that matters at the moment. There is no feeling like finishing the first draft of a novel (it even beats being accepted for publication).

So for now I'm just going to enjoy it.


2 comments:

Alis said...

YOu make me feel like such a sluggard, Tim... but well done on getting the first draft sorted.
But 'it even beats being accepted for publication' - REALLY???

Tim Stretton said...

Thanks Alis.

For me there's no comparison between being accepted and finishing the draft. Publication is great but it doesn't have the immediacy of completing the work.

By the time The Dog of the North was accepted for publication it was nearly two years old. I'd almost forgotten writing it!