"The End"

These are the best words a writer can write. "The End" means the first draft is finished.

Even if the first draft is rubbish, which it generally is, it is something to celebrate. A completed first draft means that the rest of the writing process doesn't involve staring at a blank page. The foundation is in place. All you have to do now is build on it.

And even if the worst case scenario occurs, and you end up tearing that foundation down - well, you've still got the hole.

So finishing the first draft is a reason to celebrate.

And I am celebrating now because I have finished the first draft of the second book in the amateur sleuth series (working title is DEAD COOL, but it's also known as THE CASE OF THE DEFENESTRATED ROCK STAR). Yes the first draft, at less than 48,000 words, is ludicrously short. Yes, it's full of plot holes. It's woefully short of sub-plot, and character development, and the plot lurches about all over the place as I changed my mind about the way it was going.

There was also a radical revelation from the main character that she wanted to go off in a completely different to that I had envisaged, and an epiphany that the killer actually turned out to be someone I wasn't expecting it to be towards the end of the book, both of which are going to require some major revision to the plot arc.

But even, in spite of all that, there's still reason to celebrate. The first draft might be rubbish, but it's done. Everything else can be fixed in the rewrite.

Lots of work to do in draft 2, of course. But before I go there, I think I'm going to turn my attention back to the other WIP, the urban fantasy. It's been calling out to me of late, and I've neglected it far too long.