Barfly is finished. 68,708 words and 23 chapters. It only took me 25 days (from November 21st to Jan 14th) to write from beginning to end.
I’m sitting here amazed by that fact…25 days. Yes, I wanted it finished by the end of December, but life is not something you can always plan out and it threw me a major curve ball when it took my mother from me. I actually didn’t think I was going to be able to finish the novel. It felt foreign to me after her passing.
Then I rediscovered my characters and in the process of doing that, I got a little closure on my mom’s death. I also discovered another story waiting to be written. Maybe two.
From writing Barfly, I’ve learned that creativity and the Muse will strike you when you least expect it. It will throw something at you that seems so trivial but turns out to be something so inspiring that it drives you to finish the piece that you are working on.
If you had asked me in the beginning of November if I’d ever finish Barfly in my lifetime, I would have answered no. It was a project that I had started with no intentions of finishing. It was inspired by the lyrics to a song. It had no middle and end in sight.
Then the Muse gave me a little gem. Something, that said to me, just jot this down and save it for later. Save it for later became, NEED TO WRITE, NEED TO FINISH.
So the editing process begins. I give it to friends for an initial reading, hope they don’t tear it apart, hope they say it’s something they’d buy, and edit, edit, edit.
Then, hopefully, by end of February, I’ll be ready to send out queries for it. I won’t rush to send queries like I did with The Dumbing Down of Love. I’ll take my time & make sure I can see my reflection in the polished version of Barfly.
I’ll then sit and wait for the rejection letters and hopefully a request or two come in.
Listening to “Chocolate” by Snow Patrol
