DRAFT ONE IS DOOOONE

YOU GUYS. I DID IT.
DRAFT ONE OF UNPERFECTED IS DONE! I finished at 313 pages, 42 chapters, and 76,195 words.


I am so, so excited! This was such a difficult draft to get through simply because I had to take something that was supposed to be finished and completely start over!
For those who don't know, I finished the original first draft of Unperfected waaayy back in 2013, one month after I had turned 17. I then knocked out the first draft of the second book, and even a little of the third before going back to editing book one.
Unperfected is my baby. I've put it through tons of editing and rewrites, I've crafted synopses and query letters, and I've received a serious handful of rejection letters for it. After deciding to put it through another round of editing (this time with my very wonderful beta reader), she made me realize something that, unfortunately, I had known all along--I just hadn't wanted to accept it.
My book needed to be written in two points of view, and not one. That was not the first time someone had suggested it to me. In fact, I had thought about the possibility all while writing the second book. My only problem was that the idea of going back and rewriting my entire book to switch it from one POV to two sounded so, so long and impossible. I just didn't want to do it! But you know what? My book needed it.
After writing just a few simple chapters, I realized how much using another character's POV opened up the storyworld. My entire plot blossomed into something brand new, and the story became new and fresh and interesting again!
And now here we are now, almost a full year since I first began switching things to two POVs. Last night at 9:37 PM, I finished draft one. And I could not be more excited!
My book is new and beautiful. It needs a lot of editing, but now that I've been working on this project for three years, I know exactly how to go about with the editing process.
If you've ever been hesitant about making a change to your current WIP because you're worried that it might be too much work or too difficult, I encourage you to give it a try. I was so hesitant to make this change to my book, but now that I've done it I realize that it's what my book needed. Now I'm so excited to see where all these new plot ideas take me!
Thank you to all of my amazing followers for being so supportive of me. It means so much more than you will ever know! For now, I plan to take a much needed writing break and let my book sit for a week or so before I do a thorough read-through and start editing.
As a quick side note, I will be spending this Saturday at the 2017 Michigan Writing Workshop, so I'll be talking about that experience next week right here on the blog. If any of you lovely people happen to live in Michigan and/or will be at the conference, let me know! I would love to meet you!
Until then, happy writing!