The Viagra chronicles are done!

[J L Wilson]

Yea! Finished another book today.

This one was very interesting. I tried to pay attention to the process as I was writing the book. That is, I tried to get a sense for what obstacles I felt while I was writing, what ideas I considered and discarded, etc. In short, I did a sort of 'metadata' about the book as I wrote the book.

I started on Nov. 26 and ended on January 15. I write a very clean first draft, and I don't anticipate major rewrites. Figure I'll need maybe another few days, so let's say 2 months total.

What was fascinating to me was that I was not at all into these characters until well mid-way through the process. It was like pulling teeth to get me to work on it. I just didn't have them in my head. But once they got in my head, I couldn't stop writing.

I think every book I work on is like that: I approach it reluctantly, unwilling to allow it into my life. Writing is very time-consuming and mentally-consuming, too. It's work. Sometimes it's fun and occasionally I laugh (or cry) while writing. This one had both of those in it -- I mean, some of those Viagra ads! Man, they're weird. But I used them as clues (or, rather, they disguised clues) so I had to some 'research' and troll around and collect the subject lines. Hoot!

But this one also had a problematic ending ... not quite Happily Ever After. I think I had to end it that way in order to stay true to the story. I'll be curious to see what my editor thinks.

SO now I can relax a bit before plotting the next book. I'd like to dig in and edit a few others first, then begin crafting the next one. After all, there's always a next one ...