The First Draft was finished, half an hour ago, on a lovely spring day where we brought some big pots out of overwintering in the glasshouse, planted up herb planters, baskets and wall hangers with petunias, fushias and one banana plant, and as I put the finishing touches to the final scene, I looked up to discover we have a great tit nest in a clump of ivy on one of our walls, just feet away from the position I’ve taken lately with my laptop.

It’s Day 33, so I cheated by three days, and at 155,000 words, overshot the normal Nanowrimo target by 300%. Call me an overachiever!

 There’s much I still want to do, of course. Like celebrate, for instance! But I’ll make do with pizza and chips tonight, and get some champagne tomorrow from the supermarket. And I had real problems with that final chapter, the big exposition scene - I’ve worked on it for three days and it’s still not right, but after reading and re-reading, I found I was questioning it all far too much, and it started to look like the writing of an incompetent amateur, which - admittedly, I am!

But, rather than go back, I’ve promised myself to tuck it away in a dark cupboard and let the pod fester. Then the editing to second draft, or complete annihilation of the monster I created will take place. Probably in late June or July. We’ll see.

Now, I’m going to back up everything, save to another PC, and spend an early night in bed, catching up with T.V. recordings and actually reading a novel finally. What a relief!