Finishing 'Mark of a Goddess'

Last night I finished writing 'Mark of a Goddess'. I wanted to finish writing it before Christmas because I wanted to give a printed copy of the trilogy to my mother as a Christmas present. I did the finishing touches on chapter 24 and then I printed off 'Dragon's Moon'. It turned out to be 171 pages long when I printed it out. I thought that was pretty impressive. Tonight, I'll print out 'Mystic Wings'.

I had been killing myself over chapter 23. I actually wrote three different versions of that chapter. I haven't got it back from Kaytala yet. I wonder what she thinks of it.

It was amazing how easy chapter 24 was to write once I'd finished chapter 23. I thought I would have killed myself over the last chapter as well, but it was simple to write and the words came easily. I guess that was my reward for eating myself alive over chapter 23.

Well, this is the end of an era. I started writing 'Dragon's Moon' when I was 17 and I worked on the story faithfully for the past year and about three months. Now that it's over, I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to. And I learned a lot about myself as an author. Here are the things I learned.

1. I am not a good proof reader. No one should have me beta read their stuff. I am sucky. I make so many mistakes.
   
2. I need to cut at least three words from almost all sentences I construct. If I think I've written a sentence in the most straight forward way, I need to go away, come back and read it again. Then I need to cut three words to make the sentence read better. I say so many unnecessary words.
3. I need to be nicer when I review other people's work. I especially need to be nicer when people ask me because they admire me as an author. I have no excuse for being a bag.
4. I need to be more appreciative to my reviewers - definitely.

But all in all, I'm sort of happy to be leaving Van and Hitomi in the background. I'll work hard on 'Ghost Mist' and make that story a success. Writing from a man whore's perspective will suit my personality better than writing Hitomi. At least, that's what I think.