Apprentice: It's Finished

Well, I've finished my latest story: Apprentice. I need to go back and read it through now. It didn't go quite as I expected, and the ending changed a bit. Still, I like what I wrote.

The draft's final word count is 7,359, which is more than I originally intended, but less than I feared it was going to be. If history has anything to do with the present, I should chop a bit off this and finish up around 5,000 words.

It certainly isn't a publishable story. Not yet. Maybe not ever. It has released something inside me. Hope it's good. Think so. I feel happy anyway. I talked with Spouse several times about what I was writing, and especially why I felt I had to write it. Spouse is more accepting and even went so far as asking me if I had finished. I said I had, but Spouse is not ready to read it. That's okay. I didn't write it for Spouse. I wrote it for me.

It feels good to write something fresh. It's been awhile. This is what I needed, to get away from Swords of Fire and return to my basic self. Swords of Fire has taken on epic proportions. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by its complexity. Thirty years of story and backstory will do that, you know. Writing Apprentice was like taking a vacation. I'm relaxed.

Now I must read it. Edit it where I see fit. And then find a Reader. That's the scariest part of all. This isn't what I normally write. However, to paraphrase an ancient Eastern saying: If a book is written and never read, does it have a point?