I spent the last thirty-one days on the rewrite of my novel.  I’ve been working on this bloody thing for around six years now, so lately I have been scurrying to finish it up and to finish it up quickly.  During the past month, I spent anywhere from one to two hours a day writing, and although this wasn’t a huge amount of time, it was enough to completely immerse me in the characters, the plot, and the world of the story.  Now, two days after printing off the last page, I’m experiencing a strange regret.

I miss them.

I miss Kate and Gavin and Joon and even evil Mr. Park.  I don’t want to leave them for very long, in case we lose some of our intimacy with each other, or in case I forget what they look like.  Every book on writing  that I’ve ever read says that at the end of a draft you should put the story aside for at least a couple days.  I used to think this would be easy, but now I know otherwise.

However, I think I understand why it’s a good thing for me to stay away from them for awhile.  The point is for me to forget what they look like and for me to not feel like Kate is my best friend.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to find out what’s wrong with her or have the courage to kill her (just kidding).  But if I take a break from my unhealthy relationship with my characters, I’ll have a more objective view of them and I’ll be a better editor when I start doing work with a red pen.

So really, I’m writing this blog not because I particularly needed to communicate my rather insignificant revelation to you, but just to keep me away from my story.  I’ll let it lie.

For now.