I know The Never Ending Novel as Family Trust right now but it's gone through many, many incarnations. While scouring the archives I found a post from 22 April, 2007. It talks about the perfect idea for NaNoWriMo called Friendship, Sacrifice & Love. Could this really have been The Beginning?

A few days before NaNoWriMo 2007 I offered up a pitch for the already retitled, Freeing the Flame. Almost every single thing in that pitch has changed but a couple things remain like the basic setting, an Aunt and her niece. I offer an example of sub-plots, none of which have made it through the first revision.

I started writing the first draft on November 1st and finished on December 15th with 59,002 words. I let it rest until NaNoEdMo arrived in March and that's when I decided that the story would live. Then on April 2nd the first rewrite began.

I wrote through April... I wrote through May... I wrote through June and won SoCNoC to make solid progress on the revision until... I finished draft 2 on July 18th. The final sentence in this second draft is so dramatically different to the first that it really represents the change that's gone on, not to mention the word count that swelled to 89,687.

I was so very eager about this second draft that I started thinking about revision straight away. As I revised through the structure and into August I began rethinking the title and on August 4th Freeing the Flame was rechristened Rebuilding Retehoro. It takes until September 26th for me to realise the size of this revision after completing the scene review and then I had a lovely little hiatus over the end of 2008 when I got married until I began to... strain the lumps.

The beginning of this year went by in a revision blur until I stopped and took stock mid-March. It wasn't until the end of April that I came upon the realisation that set me on the "right" revision path.

...and then I changed the title, again.

...and then I got my synopsis in place.

...and then I started the third revision.

...and then I finished the third revision at 76,000 words and sent it to beta readers.

...and now I'm two chapters into the fourth revision.

I'm sure this must be what pros refer to as paying your dues.