It all comes down to this: One Last Push. One Last Scene. Almost two full years after the release of “A Wounded Heart”, the first draft of “A Healing Love” is nearly done.
Two years of hard work, emotional upheaval, and crafting new characters and new settings. Two years of falling in love with my female lead (again). Two years of the joyous highs of near-effortless creation and the depressing lows when the words wouldn’t flow.
But one last push, and it will all have been worth it.
It’s been a tough few days. A few personal issues that I won’t go into haven’t helped, but above all that, writing this final chapter of “A Healing Love” has been a thoroughly emotionally draining experience. I began writing Paul’s story fifteen years ago. The new female lead is… God, she’s a sweetheart, and I love her. I’ve been living with, and very much invested in, these characters for a very long time and crafting that bittersweet yet hopeful ending has taken a lot out of me.
Ensuring it resonates authentically for Paul, Carly, and, crucially, the reader has demanded every ounce of creative energy in me and at times left me a blubbering mess.
But the finish line is in sight. I’m now just one scene away from finishing this first draft. Those three short words—”TO BE CONTINUED”–are only a few thousand words from being typed at the end of the manuscript.
And this final scene… it’s a pivotal one. It’s the moment that plants the seeds of hope for Paul’s future, a glimmer of light after all the darkness he’s experienced in the formative years of his young life.
At least, that’s the intention—to offer the reader a sense of hope for Paul’s journey ahead. Paul himself? He won’t quite grasp its significance yet; that deeper understanding is something I’m carefully building towards for the fifth and (fingers, toes, and everything crossed!) final book in the series.
But I’m nearly there. The completion of a first draft is always a momentous occasion, and at nearly 200,000 words, this one feels even more so. There’s still a winding road ahead—editing, polishing, revising—but the end is in sight. Completing the first draft means I can set a release date. Give myself a deadline to work to.
The day my readers get to experience the next stage of Paul’s journey is getting closer.
One last push. Pour me a big mug of tea. Start up my “writing playlist” on Spotify. Let’s get this first draft over the line.
