Sunday, November 21, 2010

Goal Complete - but not "The End"


I have a certain ritual when I enter a book section of a store. I walk around and read all the titles, running my hands across the shelf so that I don’t miss one. Most of them,  I imagine starting with a desire – a desire to create a story and share it with others. As I do this, I envision my book sitting on the shelf among the other books, and I feel what I can only describe as a child-like excitement at the thought of being published.  There is a story behind all of these books, and it’s not just the one written on the pages – it is the one about the person who wrote it.  A story that includes planning, endless hours, sweat and tears, rewriting, and finally the anticipation.

This leads me to my conclusion of NaNoWriMo. I passed the 50k mark and finished the first draft of my book on November 16th. Why didn’t I write this sooner? I wanted to bathe in the fact that I made a goal, and I achieved it. I also wanted to let my characters rest. They worked so hard to help me with this story and deserved to take a break.  I almost feel it would be premature of me to celebrate this achievement. There is so much work to be done at this point, and it really is just the beginning.

I did not type the words “The End” when I was finished, because the fact remains that I am not finished. I’ll save those precious words for when I feel the book is truly complete and ready to be sent off.  This is the first time that I have written something that I feel has the potential to be sitting on the shelf with many of the others. I am so fortunate to have met so many people during this journey, and I look forward to continuing these friendships. I look forward to seeing some familiar names on the shelves as we continue our quest to be published, and I look forward to sharing my sweat and tears along the way.  November  is almost over, but my writing will continue.    
So as I soak in this moment, I say thank you for all of your support, and I look forward to what our futures will bring!    

2 comments:

Lo Hughes said...

Congrats!! What an accomplishment...and the best is yet to come! :-) Good luck with the next step!

Erin said...

Love this post...especially the first paragraph and the part about not writing "the end" yet. Thanks for sharing! Keep up the good work!

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