To Finish is Bliss …

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you already know the big news. I finished writing “My Haunted Life,” the novel that started as a short story written with sweat and tears at Orson Scott Card’s Literary Bootcamp over a year ago. And it’s finally finished! I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have that book off my shoulders. Sure, it still needs work [a LOT of work] but the first draft is done. That is the hardest part. I know I can edit it later but for now, triumph!

If you had told me a year ago that I would have written two books in the last year I would have said you were crazy. And yet I’ve done it. Getting all those words out feels amazing.

Not everyone understand what an accomplishment it is to finish something. I’m sure you writer’s out there know the feeling. You’ve spent months, years on something and when you announce it to the words their reaction is: “That’s nice.” No one really cares. Yet.

When I finished my first novel, a NaNoWriMo adventure I will never forget, I ran upstairs to tell my parents (because I was still living with my parents at the time don’tjudgeme). My mom, the English Major, was so excited for me. My dad, on the other hand, didn’t get it. His exact words were: “So what does that get you?”

I was floored. I’m pretty sure my mouth hung open for a minute before I started yelling at him about how I had finally FINISHED a novel, something I had been trying to do for years, for half my life, how he should be so proud of me, this was a huge step in the right direction. But he couldn’t see it. I mean really, he couldn’t. It was just a file on my computer.

One of the best things I ever did was get a print copy of that first novel. I remember when it arrived in the mail. I opened it up eagerly, beaming like a first grader with my first A+ as I showed my parents. That’s when he got it. Once he saw all those words bound up in a hot pink binding (don’t judge!) with my name on it, he got it.

And being able to put that book up on the shelf with all the other published authors that I admire and want to be one day is an amazing thing. It gives more weight, more reality to what I’ve done, not just for my dad but for me too. Which is why I am doing it again. This time without the hot pink cover.

I’ve spent over a year toiling away on this book so I think it’s work the $10.74 it costs to get a copy printed out and shipped to my doorstep. It’s still a first draft but for me that is the hardest part. Getting the story from brain to page. And I’m going to celebrate for weeks to come.

This is my way of validating what I have accomplished, even if it never gets truly published. What do you do to celebrate a big accomplishment? Besides gorge on ice cream and cake. Everyone does that. :)