Do I Have The Guts?
My novel is done. Fortunately, when I got to the end of it I had over 50,000 words. I mean, when a story ends … it ends.
I’ve been excited about it the entire time I’ve been writing, but whenever I’ve gone back and read what I’ve written I’ve thought “That’s not how it’s supposed to sound! It’s dumb!” I’m thrilled at the characters and the story line and how things have just come together. I’ve learned a lot. But … well, I don’t know if I want to send my baby out the door! I don’t want it to be made fun of! It’s not it’s fault if it sounds stupid.
It’s been the greatest challenge I’ve ever taken on. I still can’t believe I signed up for it. A novel in a month? That’s crazy! When I was in the 11th grade my English teacher told me I should use my writing talent and I glibly told him then that some day I would write a novel. Ever since then I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I would, but I don’t know that I really expected I would. I think I was waiting for a “convenient time”.
When I started this it was absolutely not convenient. After I’d committed I thought, “You are out of your mind!” I am still surprised I made the commitment in the first place! And yes, Alice, you do deserve a place in my personal Hall of Fame … if it hadn’t been for you I would never have thought it possible. I had to sandwich it between helping two daughters give birth, while I have 5 people living with me, and during a time when I had a gillion other projects I was going to do. Three days before it was completed I got tendonitis so bad in my wrist and thumb of my left hand I can’t stand to move it or touch it (going to the doctor tomorrow for a cortisone shot).
I knew if I didn’t push through and not give up I would never do it again … ever. So I couldn’t stop. It was too important. This morning at 5:30 I typed the last word and I wanted to stand and shout out the Hallelulah Chorus .. all 6 parts at once! Not only did I finish, but I finished early!
Now I have an even harder goal …to see if I can fix it up enough so I’ll dare let anyone but close family (very close family) read it. That will take a lot of guts.
Technorati Tags: reaching a goal, nanoWriMo, first novel
Jiminy! You wrote a novel in thirteen days? Aside from the fact that is totally nuts: Congratulations!
Yeah, it IS totally nuts. I keep thinking … ‘that’s too fast there can’t be anything good in it, but I have started editing and some of it isn’t too bad, hehe. Of course, the 13 hour days were looonnnggg days. Some of them were longer than that. I didn’t get much sleep, didn’t eat right, and got tendonitis so bad in my left thumb I can’t even button my own pants! But I’m glad I did it anyway! Now I’m editing.
Way to go mom!! I am very proud of you. We have only been after you to write a book for how many years now? You are a great writer and I can’t wait to read it.
Congratulations Edna. I’m really proud of you for your accomplishment! Unfortunately I had to abandon the project altogether or lose my sanity. As for what next, if I may make a suggestion. Set it aside for at least a couple of weeks. Even though you’re not “thinking” about it, your subconscious will be working on it for you. I’ll bet when you finally sit down to begin revision, you’ll be much better able to see where you can change things – either taking away or adding more detail – it works for me every time. Then the problem will be when to stop editing before you edit the good away. That’s happened to me before. A very fine line. Good luck in figuring it out. (Oh by the way, when you get a good portion of it done, instead of mailing the whole thing to a publisher, maybe you could think of sending that “done” portion to an Agent, who would do the work for you. I don’t know any, but I’ll bet an internet search would turn some up, or ask everybody you know if they have suggestions! Oh I’m really tickled for you! : D
It’s me again! I failed to notice the link to the novel excerpt on my first read so I just did. Now that I’ve read the excerpt, I don’t think you have a lot to worry about. You’re a damn good writer, if you’ll excuse my French!