30 November 2011

A Winner...in More Ways Than One (NaNoWriMo 2011, 61501 Words, 161 pages)


Yesterday morning as I sat in my writing space, sipping that ever present cup of morning coffee, I had a vision. For the past week, I've had a general idea of how this book 2 of 2 would end, but then, quite suddenly and quite surprisingly, there it was playing on the cinema of my mind, the final scene. 10 pages and 4,000 words later, I finally wrote it.

After the words were written, it was time to submit my novel for verification to the NaNoWriMo website so I could be declared a "winner." Throughout this process, I could feel a swell of emotions rise up within me and when the winner page came up and the video of staff members applauding me came up, I pretty much lost it.

Up until that moment, as the tears rose up from the depths and spilled out onto my cheeks, I had no idea just how much I'd truly and completely committed myself to this book and to these characters. It was a strange emotional state. It wasn't sadness. It wasn't happiness. It wasn't pride. It wasn't any single thing. Maybe it was all of those things, in equal, overwhelming measure.

I found my husband and said, "It's time for champagne." I got the glasses, he opened the bottle (thanks Lewis!) and together we raised our glasses and I felt so proud and so happy and so completely content.

I don't know where this novel will ever end up. There is no way of knowing if it will end up published. I know there is still a great deal of editing work that needs to be done before I even try. What I do know, is that I'm quite anxious to get to it.

But for today, I need to close the document, go for a walk, go to work, read, eat, step away. I should probably do that for a few more days too.


NaNoWriMo may be ending today, but in so many ways, I feel very much like this is just the beginning...

To be continued...

"If I told you things I did before, told you how I used to be, would you go along with someone like me? If you knew my story word for word, had all of my history, would you go along with someone like me?"
          from Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John






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