No Other Feeling On Earth

Any writer will tell you there are times while writing your novel that are more emotional than others. The initial rush of a new idea is the first. You have that perfect plot concept done in just such a way that's never been done before. You hurry to the laptop and begin to pound out the story. The prologue and first chapters fly from your imagination faster than you can type. That's the first feeling.

 

Halfway through the book, you begin to a get a new feeling. It's sort of like that downer you get after a sugar rush of 3 Hershey bars has worn off. It's not quite as fun anymore, some of the characters are really starting to get on your nerves, and there are plot threads dangling you can't control. You've been living with this story and these characters for weeks or months now, and it's getting old, to say the least. You have no idea how this is all going to turn out, and you're sorely tempted to forget this book and move on to another idea that's just come into your mind. This is "the wall" for a writer, much the same as a marathon runner might face. Pressing through this is the challenge.

 

The next comes when you can see the finish line coming. A new type of euphoria sets in as you start that last chapter. Those dangling plot threads have all been neatly tied up (or left dangling as seed for a sequel). Those annoying characters have either matured and grown, or been killed off by whatever means necessary. And then you put that last period on the last sentence...

 

There's no feeling on earth like that. To be able to stand up from your desk, walk away and say, "I've finished another novel. I've proven to myself yet again that I'm a writer." Of course, there are the messy rewrites and edits that pretty much destroy the story you created at first (usually turning it into something a lot better), but there's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment that comes from completing another one.

 

Except, of course, that rush of typing in a new title on a fresh document and having a blank slate to work with yet again...

 

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