3 years, 10 months and 23 days later
Three years, ten months and 23 days after it began, I have finished writing the first book in a fantasy series called 'The Mordach Chronicles'.
I am actually two days late finishing it, really. I had dared myself to finish it by tuesday of this week. It's now thursday night. But it is finished. Tonight I wrote those magic words, 'The End'.
It feels good in a quiet sort of way, although I really don't think it has fully sunk in yet.
I had set myself the deadline of finishing it by tuesday so I had time to relax and get the story out of my head a little before Nanowrimo begins in November as I intended to write the sequel for it for this year's Nano.
I don't know if I will do that or not though. Not write the sequel. I shall definitely do that. I mean do Nano this year. I don't know if my heart would be in it or not. I shall see. I shall decide when November starts.
It has been a long and winding journey since I began this book. I started it on the 1st December 2004, right at the very beginning of my writing career. I had done my first Nanowrimo that year and written and completed my first novel - an australian saga - in November of that year. I'd been told that one has to let a story get out of one's head before editing it, so in order to get the first story out of my head, I began work on the first of the Mordach series.
At that time I didn't know it would be a series. I thought it would be one book. I was dabbling in different genres trying to decide which one was for me and not wanting to get stuck writing in one that I didn't prefer.
In the time since then much has happened. I've moved house. Tygrr has moved out. And I've grown both as a person and as a writer. I'm really curious just how bad the start of the book is going to be when I edit it. I have really changed in my writing style since I began it, so the editing process should be a hoot when I get to it!
Having said that, I'm really happy with how I've written in the last year. I like the scenes I've done. I like how I seem to have brought the people to life, and put the reader in the world I've created. And I rather like how the story ended.
In some ways I have my sister to thank for finishing it tonight. I'd spent the last week procrastinating about working on it. The thought of finishing a work is rather scary really, as then it brings responsiblity to DO something with it. While it's still a work in progress I can always hide behind that.
Then tonight I received an email from my sister in Queensland. Shortly after she called. During the course of our conversation she asked after the book I wrote last November - a family history that I wrote for Grubblet. I had promised my sister a copy of it and had not yet gotten around to printing a copy and getting it bound. This year I've had other distractions...;)
She suggested I email her a copy of the word doc and she could get it printed and bound herself. That seemed a simple solution so I agreed. Before I sent it however I gave it a quick skim over to make sure there was nothing offensive in it. After all, she IS a little conservative and I didn't want to offend her.
In reading it I realised I had to change the ending of it now, as tygrr and I are no longer together. So after dinner I sat down to edit it, and add a little extra to bring it up to date. So effectively I had to read and re-write the ending of that book. In doing so, it was as though I remembered how it felt to finish a book. I remembered how good it was - and how good I am, as a writer.
So, after tea tonight, and after having sent my sister the revised copy of my family history, I sat down to finish my current novel, which has the working title: Escape from Mordach.
And tonight, I finished it.
I think I'm still numb.
I can't believe it in a way.
Nearly four years in the writing, with many lessons learnt along the way, Escape from Mordach is finished!
Wow.
Scary.
LOL
I can't wait to edit it, but that comes later. I can't wait to write the rest of the story, but again, that comes later - maybe starting in November, maybe not. But for now, I'm sitting here slightly shell-shocked.
It's done.
I really just can't believe it.
OMG, it's done!
Red
I am actually two days late finishing it, really. I had dared myself to finish it by tuesday of this week. It's now thursday night. But it is finished. Tonight I wrote those magic words, 'The End'.
It feels good in a quiet sort of way, although I really don't think it has fully sunk in yet.
I had set myself the deadline of finishing it by tuesday so I had time to relax and get the story out of my head a little before Nanowrimo begins in November as I intended to write the sequel for it for this year's Nano.
I don't know if I will do that or not though. Not write the sequel. I shall definitely do that. I mean do Nano this year. I don't know if my heart would be in it or not. I shall see. I shall decide when November starts.
It has been a long and winding journey since I began this book. I started it on the 1st December 2004, right at the very beginning of my writing career. I had done my first Nanowrimo that year and written and completed my first novel - an australian saga - in November of that year. I'd been told that one has to let a story get out of one's head before editing it, so in order to get the first story out of my head, I began work on the first of the Mordach series.
At that time I didn't know it would be a series. I thought it would be one book. I was dabbling in different genres trying to decide which one was for me and not wanting to get stuck writing in one that I didn't prefer.
In the time since then much has happened. I've moved house. Tygrr has moved out. And I've grown both as a person and as a writer. I'm really curious just how bad the start of the book is going to be when I edit it. I have really changed in my writing style since I began it, so the editing process should be a hoot when I get to it!
Having said that, I'm really happy with how I've written in the last year. I like the scenes I've done. I like how I seem to have brought the people to life, and put the reader in the world I've created. And I rather like how the story ended.
In some ways I have my sister to thank for finishing it tonight. I'd spent the last week procrastinating about working on it. The thought of finishing a work is rather scary really, as then it brings responsiblity to DO something with it. While it's still a work in progress I can always hide behind that.
Then tonight I received an email from my sister in Queensland. Shortly after she called. During the course of our conversation she asked after the book I wrote last November - a family history that I wrote for Grubblet. I had promised my sister a copy of it and had not yet gotten around to printing a copy and getting it bound. This year I've had other distractions...;)
She suggested I email her a copy of the word doc and she could get it printed and bound herself. That seemed a simple solution so I agreed. Before I sent it however I gave it a quick skim over to make sure there was nothing offensive in it. After all, she IS a little conservative and I didn't want to offend her.
In reading it I realised I had to change the ending of it now, as tygrr and I are no longer together. So after dinner I sat down to edit it, and add a little extra to bring it up to date. So effectively I had to read and re-write the ending of that book. In doing so, it was as though I remembered how it felt to finish a book. I remembered how good it was - and how good I am, as a writer.
So, after tea tonight, and after having sent my sister the revised copy of my family history, I sat down to finish my current novel, which has the working title: Escape from Mordach.
And tonight, I finished it.
I think I'm still numb.
I can't believe it in a way.
Nearly four years in the writing, with many lessons learnt along the way, Escape from Mordach is finished!
Wow.
Scary.
LOL
I can't wait to edit it, but that comes later. I can't wait to write the rest of the story, but again, that comes later - maybe starting in November, maybe not. But for now, I'm sitting here slightly shell-shocked.
It's done.
I really just can't believe it.
OMG, it's done!
Red