In early December I found myself without a full-time job and decided to move back into freelancing. The daunting task of searching out new contracts and securing work lay ahead at a time of year when very few were hiring. It was disheartening, to say the least.
But in the back of my mind, a kernel of positive thought was blossoming.
More time to write.
I had set a goal of finishing my second novel – Can’t Take it Back – by the end of 2018 and I was still at least 10,000 words away. But now I had three weeks of free time I wasn’t expecting. But as everyone knows…the best-laid plans and all…
Because what I hadn’t factored into my whole “I can write 8 hours a day” thinking was my actual life. As any parent knows Christmas is the busiest time of year. Holiday concerts and plays and parties and tasks. It’s never-ending…and pretty much sucked up all my free writing time.
Which is how, on New Year’s Eve, I found myself still 5,000ish words shy of my goal and confessing to my loved ones “it wasn’t going to happen.”
Then inspiration hit and I knew how I could end a storyline I had previously been stuck on. It worked…it made sense…and it removed an entire chapter I thought I needed to write. My goal was back in site.
I sat in my favourite chair, powered up my laptop and started writing. My family functioned around me – preparing meals, watching hockey games, reading, making slime, etc. – and I wrote and wrote and wrote.
Until at 6:30pm on the final day of 2018, I wrote the final line. I threw my hands up in the air in celebration of my accomplishment and looked around to find no one was looking.
Ah…the solitary life of a writer.
When I finally tracked everyone down and said those three little words “I finished it.” there were the appropriate numbers of squeals, screams and congratulatory hugs.
Inner me knows writing the last line is really the mid-way point of writing a book.
Inner me knows that months of editing and revising and second-guessing and “WTFs” lie ahead for me.
For now…outer me is going to enjoy this feeling of accomplishment.
