100% Elated

My last post focused on my moments of wavering resolve. Today I'm celebrating.

Husband took me for a lovely pint-size margarita in honor of my celebration.

I think I finished my first draft. (!)

I hadn't expected to finish today. This week was one big slog what with the job posting dilemma and difficulties writing the last chapter. I went to my favorite coffeeshop to write this afternoon. (Ironically the same coffeeshop where I began writing a very crappy novel idea nearly two years ago after I quit.) I needed a change of scenery and no computer distractions. Usually the change of scenery alone makes me feel more creative, but today I had to force myself to keep my bum in the chair. I kept creating tiny deadlines to make myself stop squirming (write for 20 more minutes, just one more page, etc.). It took me almost two hours to hit a groove, but once I finally did, I lost track of time and immersed myself in the story. As I bridged the gap between the bookend opening and closing scenes, I realized I was coming to the end.

When I finished, I felt elated and underwhelmed all at once. For one thing, earlier this week I started writing the last chapter, and I realized when I wrote the second scene that it should actually be the scene to end the book. Consequently, when I neared the ending, I wrote in 'insert scene 2 here' and that was my ending. Woohoo! It felt a little anticlimactic, even though I still like the ending I wrote, so I scribbled in a nice big 'THE END!' on the side of my page to up the excitement factor.

Anyway. Tomorrow I will read through the chapter to make sure it's not missing anything crucial and I can officially declare it complete. After that I'm not sure what I'll do with myself. I have a staggering pile of books from my research trip that I planned to read after I finished. And there's also a small pile of editing books I'd like to dig into before I begin the first light edit.

Onwards and (hopefully) upwards!