Wednesday, March 31, 2010

OH MY GOD IT'S DONE

Sooo...maybe this isn't as great an accomplishment as Athena's publication of AG (and congratulations to her! I promise I'll order it. One of these days). But it means rather a lot to me personally, and I know you guys'll party with me about it, so here goes.

I have finally finished a short story I began over a year ago.

Yeah, I know, I know. But that's the thing about the way I write. I get the "bug" and dash off a page of self-contained brilliance, or the beginning of a novel that I dream about and plan out and hang out with the characters of, and then for whatever reason, I slowly stop writing about until it's left half-finished and languishing in bottom-drawer hell. So actually getting to write the ending that I've had planned out for over a year (because that's how I plan my stories: I set up the premise and the characters and the backstory, and then I decide how I'd like it to end, and then I start writing and wait and see how everything else falls into place. So far it's worked.) is a really big deal for me. In fact, this might be the first piece of original fiction that I've worked on for longer than one day and that wasn't a school assignment, that I've actually finished.

Maybe this isn't such a great track record, but it pleases me. Why? Because I'm working my way up. Last summer, I completed a twenty-chapter fanfic that I started and posted to ff.net on a whim, and then had to finish. That was an accomplishment for me. Today, I've posted the end of Paper and Ink, and that's a bigger accomplishment. But the reason both of these matter to me is not what they are, but what they could be.

These two small successes mean that I have brought myself to the point where I can finish things, rather than find some small fault with them and let it grow until I can't move forward anymore, or get bored and flutter off to another project. And that means that I can finish a full-length novel.

And that means it's party time.

6 comments:

Rhiannon said...

SQUEEEEEEE!!

That's AWESOME! I love that feeling of accomplishment, knowing a story's done and it all makes sense...congrats! All victories, even the small ones, are worth it >:D

Rhiannon said...

PS: Is it that story you linked to there? I want to read it >:D

PPS: I posted too quickly to add - I do much the same thing with my stories...go from brilliant inspiration to a chapter or two to fiddling with bits to leaving it alone for a year. I expect the 'crank-off-two-or-three-novels-a-year' stage comes only at the cost of a hell of a lot of practice...

Athena said...

Congrats! That is so cool. I'mna read it ASAP.

I have probably about 60 stories languishing in bottom drawer Hell (or subfolder z Hell, because stuff I'm not working on ends up in a folder called z). I'd love to finish some of them up, but instead, I just keep starting new things.

E said...

:D It's kind of hard to imagine cranking out a couple of novels a year.

The link is indeed to the story. Read and enjoy! (Please read. Enjoyment is not compulsory.)

Athena said...

Oh, man. That story is both intense and amazing - amazingly intense and intensely amazing. Kudos.

Athena said...

Also, I meant to mention: I really love the story-within-a-story thing, and I was actually planning to do it for 200 Pages, but have yet to work out what the interior story would be, but it would be fiction even within the confines of the story.