I'm feeling pretty good about myself this evening. I've written over 20,000 this weekend (at around 80,000 total) and am just approaching the major conflict of my story. If I really crank I can finish before tomorrow morning.
Whether it's good or not is another matter entirely, for tonight, I'm just feeling good. This will be my first completed novel.
Have you ever completed one?
Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :
An important step in writing anything is to write it. You can edit later.
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Congrats. And yes, there is no milestone like finishing the first novel. Of course, you're never really finished but being able to read from page one to page last ... that proves--to yourself--that you can do it.
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
Wow! That's great! Congratulations!
Posted by JFLewis (Member # 6957) on :
Congrats! That's a big milestone!
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
As Zero said, they're never finished. You can pick at them and tweak them until you're an old, old person - or if, like me, you're old to start with (nearly 58 now, *sigh*) you can decide to "declare a victory" and send it out into the world! I've finished six novels, some of them fanfiction (two of them were monstrously huge - no publisher would ever touch them, but my readers loved them!). Even if it's fanfiction, it's writing, and it's exercising your fiction muscles (which is why I wrote the fanfics in the first place, to loosen up to write something of my own). I'm polishing my second original novel now and thinking about the third, as well as TRYING to write a short story for an anthology. Keep putting those words on paper (or in the computer)! It's all about the writing, y'know! And congrats for getting so far!
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
I also started with fan fiction (Star Wars), albeit when I was nine, but I agree that it can be a useful enterprise. I don't write it anymore, and I haven't in years and years. But it helped me find my voice.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Usually I don't write a huge amount unless I'm about to finish something...it's like seeing the finish line ahead of me and realizing I can actually finish this massive thing I've started...
I tried out fan fiction, but at a more advanced age, and from 2000 to 2004, yet. In fact, if, the month before I started my first fanfic piece, somebody had told me I'd be writing it at all, I'd've thought they were crazy.
Probably it's something I should have tried and gotten out of my system earlier. But the convergence of factors was just right to write: (1) finishing a major project and casting around for something new, (2) some serious time on my hands (I was off my job for "daring to be sick,") (3) the ability to explore the Internet for fun and information, and (4) an intense interest in one particular TV show.
Posted by SaucyJim (Member # 7110) on :
I actually have written a complete novel, and it's an awesome feeling when you sit back and realize, "Holy Gods, I've done it!" I envy that you get to feel that for the first time. :P
However, my first novel was a fanfic (decently received, too), so that prevents its publication.
Still, congratulations!
Posted by KStar (Member # 4968) on :
The ending has definitely been quicker writing than the beginning, maybe I'm just so excited about the end?
Thanks for being supportive everyone!
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
Yes, there are few things in life quite like the feeling of finishing that FIRST novel and the light that goes on. I CAN do it! Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Robert and Saucy Jim,
You avoided telling us the world/series you borrowed your universe from. What fanfiction have you written? It's like a guilty childhood pleasure like eating a whole box of brownies by yourself, or throwing a slushball at an obnoxious rival.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
It is a guilty pleasure, though I was probably in my second childhood by the time I did it.
Here and elsewhere, I enforce a "don't ask, don't tell" policy---the series in question is copyrighted material, after all, and if there is some legal limbo about them, I don't want to make anybody accessories after the fact. But if you feel the need...go to a search engine, put my name in, and somewhere in the first page of hits, you should be able to find a link or three. Like I do here, I put it all under my own name.
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Wow. So did you continue the lives of those particular characters, or make up new characters who interacted with the main very-animated cast?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
