I am a Novelist

Well, just a few minutes ago, I plunked out the final sentence of Prison Nation.


The first draft, as of this moment in time, is now done.
I have finished writing a book.

It is a surreal feeling.  I have been writing since I was three.  Literally.  And since I can remember, I have declared that I would someday be an author.  Yet every project I began, rarely even met its middle, much less its end.  I am sitting here now, scrolling up and down through my Word Document, and cannot believe that the 65,658 words saved in there are mine. 

I have lists of things to add in.  To edit and change.  Some to delete.  Who knows what the final word count will actually be.  But, I can proudly say, that Draft 1, the roughest and toughest, is now done.  In 31 days, I wrote my first novel.  And as crappy or horrible or down-right rotten some sections of it may be, I am proud of it.

Writing the final sentence, I felt this odd mix of heart-racing excitement and total nerves.  I cannot explain it.  But now, I am smiling.  And I just can't stop.

What is next you ask?  Well, take a few days off (maybe) then dive back in.  I have things to add, people to fix, verbs to change.  Editing, the dreaded editing.  *grumble, mixed with giddy "wee!"*

We will see where this goes from here.