Finish Line

Today, I'll be writing the 19th chapter of my book. That's exciting in itself to some extent but what is most exciting for me is that I haven't stopped.

For the people who know me and read my work, I give up on projects frequently. I fail to outline and get stuck. I lose my momentum and stop. I realize the characters suck or the plot is derivative and I toss the manuscript.

But not this time. This time I see the finish line in sight and I'm headed straight toward it.

This is Usain Bolt. I am the him of writing.

I've been averaging about 10k words a month and it feels really good. But what is different this time around?

Well for one thing, I had a clear goal in mind when I began this project: Stomp the Fantasy Stereotypes. 

That goal allowed me to write a detailed outline starting first with the races of the world and then the history and finally places. Most of the outline won't go in the story but at least the place was real and different to me. Then I picked an interaction between two races to create my plot:  The Synn kidnap human women to use as surrogates. And HoSG was born.

It happened just like this, pretty much.

Now, I'm almost 3/4ths of the way finished. I'm not meeting the deadline I aimed for, which was last week, because I grossly underestimated the work that goes into producing something good. (I'll admit my other projects had huge flaws in them that I was too blinded (by the love of the game) to notice).

But I still count this as progress because I haven't stopped. I have no intention of stopping because the book hasn't given me a reason to stop. There is no lag. For once in my life there is no lag.

My high school art teacher once told me the middle of the painting is the hardest. She wasn't lying. I cried into my oil paint. Painting isn't my strong suit, granted, but the same goes for writing. The middle of the book is the worst for me. But I got through it this time and suddenly the end is completely in sight. Here's some more Usain for y'all.

 Prancing right over that muh fucker!

This moment came after tons of bad projects, some completed, some not. This came after over 100 query letter submissions, some acknowledged most not. This came after two full manuscript requests, none accepted.

And every failure has led to some sort of improvement. Improvement is progress. Progress gets you to the finish line.