simpleek

Writing any story, especially a full-length novel, is no easy feat. You have to know how it starts and how it will end. A writer needs to figure out how to map out a character’s journey so that when the end finally appears on the horizon, their character arc is wrapped up in a way that feels satisfying.

After spending the past few years diligently working on my YA fantasy novel, I’m edging closer and closer to what instinctively feels like the end of the story.

Now before we bust out the noisemakers and the streamers, I said I’m getting closer to finishing my first draft. Not that I’m actually at the end yet. But it’s a good feeling nonetheless.

When I started writing this original story of mine ages ago, the one clear vision I had was incorporating a scene I couldn’t get out of my head and writing around it. I didn’t know who the characters would be or all the obstacles the lead of my story would navigate through. All I knew was what the world and the people around my heroine would look like.

I might have mentioned in the past how the path to writing this particular story has been a bit murky. Kind of like driving down a road and not being entirely sure of where you’re going. Instead of worrying about it, you continue down that road to see where it takes you. That has been my process as I kept writing each chapter year after year for the last three or four years. Progress has been slow but the purpose has always been to keep writing whatever my imagination conjures up and worry about the logistics and nitty gritty details later. As many writers have said, it’s far easier to work with what has been written, no matter how bad the writing is, than it is to work with a blank page.

Now that my writer’s instinct feels like I’m getting really close to finishing the first draft of my novel, possibly three or five more chapters left to be written, it has kicked my determination in full force to cross that goal post. To keep making the final push no matter how difficult or impossible it feels.

I started off the year with an intention to (hopefully) finish the first draft of my novel by the end of 2022. A lot could happen between now and the end of the year. I do have a number of personal stuff coming up that will need my attention, events lined up that I need to be in attendance for, which could potentially eat into my writing time and schedule. But if there is a will, there’s a way and I have been extremely proud of all the work and progress I have made so far.

It wasn’t always easy as my novel had gone through development limbo, inspiration being difficult to muster and distractions abound to keep me from writing it or committing to it like I should throughout my young adulthood. With renewed focus and a persistence to at least try to see this passion project all the way through, I’m so close to the finish line that I can feel it.

If that’s not an achievement all on its own, I don’t know what is!

Have you ever started a project that had a difficult start, only to finally see the end in sight to give you all the motivation you need to keep going?