Erin Lodes

I cannot begin to describe how good it feels to have finished my novel. But I’m a writer, so I’m definitely going to try. Not to mention I have John in my head, telling me that’s my freaking job, which I also hear whenever I send a gif or emoji instead of using words to describe a thing. Ask him about it sometime. He’d be happy to tell you. But I digress.

It feels AMAZING.

It feels like reaching the top of a mountain and I can see the world forever and the sun is shining and glittering over the water stretched out into the distance and I can see all the valleys and hills and mountain ridges I made it across and over and up to get this far.

My muscles ache and my lungs want more air and I should really get some sleep but at the same time I feel strong. I feel good, so good. Because I did the freaking thing. I finished my novel. A novel I’ve been working on for seven years. Seven. Freaking. Years. And now it’s DONE.

After I finished reviewing that last chapter one final time, I closed my laptop and I literally leapt for joy and then I grabbed my husband and said let’s take the dog for a walk because I could not sit still. I was vibrating. I could have run to the moon. But I settled for a lap around our apartment neighborhood.

And then I took a weekend, just a weekend, to celebrate. There was definitely celebratory alcohol involved. And much lazy TV watching where I forced myself to not feel guilty for not working. And plenty of just turning to my husband and saying — with a stupid and shocked grin on my face – “I finished my book.”

I read a book (Vengeful by V.E. Schwab), that I’d been saving to reward myself (and a very big TBR pile awaits after that). I cut off all my long hair, something else I’d been waiting to do as a reward to myself. I think it’s important to have rewards. It’s important to celebrate.

I had to force myself a little, to just let myself take a weekend off. An object in motion wants to stay in motion and all that. And I have been an object in motion for a long-ass time now.

At the same time, I know I’m just taking a breather before I get up again, before I climb the next mountain. A mountain called Getting the Thing Published. It will be a mountain in several parts. There are many paths to publication and I plan to take the more traditional route up this mountain. Get an agent. With their help, sell it to a publisher. Etc.

Which means my next step is querying. Stay tuned for that slow-moving adventure. Next week I’ll talk about how much I absolutely adore (read abhor), writing queries and synopses, and how John helped me get over my hangups.

Until next time friends, I hope your words are plentiful and that they are good.

How I Finished My Novel is going to be an ongoing blog series detailing how I finish this freaking thing. I know, I know, you could probably tell that from the title… I’m being helped along on this journey by John Adamus, who is amazing and you’ll hear a lot about him in this blog series.

If you haven’t already, check out Part One and start from the beginning.