In my last non-review post, I wrote about being at a crossroads in my WIP, Codename: Memories. The post was me thinking out loud and by the end of it, I’d decided to keep going, all the way to the end.
This is a big deal to me. I last wrote “The End” on a new story in about seven years. I haven’t had any shortage of creativity or ideas in the intervening years. Taking a flip through my writing journal, I’ve started four book-length ideas (some of which had trilogies sketched out) and a few different shorter stories. I’ve also written some poetry, potential song lyrics, and jokes. Can’t forget jokes.
But there’s one thing that differentiates writers from people who want to write.
Writers write “The End.”
It takes discipline to get there, to overcome negative self-talk, to ignore the shiny new idea (or bank it in a journal and come back to it). It takes discipline to sit down at the desk, sometimes not going to bed when you want, sometimes not going out with friends. I don’t want to paint writing as some kind of torturous experience, but it can be sometimes.
So the fork in the road was whether I should continue to the end of the story, or should I start over and incorporate all the ideas I’d had as the story unfolded. Ultimately, I decided to push through and write “The End.”
From the very beginning, I knew this was going to be a first draft of a story that needed to be fleshed out and rewritten. In my darkest moments, I’ve thought of it as a “draft zero,” even less than a first draft. However, as I’ve thought ahead to the rewrite process, I’ve come to realize that my approach reflects the time that I spent working in theatre. More on that next time, I think.
But I’m proud to say that I finished Chapter 8 of a planned 13 chapter story. I’m getting there and can see a day when I finally write, “The End.”
The Chimerical Dark 