Full Circle

It’s April again and I’ve finally come full circle. Back in April 2015 I sat down with an idea in mind. I wanted to finish something. I admit I can be a bit of a procrastinator, putting off less than desirable tasks until I absolutely must do them, so this was a serious endeavor.

I was going to finish writing a novel.

My original goal was 50,000 words. I had only ever written short stories and fan fictions so sitting down to undertake a 50k word count was a daunting challenge. I remember sitting down April 2, 2015 (because I procrastinated starting too) and telling myself, “You write all the time. You love writing. Just write something you want to read.”

For an entire month I wrote. Some days I managed 4000 words, some days I squeaked past with a meager 500. I wrote without knowing how things were going to end. I wrote without knowing what my antagonist’s motivation was. I wrote thinking that for an Incubus, my hero was not as sexually active as I thought he’d be. By some stroke of luck, come the end of April I had the first, terribly rough draft of Verrin and Cass’s book, A Demon in My Bed and had surpassed my 50k goal by a few thousand.

I was thrilled. I was stunned. I was so crazy excited to have accomplished something I always wanted. I work in a bookstore, peddling novels for a living, and always knew that writing the story down was the hard part. Millions of people say they want to write a book, go on and on about doing it, but never actually accomplish the task. And here I was, now an official novelist.

It was definitely a celebratory moment.

It was also the start of a journey that would engulf friends, gain me unexpected supporters, make me re-evaluate my life goals and want to cheer on the people I met with the desire to write hidden within them.

Two years later, it’s April again. I’m taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo once more. I’m neglecting the dirty dishes in the sink, having epiphanies in the shower and talking dialogue through with my dog. I’m still on the journey. I’m still learning. I’m still writing the story that started in book one that April and I will continue working on it till my characters are done talking.

Thankfully, they have no desire to shut up any time soon.