F is for Finish my Novel

I always marveled at author interviews where the writer reveals it took her ten some years to write her first novel. Can that really be possible? Can one really focus and concentrate and work towards one thing for that long? I’m starting to answer that question for myself. And the answer is ‘yes.’

I have been working on my novel, This Story Takes Place in a Bar, for over six years now.  It started even longer ago as a short story I wrote.  I stumbled upon it again and decided to see what else I could do with it.

It is only in the past two years that I have gotten more serious about my write and carved out two hours every morning to write.  It is two hours in the early morning which I mostly look forward. The getting out of bed part is the hardest, but I’ve learned, once I get to the desk, the rest just follows in a weird, but I’m not going to question it kind of way.  The worst part is tearing myself away once I’ve just gotten into the groove of things, to get ready for my day job.

The problem with having a ‘real job’ is that that two hours goes awfully quick. Especially when I take on challenges such as this A-Z challenge  Or I get an idea for a new short story I just have to write. Or a new contest comes out. Or a new literary magazine is accepting submissions. All of a sudden that two hours devoted to my writing gets taken up with other worthy literary pursuits. What is a writer to do?

Right now I have 47,733 words. I am so close to the 50,000 mark I can taste it. My goal is to finish up the story by the end of the summer. I think it will take more than 50,000 words, but that is still the milestone I am aiming for.

I have already begun the revising process in slow 20 page chunks with my writing group. To my surprise, I am actually enjoying revising, which gives me hope. My ultimate goal is to have my novel ready to pitch by next March, at which point I will pitch it to agents at the Northern Colorado Writer’s conference.

Who knows, maybe some years from now you’ll be watching an interview in which I’m talking about how long it took me to write my first novel.  You’ll smile and nod and say ‘I remember when.’