Yep. I’m saying it out loud. I’ve told a few friends, but this is the first time I’m really saying it. I’m writing a book, and that’s my excuse for not writing a blog post until 8 pm today.
I’m writing a book, and I’m actually very nervous about it because I’ve written a lot. I’ve written the beginnings of stories since I was a little girl. I’ve written short stories, a few poems, and these blogs, but I’ve never written a full book and finished it. And tonight, I’ve come very close to finishing it. 50,000 words down on the first draft, several chapters that need tidying, and one conclusion to go, and I’m very proud of myself.
What are my goals with the book? The first one was just to finish it. Write 4000 words a day, get to at least 40,000 words, and finish the book. Then my goal was to get the courage to start sending it out to publishers, and if that goal was fulfilled, the ultimate goal is to share my story and hopefully ignite a little fire that will make changes.
I don’t know where it will go, but I do know that the sense of accomplishment I’ve felt after every 10,000 words were written was immense, and just the act of writing all of these events and feelings down was cathartic. There’s something about writing that can pull things out of all of us that we didn’t know existed.
And because of that, I agree with the idea that we should all be writing, even if just to finish something and even if it’s just in a journal.