In case any of you missed my triumphant (And groggy) post on Face book earlier I finally finished the rough draft of my first novel. Well, not my FIRST actually, there are several others, all in various stages of completion. I've come to realize that every long piece of writing is a lot like a relationship. You are completely in love with it at first, enamored, can't think of anything else. In other words, The Honeymoon Phase. Unfortunately, in writing and in life this doesn't last nearly long enough and suddenly writing the story you were so madly in love with at first becomes routine, normal. You still progress on it, but it doesn't have the same drive, the same passion as when you started. Then you hit the rough times. Those times when you look back over your work and want to throw it all out. Scrap it as a useless waste of your time. You wonder what the hell you were ever thinking, this story was a bad idea from the beginning and its time to move on with your life, maybe write a couple of short stories, have a short literary fling, just to get some excitement back into your writing. If you're feeling particularly daring maybe play around with some poetry or even a script or two, just for thrills. Your story will still be there, it'll be waiting for you when you want to come back to it. And that's when most of my novels are still sitting. It seems like once I hit that point if I walk away I can't seem to get the same feeling for it as when I started. Most of them are parked still, sitting, waiting patiently on a hard drive or in a folder, untouched for several years while my life has moved on. Well, I finally finished one. Just the rough draft, mind you, there's still a lot of work to put into it before its ever ready for publication- but the story is done. I suspect I feel at the moment like most people do on their 50th or 60th wedding anniversary. I weathered the storm with this book. I stayed true to the writing and I finished it. There is no better feeling I can remember having other than celebrating an anniversary with my Wife. So..moral of the story- Stick with those books, People. Even though they might be tough at times in the end the result is worth it!