But I'm At The End!?!? (Sydney Salter)

Beginnings???? But I'm knee deep in that swampy process of finishing! Only a dozen pages, or so, separate me from those lovely capitalized words, THE END. 

Yet I'm dragging my feet. I'm going to miss my main character, and I'm not quite sure how to get him from page 273 to that image I've had in my head since The Beginning. 

Ah, the sweet, sweet memory of beginning. I ordered stacks of books, took pages of notes, jotting down super-amazing, cool ideas for plot points, scenes, character traits. I dove into chapter one, zip-zip-zip. I flew through the first 50,000 words, winning my NaNoWriMo certificate. 

Then things got sticky.

My character fell in love with the right girl, but then she betrayed him--and my carefully plotted plans. And that first chapter? Scrapped. 100% rewritten. Pacing? Oops. I kind of went from zero to sixty, skipping ahead too fast too soon. Super Cool Idea #46? Too forced. 

Things are even stickier now, literally. The moment I type THE END, I've got some fine-tuning and revision to do. The first page of my manuscript is covered completely with items to check or change. Some are easy like spelling or capitalization consistency. Others involving plot items that need to be carefully woven through several chapters. 

And then when I really, truly finish, I'll have to release the story into the wild. Yikes! Some readers won't love my characters like I do. Others will hate Super Cool Idea #77. 

But that's okay, because I will be beginning again--with a new story full of new possibilities and new Super Cool Ideas. 

Can't wait! I love beginnings!