Story Finito!

So, I finished a story yesterday. Whoopie!

Seriously, it's a moment that always makes me very, very pleased (indeed, so pleased was I that the concurrent erasure of all the music from my iPod didn't even bother me that much).

But yeah, finishing even just a first draft... it's this huge rush of accomplishment. I've still got lots of work to do on the story - tightening some parts, expanding a couple ideas, cleaning up some confusing passages - but for a brief moment, I am able to step out of it; it exists outside of me now. It is a complete thing, with a start, a middle, and a finish.

It's such a fucking relief!

Now I've passed the story off to the boyfriend, who'll hopefully find time to read it today and give me his feedback. He's already read the first seven (out of thirty-one) pages and told me he's really enjoying it so far, so I'm feeling optimistic. He's been a genuine critic on some stuff I've written, so it's nice to have someone close enough that I won't go insane about handing it over to them, yet who I can still trust to be honest.

I do feel the day approaching that I'll start actually picking up these stories and doing something with them. I've got several finished now and, as I approach my fifth year anniversary at this dead-end job I'm currently paying the bills with, I am beginning to feel a deep-seated tugging sensation inside that... I gotta start my life already.

But yeah, I finished a story. So I've earned a couple days to breathe without that tug, thank you very much. It's like James Caan in Misery, with his book-finishing celebratory routine of wine, a cig and a single match.

Just not that hobbling-with-sledgehammer part... cuz ick.