How do I describe my feelings as I type these two words: The End?

I guess in order to understand my feelings, I  would have to go back to the beginning, the very beginning when the idea was just  a “I wonder”…

There was a sense of excitement, a sense of; I can’t wait to get to the typewriter and get working on the storyline. The fun of research as I looked up possibilities for what could be used as clues and locations, and stacks of pictures that could be used to visualize scenery, and start to develop my characters.

There was the excitement of writing the first sentence, then the first paragraph, than the first page and then the first chapter. The first few chapters run together smoothly and then you hit your first  road block. You have to pull back get over your frustration and figure out how to solve it. For me it often will led to a whole other thought process which might take my characters down a different path than the one I had originally planned. Sometimes these detours last for a couple of pages, or sometimes I found that it  became a permanent part of the plot.

And then you hit that dreaded middle of the book. For me that’s the part of the book that I work the hardest at. The center has to be just right, because that is where  I have to include as many details as I can that can be used in conclusion and get the back story. Sometimes it feels like it’s so tedious: it runs on and on and on and on and on. But then you can feel it coming the conclusion is on the horizon.

Once you see that you’re getting close to conclusion, there’s a sense of urgency, a feeling of doggedness that you have to write. The words come swiftly and sometimes you can not get all your thoughts down  fast enough. You find there are all kinds of posted-notes on your desk and sticking to the corners of your computer as you think of ideas you want to incorporate into the ending.

And then there’s that last chapter, the climax, the part where everything comes to a head and you are glued to your keyboard -you can’t walk away . You type until your eyes blur and your fingers are sore, but you’ve got to get it done! Then you type that last sentence, the one that brings everything together and you’re almost there. There’s a sense of relief, a sense of letdown and a sense of closure: and that’s what you do -you close. You bring all your clues and little innuendos that were scattered throughout the book  altogether and tie it up with a pretty bow for your reader.

Finally you type those The End and you say goodbye to your story.

You pause for just a moment, take a deep breath, open your laptop to a new blank page and you start the process all over again!