October 19, 2010

Impossible possibilities

I've been writing full-time for 3 years now.

It took me a year to find my niche, to start a book that I knew was for real, a year full of stops and starts and beginnings of the wrong novels and frustration and research and... blah.

It's taken me 2 more years to write PRODIGAL MAGGIE, my 78,000 word YA contemporary fantasy.

(And tell me why I feel the need to apologize for being a slower writer than some, though I know I have nothing to actually apologize for? That's another post, though...)

I will never forget the feeling of writing 30 pages of something I knew could succeed, but seemed so darn impossible to finish. Heck, 50 pages seemed unreachable. I wouldn't have believed I wrote 30 pages if they weren't right there in front of me.

But then I hit 50.

100.

And then 150.

All the way up to the nearly-complete 308 pages it stands at today.

For anyone just beginning, or for anyone who can't remember how on earth they wrote that last book, or achieved 10 or 50 or 100 pages, remember:

It always seems impossible.

As Kiersten White, New York Times Bestselling author of PARANORMALCY, wrote on her blog today:

[Books are] completely impossible, except for when they aren't.

4 comments:

Ella Preuss said...

I'm just beginning. And it does seem impossible. We just have to make it possible.

Missed Periods said...

It is unbelievable how quickly those pages add up, and all of a sudden, you're like maybe I can write a book.

Congratulation on 308!

Pam Harris said...

Great post! I'm a slow writer myself and always envious when I read how people hammer out a first draft in a matter of weeks. It does seem impossible, but when you reach that finish line--it's the best feeling in the world. :)

Claire Dawn said...

I'm still looking forward to knowing I have a winner.

Good luck with yours!

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