What Every Writer Feels After Completing A Novel

You’ve done it. Those two glorious words all writers yearn for have been typed at last: ‘THE END.’ How does it feel? Momentous, awesome, and a little bit heartbreaking? Yep. It happens to the best of us. Even though we strive so hard to get to that finish line, once we reach it part of us is always devastated. The adventure is done, the characters’ stories wrapped up and finalized. There’s no more fun to be had with them. No more scenes to write, humorous dialogue to craft, daring escapes to dream up. Once those two little words are written, the business end of the craft (beta-readers, editing, marketing, etc) becomes reality and the fun is essentially over. But don’t fret, it’s all just part of the process!

Here’s the lowdown on how it feels to be a writer at that golden finish line, out of breath and exhausted and incredibly triumphant:

STAGE ONE: That moment of stunned disbelief and exhilaration. Is it really over?? But…but…surely I’m mistaken. Should there be more? Or did I really just type those last two amazingly awesome words ‘The End’? *blinks repeatedly at the screen* Nope. It’s definitely done. HECK YEAH!

STAGE TWO: Tell ALL THE PEOPLE and CELEBRATE! Facebook status, updated. Glorious screenshot of ‘The End’ with plenty of exclamation points, done. Beautifully filtered Instagram photo of victory margarita, nailed it. Time to party and bask in all the wondrous praise and congratulations!

STAGE THREE: Subtle, nagging feeling of apprehension. Slightly afraid to re-open manuscript. The task is daunting, young Padawan. But it must be done. Time to read over what’s been written, and hopefully not hate every last word of it. Though that’s inevitable, of course. In between the fits of “I’M THE BEST WRITER EVER!” and the “This is only-sorta-pretty-good…” you will hate it. And then you’ll love it again. And so on until the end of time.

STAGE FOUR: Major Separation Anxiety Attack, Commence in three, two, one… But I love these characters so much! I don’t want to stop writing about them! I’m not ready! Please, it can’t really be over! Oh, but it is. Unless you have sequels planned, this jaunt through the daisies with Jane and John has come to an end. But don’t fret, now you get to share them with the world!

STAGE FIVE: Feeling like a pro because you wrote a gosh-darn full length freakin’ novel! At the end of the day, it’s a BIG freaking deal! It’s not easy to write a novel, but you’ve done it. You’ve joined the ranks of all those fabulous authors out there who you’ve always looked up to and hero worshiped. Embrace all the feels because you SO deserve them!