I wrote a book! I've been saying this for the past ten minutes. I finished my novel. I wrote a YA. It has a beginning, middle and an end. It has characters. Dialogue. Chapters. It is drafted. It is 10 times longer than anything I've ever written before. The story is complete. It is done.

I wrote a book!

I WROTE A BOOK!

Oh my god. I cried a little bit, because I've wanted to do this for so long. I've only ever *tried* to write a novel once before, when I was seven, and I'm not sure that counts. I was afraid to try for so long. And then I was, I think, afraid to finish it once I started it. Or afraid I wouldn't. But I did. It's drafted. I wrote a book!

Holy shit.

Working Title: Sienna's Summer
Word count: ~ 60,000 words
Genre: YA contemporary fantasy
Inspiration: evil paternal grandmother
Form: half typed in, half hand-written in two notebooks
Next steps: type it in, band-aid (fix logical errors), rip apart, put back together, get feedback, repeat, revise, repeat, revise, etc. until ready for polish. Send to agent. Hopefully repeat until they're satisified. Etc.

Um, I'd like to thank all of you for supporting me, for telling me to go, go, go! for all that writerly community that makes the process much less scary and lonely. I'd especially like to thank Greg, for that novel dare two years ago and, of course, Tim, who nagged me to join that novel dare until I did and then nagged/ supported/ loved me enough to keep me going and working on my novel until I finished it.

Er... oh my god.

I wrote a book!