Writer's Wednesday: It's Done, It's Done, It's Finally Done

I don't know how I did it. I really don't.


But my second book is finished. By some beautiful miracle, I finished the book before 2013. In fact, I finished my book the day after the Mayan Apocalypse Day.


What blows me away is the fact that I wrote 90% of it within two months. What really blows me away is the fact that the first 10% took over a year to write. And while I fully recognize that I'm far from done with this book -- shit, I finished my first book in 2010 and I'm still not done with it -- it just feels good to actually have it accomplished.


I, for one, am thankful to be done. As I've mentioned before, I've been writing the Catch-22 of the education world. And while it was incredibly freeing to write essentially whatever I wanted, so long as it would bring a chuckle or add to the absurdity of it all, it was starting to weigh on me. The subject matter hits a little close to home and, while I don't, say, work alongside teachers who are planning nothing short of a military coup, it does highlight the stress and frustration of working in education.


And the question is: now what?


Now, I do nothing. I'm going to let it be for a bit. My husband and my sister-in-law are champing at the bit to read it and I'll gladly send it to them: with the caveat that my book is in its absolute rawest form. Most of these pages have not even been read over once since I first wrote them. Who knows what goodies await the reader.


But, now, I go back to my first novel. I go back to my query and my synopsis -- two things that I had gotten so sick of that I was ready to self-publish, if only to never have to write another query about my first book again -- and I start the agency hunt again. I've come a long way from when I did my first query hunt last year, and I've definitely learned a lot since then. The numbers are still not in my favor, but I'm going forward with a much sturdier head on my shoulders.


And, of course, there's always my third novel, which I've been brainstorming about since before NaNoWriMo. Maybe, just maybe, come next year's NaNoWriMo, I'll have enough of the foundations for my third novel ready to do a repeat of this year.


But, of course, no pressure =)