Today I am celebrating my first great success of the new
year. Earlier this week, my latest book,
Dead Man’s Rules became available on
Amazon for Kindle. The print version
will be released in a few months, but Dead
Man is now out there and available
and that is exciting news.
Dead Man is a book
I began many years ago and then totally rewrote and then re-edited and finally
turned into a series. It’s the story about a bloody hand print made left on a
wall of an old dance hall by a dying man. Who was he? How did he die and does
his ghost still haunt the dance hall?
Those are the questions my reporter heroine, Cere Medina sets out to answer
in book one of the series.
After years of work on that story, I feel like I have good
reason to celebrate, but it got me to thinking about celebrating as a writer in
general and how often we forget to acknowledge our success, even the small
ones.
Today I read a blog from a fellow writer who mentioned that
we need to celebrate our successes. I am
in total agreement. There is nothing quite like finishing a book and knowing it
is done. Oh, yes, it might need lots of editing, but when you write that final
paragraph, those final words, wow, does it feel good. Your story is over.
That is a victory we all need to celebrate. How many people
say they want to write a book, but they just don’t have the time? How many have a great idea but just don’t
know where to start? How many start, but then they get bogged down in the
middle? Each of these sentence probably
has thousands of groups of people in them.
For the writers who do finish that book, you need to remember to
celebrate that victory of getting to the end.
But there are other things to celebrate as well. As I wrote in a comment to that blog today, I
have taken to celebrating when I get a chapter done. For years now, when I
finish a chapter, I give myself a round of applause. Yes, literally and out
loud. Suddenly I’ll begin clapping and if there is anyone around they look at
me as though I’m crazy. I’ve gotten strange looks at Starbucks, believe me. But
why not? Finishing a chapter, finishing
a scene can be a reason to celebrate – especially when it’s been a tough scene
you’ve been agonizing over.
So celebrate. Clap
for yourself when you finish a tough scene. Celebrate those successes. You’ve
earned it!