Truth Thursday: Book Finishing Blues

There comes a time in the writing of a book where an author finally finishes writing the last words of a novel, sits back, and stares at the page (or screen, depending on what medium was used) and realizes: "Wow. I just finished writing a novel."
I'm personally not an extremely excitable person. I feign excitement a lot, but only if I'm around other people. If I'm sitting by myself staring at my computer screen, then I don't get excited at all. I continue doing whatever work needs to get done without getting excited. When I got the email offering me a publication contract, I was so nonchalant about it that probably no one guessed I had just gotten one of the most important emails of my life.
The same feelings sat with me as I finished the rewrite of Solid Ground. This book has been with me for so long. Almost 7 years ago in fall of 2007, I began writing about Vivie, her family, and her friends. The journey continued until my freshman year in high school, April 2009. Eight books and many dead pens later, the series was finished. I moved on and began writing other projects. But in 2012, I decided that there was a lot of potential in the series of books I had finished. Yes, a lot of material would need to be thrown away, but much of it could also be reused. So that was how I began rewriting Solid Ground from scratch. Two days ago, I finished the rewrite, which is about two years of work on this project. It was strange, because I didn't really feel anything. I just sat and stared at my screen with several thoughts running through my head.

• I have grown so much as a writer since I was 13.
• I can't believe that it's over.
• I can't believe that I'm going to have to rewrite the next seven books too.
• This was a really tough project to work on
• And I'm up for continuing the challenge.

In a way, finishing this rewrite isn't an end. It's the beginning. So many new possibilities have been opened because I allowed this project to sit and collect dust for a little bit. I'm so much more prepared at this stage in life to know how to execute this project than I was while getting through that awkward stage called middle school. I'm not a perfect writer by any means, but when I leaned back and stared at the Microsoft Word document, there was a sense of pride in what I had finished. I knew that while what I had done wasn't perfect, it was much better than it had been before, and will only get better from here on out.
So yes, book finishing blues are a real things. But I'm really excited to continue writing, because I'm never done revising, editing, and creating more than before. So look out, world! More rewrites are going to be started and completed, and I can't wait to share them.