You would think when the finish line is in sight, you’d pick up speed, put all the pent-up energy into the drive to get there, raise your arms in triumph and barrel full-speed ahead. There would be a cheer from a crowd of onlookers, confetti maybe, and a trophy, or at the least, a hug and a high five.

Well…

My victory – finally typing ‘The End’ in context – wasn’t quite so energized. In fact, it was the polar opposite. Everything led up to those final moments. Final moments when the characters’ struggles had to be shown as worth it, as life-altering.

Stitching those last high-energy scenes together was tedious work. Intense. I spent a lot of time staring unseeing at the blinking cursor, deep in thought, watching the scene play out in my head, forming the perfect string of words to show that scene as I saw it. Burrowing deeper into the minds of my characters than I had in a while. I had to navigate their subconscious, locate their ah-ha moments and then slap them into action, realization. All they’d fought for, all they thought was lost was finally there for the taking. They had only to realize how they got there, what they’d overcome and what it meant for their futures… as individuals and as a couple.

They’re off making love somewhere right now and I’m… left behind to write their synopsis.  <shudder> I need to find a real title, too, and of course, I’ll work on the query. Rejections will start to flow in and I’ll sigh and file them away. But then maybe, just maybe, someone out there will fall in love with my little creation the same way I did. In truth, I hope lots of someones out there will fall in love with it. But then, isn’t that the hope of every writer? Isn’t that why we do this in the first place? To take people into our worlds for just a little while? To take them on an adventure? To surprise them and make them cheer for our characters… and then sigh in satisfaction when they reach the finish line?

If we’ve done our job right, the reader will know that The End is nothing more than a new beginning.  And we, meanwhile, will start the entire process once again.