What is your life-long dream? Have you achieved it yet? What do you think you would do, once you had?
I had a life-long dream, to write a novel. I had an inkling, through school and university that I was an okay writer. I just believed I had a lack of imagination. Beloved introduced me to the fantasy genre about 9 years ago, thinking that it might help me. And it did. I started with The Belgariad series by David Eddings and continued with Ian Irvine’s The View from the Mirror series. I must say, I love Aussie sci-fi and fantasy – it is really refreshing.
For many years I harboured a yearning to write a novel. Without actually getting off my arse to do anything about it. I became a teacher, so that I would have all these holidays to write in. And I did start, in my first year, to write that novel. I got up to page 80.
If I had to say something about trying to write a novel is that it is simultaneously the easiest and hardest thing to do. When I actually got writing, it would write itself, as if the characters were already people living inside my head (schizophrenia anyone?) and sometimes it was the most daunting, mountain moving task ever.
By mid 2009 I had decided enough was enough. How much would it suck to have a dream and not achieve it? I would hate to die and not do the one thing I truly wanted to do. In the October school holidays I told myself I would write 10 pages everyday. While I didn’t exactly write that much, I still wrote. My next goal was to actually finish the novel by the end of the Summer holidays. Very rough first draft of course.
And as of Wednesday the 2oth of January, at approximately 5pm I did it. I am not sure if I can describe the feeling. It was pretty freaking amazing. As soon as I wrote those last words, I hit save and print…and I still haven’t even read the last 5 or so pages. I am a little bit scared to. I posted the news on facebook and then went a bought a bottle of Pol Roger Champagne and watched Aliens in the Attic (cute, funny, brainless) while waiting for Beloved to come home, so I wouldn’t have to drink alone. (I seriously considered not buying the champagne because of the health kick I am on and then I was like are you serious? I am sorry, how many first novels are you planning to finish?)
So – how do I feel? Excited, happy, scared, elated, relieved. I said my dream was to write a novel. I didn’t say it had to be a good one. But nonetheless I am going to edit the shit out of it, let a select few cast their discerning eye over it, and see where it takes me, even if it is the rejection pile. And then I will start my next.
The next day Beloved proclaimed he had a present for me. Now, I am all geared for deciding when I ‘deserve‘ presents, but it didn’t even cross my mind that this would be one occasion. This of course made Beloved even happier, because as I have mentioned before, he likes to do things without me ‘opening my whinge hole’. So sufficed to say I was delightedly gob-smacked when the little blue bag appeared and nestled within was a gorgeous platinum and diamond Fleur de Lis Key charm necklace. Spoilt bitch!
Awesome husband and achieving my dreams? Feel free to do a little hating.
