Draft Complete!

It has been a long road for this one, but as of last night, I've completed what is hopefully the final rough draft of Crimson Thorns. Those who know me may know more about how important of a milestone this is already, but I've got nothing but time to waste until it's time to start on a new project while I let this draft rest so I might as well document it.

The characters of this story have been living rent free in my head for no fewer than the last 14 years. Calista and Nexus being the two who have been around the longest. They've certainly developed into very different characters than I had first thought them to be, but that just means I'm even more glad I decided to take my time with this story. If I had rushed it to get it out sooner, it never would have become the story it is today.

Over those 14 years, I've written many drafts (or partial drafts) that just didn't click the way I wanted them to. I knew it wasn't the story I wanted to tell, and so I would put it away and pick it up again some time later. Always to the same effect. But I was determined never to give up on it. As I lived and learned things, so too did my characters. I wanted the story to stand for something that was important to me, and I'm finally confident that I've accomplished that.

But I couldn't have done it alone.

Writing is...lonely. It's something that I have always struggled with to some degree, as much as I have loved to write. There was always something very isolating about it. I didn't have anyone to share my writing with, nor any friends who were as invested in the craft as I was. It wasn't until 8 months ago that I found a group. I figured it would be like any other group I had found before, lasting only a short while before everyone would move on, or I would myself. I had never expected that this group would stick. And not only that, but convince me to keep working at my story even after I'd already decided it was time to give up again.

They know who they are, but I'm not sure they know how much of an impact they've actually had. How many times I genuinely considered dropping everything like I had so many times before, only to sit back down and keep going because someone was far too invested in the relationship of two characters who hardly had more than a five minute conversation on the page they read. I was convinced everyone had too much faith in me. That I was going to disappoint them. But that wasn't the point. They weren't there because they expected anything of me. They were there because they believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. I don't think I can thank anyone enough for that.

To everyone who has read, or sat through me trying not to have a panic attack reading my own work aloud, thank you. The support and encouragement was well needed, and the feedback y'all provided helped me to see my world in a different light, which made it easier to come up with ideas for what would fit the story best. I will forgive the leap years comment. It's still funny and I do not regret it.

Also, I can't write this without giving a massive shoutout to ProWritingAid for making all of this possible in the first place. I never would have met any of these people otherwise, and without the daily writing sprints (and a certain host chirping me for rewriting a chapter 8 times) I'm sure I'd still be somewhere on chapter 5 right now.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone who has celebrated this achievement with me. It means more than I know how to put into words, and I can't wait to share this story with everyone. I will be keeping up with updates, but editing shall not begin until August. As much as it pains me to wait that long.

Anyway that's enough emotions from me, back to your regularly scheduled (except not really) nonsense posting! Yippee!