Guys, I did it! I finished writing my book

I have no one around me to share the news with, so I’m posting here. I finished the story in a corner of my room earlier today and at that moment, it was… underwhelming. But now, after a few hours had passed, I feel good about it.

I would like to share a bit of my writing journey. Please bear with me. I’m feeling a bit yappy. So my first attempt at writing was a disaster. It was in 2024, and I wrote the book in a vacuum. I knew nothing about writing. I didn’t plot the book and I had no idea that stories are supposed to be edited before getting betareaders on them. I gave my first draft out and it was shredded into pieces. I tried to defend myself to the betareader: I said it was a first draft, to which she said and I quote, “even for a first draft, that’s the most horrible thing I’d ever read.”

After this, I vowed never to write again and I stood by my vow. I decided I was only going to read from then on, and boy, did I read? I read so much, but all the while, I couldn’t turn off my writer brain. I learnt so much while reading. What I learnt the most was prose construction.

And then boom, September 2025, I decided to give writing another go. I started writing a fantasy story but I quit at around 30k words. Turned out it takes more than good prose to tell a story. My characters were cardboard cutouts; they lacked motivation and agency. So I went back to the drawing board and started reading books again. Specifically, character-driven books. This was around late November.

And on Christmas day, I got the inspiration to write my now finished story. I outlined it in two days and began writing immediately, but I quit again in February at around 30k words. That was when I found out I was not a strict plotter. I lost excitement for the story because there was no wiggle room for me. After a few weeks, I went back to it, deleted my notes and plotted the novel in my head. That way, I think about the story all the time and the excitement is always there. I wouldn’t call myself a pantser because I’m still a plotter, only I plot in my head.

Anyway, that’s all I have to share. Thanks for reading this far.