Milestones, Celebrations and Momentum

Today is a big milestone! It's not the end of the road and it's not the beginning. It's an important step somewhere in the middle when we can celebrate what has already been accomplished and look forward to even more accomplishments to come.

As we celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration as our nation's 44th President, I am grateful for the extra boost of energy and hopefulness that is in the air. I am grateful for this opportunity to ride the same wave and make it part of my own life.

Here is my milestone of the day: I just past the 20,000 word mark with my didactic novel. I had set some artificial milestones at 20,000 words for the beginning of the story, 40,000 additional words for completion of the middle of the story and another 20,000 for the end of the story. While these are totally artificial, they are not random. All stories have a beginning, middle and an end and the middle tends to be the longer part and the trickier part. As I completed this first milestone this morning, I found that I had a lot to celebrate.

1. I wrote on a regular basis but did not focus excessively on trying to write a specific number of words each time I sat down to write a section.
2. At no time did I have any trouble figuring out where to take the story.
3. I let the words flow and did not worry about making it anything more than a first draft - no corrections.
4. I did not get distracted by research. I focused on writing.
5. I look forward to coming up with the next chapter without rushing to plan the entire storyline too soon.

I now know that I can and will finish this first draft. It's not just, "Yes, I can do this", it's starting to feel like "Yes, I will do this." I am riding the wave.