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Joined: 2/8/2013
Posts: 14
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I feel a since of accomplishment when I finish a chapter or a particularily difficult part of a book I am writting.
I find myself walking around with a triumphant grinn on my face then can't wait to get started again.
So how do you feel when you've finally finished a chapter?
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Joined: 2/9/2012
Posts: 427
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You need to celebrate every step of the way or else where would you find motivation, right? Keep it going 
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Joined: 2/21/2013
Posts: 40
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Well, yes, sometimes I feel that way, but most often I am immediately sucked into the next chapter by a compulsion to get on to the next scene, which has been percolating in my mind while I was writing.I only stop when I am either exhausted or burnt out of ideas, which is often the same thing. Triumph? No, not until I (1) get a publishing contract and (2) sell a million copies. Satisfaction? Yes, if I have done it right and don't have a nagging suspicion I will need to edit what I have just written heavily.
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I need a more solid definition of "finished". LOL
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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Psssst!
Hey, Luna—just between you and me—when I'm nearing the end of a chapter, short story or essay my hands start shaking so badly I can hardly type. Pure chest-heaving, heart-pounding adrenaline!
Mind you, it's bad enough that I'm already clutching fistfuls of dice in my meaty ham-hocks as I type (each finished sentence rates a triumphal die dropped into the Daily Completed Sentences Quota Glass, or D.C.S.Q.G.—clink!), but when 'ole Adrian L. Lynn drops by for a visit, well . . . it's all I can do to keep from squirting the aforementioned fistfuls of dice in a rattling stream off my computer monitor, like some demented, spasmodically-malfunctioning robot shooting a series of little whirring gears, torsion bars and other electro-mechanical bric-a-brac out of its orifices as it red-lines.
I thought finishing was like that for everyone . . .
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 188
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I spent three years writing a trilogy in which the chapters were essentially single scenes -- two or three pages for the short ones, ten or more for the very longest. So I hit the end of one every couple of days on average, and I had about 250 of them under my belt by the time the third book was done.
You'd think that the repetition of such similar experiences might leave one jaded about their impact. But if a chapter is constructed well, it will end with real drama, suspense, and some kind of payoff all at once, so when I feel like I've done one right, it's still a pretty big kick... even if it's chapter 300 or more in my total tally.
In that sense, I guess novel-writing is a bit like mountain-climbing. Periodically, you reach a ledge where you can stand and breathe and survey the whole of the cliff-face you've surmounted so far, the misty lowlands where you started, and the sweep of the world beyond.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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When I'm writing, only writing, I don't feel truly satisfied until I finish the novel. Every chapter is like I've just finished a mile in a marathon. I sit there chanting to myself, "One more. One more. You can do this." Once I'm done with the novel, then I'm on cloud nine.
Editing is a different story. Since I'm doing particularly difficult edits now, just doing a scene makes me feel good.
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Joined: 8/21/2011
Posts: 394
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As with most creative projects, sometimes when I'm writing or editing, I'm so involved with the process that everything else seems to fade into the background. Other times, I'm so frustrated, that I get distracted by EVERY LITTLE THING (like the tiny millipede that's on the ceiling right above my head now). But when I'm in that creative zone, it's awesome.
I do have moments of "Cool. I really like that sentence" or "Yes! That's how that chapter was meant to end!" They are, alas, fleeting. I never am satisfied with what I create. I'm learning when to stop applying glaze to a tile or pigment to a painting. Need to learn when to stop fiddling with the words I type.
But even when I'm not satisfied with what I wrote, I do get a buzz when I finish a chapter or even just a key segment of dialog.
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Hemingway advised leaving yourself positioned in a good place after a writing session so that the following day you wont have to squirm and sweat in search of a smooth resumption.
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