This is a true story. It occurred on February 20th, 2010.


My fingers fly over the keyboard, excitement flowing through my veins. We’re almost there. Almost there! After a full month of writing, we almost have a novel. The thought is almost too big for me to handle. A novel. Who knew I would have co-authored a novel only one year after becoming a teenager?

On this journey of being a writer, I never imagined it would take me thus far. Of course, writers write, but I never thought how fulfilling that would be. Even though it’s so much work, I write because I have to. No questions asked.

I finish writing my paragraph, and tell Ashley I’m done. Throughout this whole IM conversation, we’ve been freaking out and talking about how awesome this is. “Okay,” she types back. “I’ll say this only once–I LOVE OUR STORY!”

I grin, feeling another burst of ecstacy. “Me TOO!” I type back.

The moments pass slowly as I wait for her to get done writing, but before I know it she says she’s done. I hurry to go check the wordcount.

“Oh my goodness,” I say. “Guess what?”

“Did we MAKE IT?!” she asks.

I grin as I answer her. “YES!”

“YAY!” she says. “I’m so excited right now.”

“Me too,” I say. I am excited… so excited that I might scream. If it weren’t the middle of the night, I would.

“We have a novel! And we wrote it in 27 days!” Ashley says.

“Oh my goodness… yes!”

I smile to myself. I have a novel. We have a novel. How very exciting.