Where the Story Ends.

Today is National Author's Day. If you are an avid reader, then you have your favorite author, no matter your age. As a child we all had that favorite book and couldn't wait until the author penned another, we thought, just for us. Sometimes it was the familiar characters we yearned for, sometimes it was the author's style that drew us in and we couldn't wait for another story like it!

I don't think it is much different as an adult reader. We find that one book that we take our time with, as much as we want to race to get to the ending, have the questions answered. You read it, savor each page, each chapter; maybe put it down for days to keep the anticipation going or because you are reading and sharing it with someone who knows exactly why this book speaks to you. That author is then on your watch list, you wait for the news of their next book, you preorder it, and then you wait for it to arrive so you can open it up and take that leap inside, lose yourself in the words, in the story; and you wait again for someone else who is reading to catch up because you know how that chat about that part will begin, but you don't know where it'll go and what you may discover together.

Many of us have taken a chance at writing, something, anything; we might not have shared it, but who knows maybe we aspired to be an author; or perhaps we just wanted someone to share our stories with, a gentle reader who truly cared what we said or wrote or experienced. We'd get so caught up, that in some cases we might even invite that person to become a part of our story. The one that we write each day; different chapters at different times. Some chapters that write themselves throughout years; some that were short and sweet; and some, that while long, came to an abrupt end. This leads to the question, does the author control the story or does the story control the author? Does it depend on the strength of the writer? Does it depend on how vested the reader is? Does the struggle become the story?

Sometimes the story just ends; and we need to embrace that too. It is our story and we can't stop writing, we owe it to ourselves to write the end, whether the direction comes by reader or writer, sometimes we just need to own and write...