The Rough Draft, She Is Finished…
It’s a liberating feeling to finish a book. Never mind if it’s only the rough draft, never mind if you’re not sure it’s good enough for publication, never mind if the very concept of the book makes you raise your eyebrows. It’s good to finish, to wrap everything up and write the word finis on the bottom line. To move the draft to the “done” folder and heave a sigh of relief.
It’s what I call the shotgun theory of getting published: just keep working. Keep finishing stories, keep writing. Keep submitting. The more you write, the more stories you’ll finish (it’s a percentage thang.) The more stories you finish, the more you can submit. The more you submit, the greater the chances that someone, somewhere will be interested in your work–and the more you submit, the more feedback you get about what works and what doesn’t. Not to mention that the more stories you finish, the better your craft becomes. It just happens naturally.
A lot of aspiring writers make the mistake of finishing one book and stopping, then just flogging that one book. You seriously cannot afford to stop after your first book. Give yourself about a week and one good get-drunk-and-celebrate party, then dive into writing the next one. Don’t let all that momentum bleed away while you get discouraged over one manuscript.
Yes, I know, it sounds harsh. Finishing your first novel is like going through labor the first time. You think you’re the only one who’s ever felt such pain. But after the second, you realize the process is dangerous and painful to everyone who undergoes it, at least emotionally. You realize that you do survive it, like you survive most natural processes. It may hurt like hell or be a lot of work, but finishing a novel won’t kill you, and you’re not the only one who’s done it.
It never quite gets mundane, but you do get better at dealing with it. You get better at having a glass of wine and a few hours of a subtle just-finished glow.
Then you start thinking about the revising and the submitting, and juggling potential markets inside your head. It becomes a whole new type of stress.
But for what it’s worth, the results are beautiful.
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August 28th, 2006 at 2:40 am
I feel your pain!. I read your novel “Working for the Devil” and loved it. Great imagination.
I’m a new writer just starting out and have two sci fi romance books out from Double Dragon ebooks (Naked Venom and Carnal Ambition). I know what you mean when you talk about all the self doubt and anguish of writing adventures for the same characters. But you’re completely right…you have to keep writing and I have seen myself improve over the past year and a half.
Keep your spirits up, you’re a great talent! And that goes for everyone else out there trying to make a life as a writer…keep writing, success will come.