Dealing with the optometrist ate a huge chunk of the early afternoon, but I must say, staring at the screen is much easier with fresh minted lenses. It’s the difference between eye twitches forcing me off five minutes of every two hours, and putting in a five-hour session.
As I approach the 90,000 word mark, one thought is clear: the last miles are far, far easier than the first. In April, I had roughly 30,000 words and a hunch. My bet was, the back end of the story would largely write itself. And it has, with a few exceptions. I had no empirical basis for this observation, no baseline. Since the first 30,000 words took nearly six months, a window of eighteen to twenty-one months from start to completion appeared reasonable. The hunch panned out, and the blame for the long ramp up laid entirely with the beginning.
Because the first fifty pages are so critical – often writers never get past that point when an agent considers their work, and some never even get that far — I took enormous pains to get them in the pocket the first time round. After the frustration with the other book, and the endless drafts, I couldn’t face the task of writing for a year or more, only to return to discover a steaming pile had replaced what seemed like the good stuff. Straight up, Doctor, it didn’t look that bad when I touched it last. In a way, that’s true, the text didn’t look so awful. It just read like a train wreck.
As long as there’s electricity, this manuscript will be done on Sunday. I have some feedback and a list of to fix items I compiled along the way, but the second week of November it’s off to the pre-submit readers.
I have to say there is a certain sadness that hangs over the writing sessions as of late. Most of the time, I’m buzzing as if on a full out gin binge. Then reality beckons from the corners like a lesson you don’t want to forget, but never want to remember.
This book will die for me soon.
Finishing a book is a big letdown. I wrote and published a guide to software in 90 days, from start to finish. I wrote over a hundred reviews in the first 30 days, writing in the morning, tracking my progress in a spreadsheet, rewriting the previous day’s work in the afternoon, and researching applications in the evenings. The next month, I did more editing and designed and did the layout for the book. By the time I had to promote the book, I was out of steam. Writing the book was a high—the discipline and steady progress were immensely satisfying, even if the book was a piece of ephemera (to be honest, I choose that writing project because I was insecure about my writing and I knew it would be forgotten in a matter of months; I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it).
I suppose it’s the same feeling parents get when their kids grow up and leave the nest. At some point your book will have a life of its own, separate from you, and it will be too late to tell it to stand up straight or to stop eating with its fingers. I discovered a few embarrassing typos in my book after there were already a few thousand copies in circulation.
I think I would have done better if I’d had the time to take a break after the writing, done my editing with a fresh pair of eyes, and had a chance to recharge before I put on my marketing cap. If you can take the time, you might find it helpful to let yourself rest when you cross the finish line. And start thinking about what comes next. As soon as my book was done, I used it to pursue some freelance writing (Macworld gave me a few assignments and that led to some fairly steady writing over the past year or so).
Anyway, congratulations on (almost) completing your novel and best wishes for your success!
Robert – thanks again for the well wishes. Much appreciated. Good luck with your contest and other endeavors.
That’s a pretty impressive output rate — 100 reviews in 30 days. I did tech writing way, way back, which compelled a like pace, though somewhat less frenetic.
There’s a lot of new ideas that want for exploration, but recharging the batteries comes first. Vacations this year were on the skimpy side, mostly short weekend or overnight trips. Handing the manuscript off enforces a feature lock of sorts, as there is not much point soliciting feedback and then stranding people with an obsolete version.
So yeah, breaks are good. Then again, I’ve got this idea for a thriller…