Finishing a book is a long goodbye. You put down 90% of the words the way you wanted them. Then, like a good steak or yeast dough, you let it rest before attacking it again.
Then take a deep breath and let someone (hopefully multiple someones) read it. And you take back their notes and get to work again in EDITING.
EDITING is where you saw the movie once, and now you’re thinking about ‘man it would be so much better if’.. only without the if because you’re in the driver’s seat. So you do some trimming and fleshing, some ticking and tying. You second and third guess yourself. You read it out loud, over and over, to make sure it flows.
Sometimes it’s fun. Sometimes it’s not.
But eventually you get to that point… I think it’s somewhere between satisfaction and exhaustion. You look at this thing you’ve created and say, that’s it. That’s as good as I know how to make it with what I know and all the notes I was given.
And you set it loose into the world. Like a little paper ship out on the ocean… only this one is carrying a little piece of you and you hope it’s read. You hope people laugh where you laughed and cry where you cried.
It’s beautiful and wonderful… and then..
Empty.
A lot of writers get depressed when wrapping a project… and yes it feels a little silly to be sad over not seeing your imaginary friends for a while. But it is where I am, and I’ll own it.
It’ll be a bit before it’s available on audiobook, but you can get your copy of The Call of the Crystal on Kindle or in paperback right now. I hope you do, and I hope you enjoy it at least half as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Curiouser and Curiouser 