This week I'm posting about getting "done" with a novel (what is done anyway? There's plenty more work to be done between now and the time it hits bookstore shelves!)
Coincidentally it's almost ten o'clock and I still don't have this post up... and that's the perfect illustration of what has happened since I've finished this novel.
No I'm not dead. Not yet, anyway. But my life has lost it's central structure, the skeleton my days formed around. Literally everything I've done for the last several months has been in reference to finishing this novel- "Can you go with me to see a movie?" "Nope, I'm in the middle of a chapter." "What's for dinner, Mom?" "Sorry, No time for the grocery store." I don't mean I never left my desk. Not by a long shot. But most decisions I've made since January (and before, truth be told) were at least partially based on how they would effect this novel.
Crazy? Maybe. But it's what I felt I needed to do.
So now I'm free, but freedom involves choices and responsibilities and, well, no excuses. This morning I went to the grocery store for about the fourth time this year. I wasn't kidding that there hasn't been much food in our house (in truth I do live in walking distance of about fifty restaurants and my husband and kids have pitched in on the shopping.)
So ...what's next? Time to start a new novel! This weekend I pulled an early draft of a new novel out and today it's back to work in earnest. It's what I have to do, right? I'm a writer so I have to write.
Otherwise I'd end up doing the thing I hate most in the world. Grocery shopping.
What do you do when you're finished?
~ Tami Lewis Brown
I have great news. Last week I "finished" a novel. (And yes, last Thursday I looked pretty much like the guy in this picture!) Sure I thought I was finished plenty of times before, but now the manuscript is headed to copyediting... which is pretty convincing evidence that it's going to be a book sooner rather than later.
This week I'll be posting about running for that finish line. How did I know I was getting close? What were the last dashes and final sprints? And what have I learned about starting a new novel now that this marathon is nearly done?
I don't have any secret potion or magic wand for getting you to the end of your novel. Just some ideas to try, and plenty of encouraging words.
Preparing for these posts I discovered a Facebook page called "I've Never Finished A Novel In My Life". And there's a wikipedia article for unfinished manuscripts. I'm glad I didn't know about this stuff before I turned my novel in. There were lots of days (and months... okay years) when I was convinced I wouldn't finish. These pages would have fanned the flames of doubt. And when you get down to it doubt is the number one enemy here. If we knew for absolute certain we'd finish and it would be a novel and pretty soon it would be sitting in a bookstore this would be easy. No. Not easy. But easier maybe. So let's banish doubt together.
The number one thing that got me through was my circle of friends cheering me on and leading the way- all the members of the Tollbooth, my editor, my agent, my family, writing friends and teachers... a whole army of supporters and cheerleaders. But in the end it was me and my laptop. And maybe most of all my protagonist, who I've grown to know more intimately than any other person in the world, who led me to type that last word on the page.
What gets you over the hump when a writing project stumps you and self doubt takes over?
~Tami Lewis Brown
ps It's Memorial Day, among other things the "official start of summer" and we're moving to summer hours here at the tollbooth. We'll have regular posts every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and special features Tuesdays and Fridays. Stay tuned for lots of exciting changes and upgrades.
This week we've been talking about getting to the end of a project. How good are the ladies of Through The Tollbooth at finishing what they start?
Excellent! Astounding! Amazing!
So good that by Wednesday evening every one of us (except Kelly who has the week off after Tollbooth duty all last week) had posted her thoughts on getting to the end. No one can say we don't meet our deadlines, with time to spare.
Bravo!
Next week I'll be back with my ideas about The Great Agent Hunt. Until then-- get back to work! You have a deadline, don't you?
~TLB
How many people begin a novel? Millions. Tens of Millions.
How many people finish those novels and send them out? A whole lot less.
There's no secret formula or magic spell to get your novel finished. In the end (pun intended) it's just you and the word processor and putting in the time and the revisions to get the thing done. Not much help am I?
But I do have help to offer- three tricks I use to finish my work and get it into the hands of my agent and my editor.
1. Set a deadline.Published writers say it all the time- "I work best with a deadline." or even better "Sorry I can't go to lunch with you today. I'm on deadline."
I'm on a killer deadline right now and there's no way I'm blowing it. I get up early every morning and reach for my laptop. I go to sleep at night after clicking save and taking a sigh of relief that I've hit my revision goals for the day. I'm another step closer to THE END. Some days I don't feel like getting up early or working late or pounding the keys all day. I stop and ask myself "How bad do you want this?" (Literally I do this. Out loud sometimes. ) And I start back to work.
The fact that I have people I respect waiting for my writing helps, but say you're still on your own...
SET YOUR OWN DEADLINES.
Write the date where you'll see it. Tell a friend about it so you'll have some outside accountability. When the going gets tough ask yourself how bad you want it. Then sit down at your desk and meet your deadline.
2. Reach out.Climbing to the top is hard. Sometimes you need help getting there. For meeting deadlines I have extra special help. An enforcer. I have a pact with Sarah Aronson that I'll get a certain number of pages done every day. Fine, right? But it doesn't stop there. I do my pages and email them to her EVERY DAY. Not for a critique, as a destination and a goal. If Sarah doesn't get my email with my pages she gets mad-
(Doesn't this look just like Sarah?)
She reminds me about all the things I already know- I have to do this. I want to do this. It won't get done if I don't do it, one page at a time. Sarah is my "human deadline". Find your own. You can't have her. She's mine.
3. Take the leap.
I have dozens of friends with completed novels- in their drawers. You've done the work and now you're scared about sending it to agents or editors. Here's my advice. Make it the best you can, close your eyes, and send it. You'll never be published if your novel stays in a drawer. Perfect is an illusion. A novel languishing in a drawer is the absolute ultimate dead end.
None of this advice is earth shattering. You've heard it all before. But sometimes it helps to hear it again. To get that extra little nudge that gets you back on the path, rushing toward
THE END
~TLB
