Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "finishing"
Gimme a "D" (eadline)
I've given myself a week to get it all together. I've long nown that I do best with a deadline. They're natural for teachers, because every hour of the day is at least one. For a writer, there are plenty of deadlines as well, but not always when you need them. I've got plenty going on: two books coming out soon, one edited and in need of promotion; one whose editing hangs over my head like that sword in mythology (When will they send it back? How much will they want it changed? How much time will they give me to get it done?)
So I know I should be finishing the WIP, getting it into some sort of shape for readers to begin gnawing at its edges. And there's the rub: I have no deadline for that. I can set it aside for a dozen reasons...especially when the going gets tough.
So there: I'm announcing to the world that I WILL finish it this week and present it to my first reader next Tuesday.
Stay tuned for a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
So I know I should be finishing the WIP, getting it into some sort of shape for readers to begin gnawing at its edges. And there's the rub: I have no deadline for that. I can set it aside for a dozen reasons...especially when the going gets tough.
So there: I'm announcing to the world that I WILL finish it this week and present it to my first reader next Tuesday.
Stay tuned for a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
What I Love About Books
They end.
Where else in life do you get the satisfaction of completion that you get with a book? Housework is infinitely renewable. You can clean the sink today, but it will need it again tomorrow. Our jobs seldom allow everything to be sewn up tightly at the end of a day, a week, or even a year. And relationships are notoriously messy. They never all get combed neatly into place.
But a book! When you're done, you're done. Everything is known. The author has told all, and you have absorbed it, savored it, finished with it. In addition, everything is left in place. If for some reason you should return to reread that book later, it will not have changed one iota. No new smudges, no starting over to learn the ropes, no irrational switches in character since last time.
Each new book is an adventure in itself. Some allow us to have similar adventures if we enjoy the first one: same characters, different day. But when you close that book at "The End", it is something you've accomplished complete. Done. What a feeling!
Where else in life do you get the satisfaction of completion that you get with a book? Housework is infinitely renewable. You can clean the sink today, but it will need it again tomorrow. Our jobs seldom allow everything to be sewn up tightly at the end of a day, a week, or even a year. And relationships are notoriously messy. They never all get combed neatly into place.
But a book! When you're done, you're done. Everything is known. The author has told all, and you have absorbed it, savored it, finished with it. In addition, everything is left in place. If for some reason you should return to reread that book later, it will not have changed one iota. No new smudges, no starting over to learn the ropes, no irrational switches in character since last time.
Each new book is an adventure in itself. Some allow us to have similar adventures if we enjoy the first one: same characters, different day. But when you close that book at "The End", it is something you've accomplished complete. Done. What a feeling!
WIPs to WMDs
No, not weapons of mass destruction. WIP is Work in Progress and for me, that WIP just became a Work Maybe Done. "Maybe" is there because I can always find things I want to fix.
My WIP became a WMD last night, but already I'm thinking that I could tweak a couple of characters a bit so they're more understandable. And the part where the bad guy chases them through the house...maybe a bit more action? I'd better read it again.
Maybe for me there's no such thing as Done. Maybe I always need that Maybe.
My WIP became a WMD last night, but already I'm thinking that I could tweak a couple of characters a bit so they're more understandable. And the part where the bad guy chases them through the house...maybe a bit more action? I'd better read it again.
Maybe for me there's no such thing as Done. Maybe I always need that Maybe.
