By J.A. (Julie) Kazimer
Very few things in life can make me as happy as typing the last word on a manuscript. I’ve do
ne that 10 times so far. The last time being just last week as I finished up Book 2 in the Deadly After Ever series (Book 1, The Fairyland Murders, releases on December 8).
Now I just have to wait to see what my editor thinks. Which explains the burning in my stomach. The ringing in my ears. And the desire to drink a whole lot of whiskey.
Waiting is the hardest part of being an author. We wait to finish a book. We wait to get better at our craft. We wait for agents to request pages. We wait for editors to get back to our agents. We wait for our contracts. We wait for cover art. For formatting. For our final page proofs.
Then we wait for the book to be released.
We wait for reviews to come in. And we wait for readers to fall in love with our characters. Then we wait again for royalty payments. Which a) is never enough and b) seem to take even longer to come my way than it took to write the damn book.
But I’m used to the waiting game by now.
I don’t like it. But it’s part of the business.
The thing about all this waiting, other than the hemorrhoids, is the ability to take a moment to smell the roses. To appreciate what you’ve just accomplished. You WROTE an entire book. Know how many people think they can write a book? 80%.
Know how many people finish writing that book? Less than 10%.
You’ve achieved something with each chapter you write. And when you finish that book, you will know what I already do: Finishing a manuscript is the little death the French refer too.
Viva la THE END.
How many manuscripts have you finished? If you haven’t finished any, how close are you? How do you feel about typing The End?
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You’ve hit the nail on the head, Julie. I’ve grown old and gray waiting. So, let’s see. Even though none of my manuscripts ever really feel “finished,” I’ve written seven novels and am about halfway through my eighth. I never type “The End” because for me each book is a neverending exercise in rewrites until I scream “Enough!” and start the submission process. And if you do the math, that tells you I still have four manuscripts in the endless rewrite queue. They can just sit there and wait!