By Lauren Dane
July 25th, 2008
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This week I finished and submitted my futuristic, Relentless, to my editor at Berkley. I’m happy to be done. Sort of loopy because I have end of book brain. Nervous because I hope she’ll like it. Accomplished because when I started the book it was nothing and now it’s 95,000 words.
A book is like a mini-lifetime for me. Each one takes me places I never expected to go. There are highs when I connect very deeply with my story or the characters and the words simply flow without effort. There are lows when I am stuck or blocked, when I’m frustrated because I need to get from A to B but I can’t see my way through. Times when I feel like singing a happy tune and those days when I am sure I am the suckiest writer on the planet. But like life, I keep on and keep on and when I read the end product, after I’ve edited, gotten crit, revised and gotten feedback from beta – I can celebrate each mini-lifetime for all the experiences it’s brought me.
Each time I look at my editing notebook – all 400+ pages with sticky notes and redlines and scribbles in the margins, I have this sense of intense gratitude that my life includes this experience. That I get to write books!
And then I tuck it away and begin the next book. In this case, Outshined, my next book for Berkley. A whole new mini lifetime to embark on.
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July 25th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Congratulations on finishing! It’s a wonderful feeling.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Congrats on finishing. I hope you celebrate appropriately. Margarita, anyone?
Good luck on the next projcet. I hope the words flow smoothly.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Congrats on finishing Relentless! It must be a little sad to see the characters go? I know as a reader I hate to see a good story end!
Have a great day.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Congrats on finishing Relentless!
July 25th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I have to agree with Lori, it has to be sort of a nelacholy feeling to have to let go of characters after spending so much time thinking about and plotting them.
Big congrats on finishing!
July 28th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
I’m out surfing because I just finished a novella. Finishing is a wonderful feeling! Waiting for editor’s comments isn’t.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Congratulations on finishing!