Thursday, September 04, 2008

The Agony of the Finish Line

Ok, so I'm not at the Galley stage on Pardy Boys, but I am finishing what seems to be a close-to-done draft. And it's agony. Five hour spell check, including formatting, etc. I've spent hours going over 30 pages of line notes. And at the last moment a draft got lost in the shuffle, so I had to painstakingly recreate it using TrackChanges: merge. It was as much fun as it sounds. But I am really familiar with my own material which feels nice. But I fear getting so close to it, I'm not seeing the problems from above. My mind wanders to "the next" book. I feel so well-armed from the conference that I don't want to lose momentum. But my arms literally ache from the hours of typing and mousing. Secretly I dream of sleep and Kansas where a country house I seldom get to visit waits for me.

The finish line. It waits.

Now get back to your book!

7 comments:

Jacqui said...

My finish line keeps moving. I have said, "I finished it!" like 50 times. Nobody believes me any more, least of all me.

Tyler said...

I'm kind of getting close, and I imagine that whole novel run-through will be quite exhausting. I've been trying to keep up on it on a chapter-by-chapter basis, so that It'll be more of a skim when it's all set.

Graeme Stone said...

I think pacing is really the best idea Tyler. If only I had the patience! Seriously though. I worked on the spell check. Took a break. Then my 20 pages of notes. Then took a break. I did the spell check on another computer (which found a lot more stuff, so that's a great thing to know.) Took a break. And so on. I also think exposing the work in stages helps me realize how ready it is or isn't. I might THINK it's ready to show a publisher, but looking back, whoa! it's not. Baby steps. And then the pluge.

Graeme Stone said...

And Jacqui,

I hear ya, man. I hear ya. No matter how many times I fine-tooth it, I always seem to find more stuff to change, alter, review, contemplate, finesse. It truly would never end, except I want to move on to another project.

Jacqui said...

My daughter came home from first grade this week talking about their Writing Workshop. I asked her what she learned and she said, "When a writer's done, they have just begun!"

Ross Horsley said...

Hey Graeme, thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving such kind comments. I'm off to immerse myself in Chapter 1 of the Pardy Boys now :-)

The Bill Cochran said...

Good onya Graeme -
I just sent second draft/reimagining of my midgrade/chapter book off to my editor about 10 days ago. So, now I wait. And wait.

Fingers crossed for your gay detectives...