I’ve reached the point where I’m pretty sure that I’ve finished my next book. When I say pretty sure, I mean that I’ve completed just about all of the different stages that go into writing a novel. I’ve written all of the words that need to be written, I’ve gone back and edited most of it, adding and subtracting along the way. I’ve re-read and come to the conclusion that I’m happy with it. What happens from here is probably the worst part. What happens from here is when I start passing out copies to readers while I await their feedback.
This is a vital part of the process and something that I feel is important before I send it off to my editor and start getting things finalized. What if something sucks? What if something doesn’t make sense? What if a character feels flat? Those are the things that I want to know before the book gets wrapped up neatly in a bow and those are the things that I can fix.
Anyone who has done something similar to this can attest to how nerve-wracking it can be; people are reading my book for the first time. These people reading it will determine how I move forward with it. Maybe I need to add something, maybe I need to remove something, maybe I need to start again? I try to pick diverse individuals to read my books when I go through this, not just people who prefer to read what I prefer to read and write. Why? Because I’m pretty sure that my target audience will enjoy this no matter what. What I’m worried about are everyone else.
Today has been such a strange day for me because it’s my first day “off” from my responsibilities that I have with other jobs since I finished this book. What do I do with myself? Over the past few years I’ve pretty much worked at a fevered pace nonstop. I take breaks here and there, but my life has been a continual cycle of work. Sure, I could work on my next book, which isn’t a bad idea and something that I’ll probably get going on soon, but I want to take one day to just sit back and relax, but the problem there is I’ve kind of forgotten how to do that.
Crazy, right?
I guess I’ll just pace around or something.