x-posted in part from my regular journal, ’cause I think a bunch of the writers I know don’t subscribe to the
I’m on the downward end of this book. I wonder how other novelists I know feel when they finish writing a book. I seem to recall a lot of triumph when I finished my first one, and being pretty pleased when I finished my second, especially as I’d given myself a deadline and stuck to it. I was astonished and extremely satisfied when I finished ANGLES, because it’s got a complicated structure and it all wove together really, really well, and I finished the first draft of HEART OF STONE faster than I expected to have to, so I was pleased with getting it done.
But I think the predominant emotion I feel upon finishing a novel these days is relief. Not like I didn’t think I could do it, but rather more like…I’m glad it’s done, but not sufficiently happy to call it happy. Just relieved. Pleased, but not gleeful. Sometimes cheerful (I’m feeling pretty cheery right now, and I’m not even done yet!) but mostly just … satisfied. There: that’s done. That sort of thing.
FIREBIRD DECEPTION is my 8th solo novel and my 9th overall. (10th, if you count Banshee Cries, which is technically a novella. Does it count?) Possibly one becomes jaded to having finished the thing after you’ve done it half a dozen times or so.
I think right now the part I really *like* is going back and reading the manuscript several weeks later, after I’ve gotten agent/editorial comments, and seeing where it can be improved and seeing that overall, hey, you know, that turned out to be a pretty good story after all! I’m almost always lots happier with having finished it at that point, which no doubt is due to the distance.
So how ’bout others of you? What kinds of emotional responses do you have to finishing a novel? (I ask about novels because that’s what I write. Other writers can certainly chime in.)
Having never been able to finish a chapter, much less a novel, I don’t think I’m of much help. :) But, I am interested in seeing how people respond to your question.
I admire that you can finish novels!
I’ve only finished the one so far in recent history, so I’ve got a very limited sample set of reactions to talk about. Certainly mine could have been summarized as ‘giddy ecstasy’ and ‘HOT DAMN I FINISHED A NOVEL’!
From what I remember of finishing off the stuff I used to write in school, I had less of that and more of a general overall feeling of satisfaction.
I kind of expect to have the profound sense of satisfaction sort of reaction once I finish off Lament, just because it’s been much more of a challenge to me than Faerie Blood.
And I can totally buy that the euphoria kind of wears off after you do it for a while. The flame is still there, just burning more steadily now and at a lower pitch than the initial huge explosive rush. :)
You know. I never had euphoria. Relief, and a kind of baffled ‘huh, well, that’s done’. But not euphoria.
It’s far more happy-making for me to say ‘I’ve completed X novels!’
Probably because they all need to be fixed. :)
Having just finished a novel a couple weeks back, I can attest that the predominant emotion was relief. “Yay, it’s done and I met my deadline,” pretty much sums it up.
Talking to friends later I felt happy & proud of what I had done but these feelings are a pale shadow of the intense emotion when I finished my first book. By now this is my 11th full-length novel, so there’s no longer the sense of triumph that the early works had, when I wasn’t even sure if I could write a complete book.
I briefly resurrected the feeling of triumph when I switched from Regencies to writing my first fantasy. As a speculative project there was no external deadline, and because it was so different from what I had written before, I felt great when it was finished. But now, with my fourth fantasy novel just finished, I’ve proved to myself that I can do these well, and on deadline, so the initial thrill is gone.
There’s also the problem that I’m too close to the work to be able to judge it– it takes me a few months after finishing a book to be able to give it an honest assessment. Right now all I can see are the flaws. It’s like a white linen dining cloth– it doesn’t matter how beautiful it is, nor how intricate the lacework, all I’m seeing is the flecks of gravy where Uncle Al sat, and the faint shadow of a stain that I thought I’d scrubbed out earlier.
Months from now, as I go to read the book at a con, I’ll find myself saying “Hey, this is actually a damn good book.” But it’s going to take me a while to get there.
*laugh* Yeah, the “Huh, that’s done” sums it up pretty nicely, I think. :)
FIX! FIX! FIX! your novels! (to, you know. the tune of that, uh. song. the one. you know. o.O)
*eyes*
*bops around singing song*
I guess I’ll be the odd man out. I haven’t written (fictionally) more than overly long novellas. However, I spent a *LOT* of time doing technical writing for the lousy dot.com job I just quit. I wrote, revised, updated, and completed the manual and all ancillary documentation for three versions of the product I used to support.
The *first* time it was all said and done and I could just read/skim the whole monstrous thing, it was kind of a ‘tired giddy’ feeling. Sort of a ‘I can’t believe I ate the whole thing’ kind of feeling.
Subsequent versions of the manual (which really were just major revisions – not total rewrites) didn’t have the same feeling. Felt nice to have completed some more work, but it just didn’t have the ‘punch’ that initial project carried.
btw: I’ve picked up and am reading ‘Urban Shaman’ right now. So far, I’m really happy with it. However, there’s something that’s creeping me out about the experience. I’ve never actually *known* and *talked to* the authors that write the books I read. So, in every other case, the voice I hear ‘speaking’ the words I’m reading is mine. In *this* case, it’s YOURS!
I’ll be different here.
When I finish a novel, I feel bummed. Every time, I go through a mild sort of post-bookum depression. Sure, I feel accomplished that I wrote another novel (how many people out there manage to finish even one, much less more), but I’m sad that I can no longer experience the journey for the first time. This is the part where I need to step back from the book for a month or two because my brain starts to translate the sadness to dissatisfaction with the work. I convince myself it’s the worst thing ever written.
When I come back after a month or two, I love it again just as much as I did when I was writing it. The flaws are there, but they no longer seem impossible to fix. I get back to work on making it the best possible book I’m capable of, and in the end, I’m usually happy with how things turn out.
I’m currently working on my 7th, and I’m not looking forward to the depression when I finish the draft. However, at least I’ve been through it enough to times that I’m prepared for it. Step back, start work on something else, and know that after I come back to edit it, things will be all right.
Every single time I visit you guys and walk past your roses, I get “chop chop chop! chop chop chop! chop your roses! chop your roses!” O.O
..but I did feel relief when I finished the first draft of my dissertation, which is a book after all. :) It was the beginning of my troubles with it, but that moment felt pretty good when I could say I had a roughly finished product.
As I have begun to write my essays on life and travel in China, I am starting to feel relief at each essay that comes to form. I know I have a long way to go, but I enjoy the trip getting there so much that I don’t mind its length.
Now I wish i felt the same about getting this damn divorce rolling…
So, in every other case, the voice I hear ‘speaking’ the words I’m reading is mine. In *this* case, it’s YOURS!
*laugh*! I know exactly what you mean… I had the exact same experience reading US. ;)