The Most Dangerous Moment

For an author, there is no more dangerous moment.

This past week, I typed the words "THE END" on my spec work-in-progress, which my superlative agent is reading even as we speak (Right, Josh???). And that sense of accomplishment, that feeling of having conquered the demons after weeks/months of work, hides an impulse so perilous it's a little scary to even blog about it here.

Oh, you know what I'm talking about; don't be coy. If you've ever written so much as a really good email that you'd been thinking about a while, you know exactly what I mean. You finish that creation, no matter what it is, and your first thought is, "I've gotta send this thing out NOW!!!"

Don't.

I know, you've been self-editing since you started. You begin every writing day looking at the words you wrote the day before, and closing those loopholes, changing those awkward word choices, strengthening those new characters, dropping those little red herrings that will drive your readers mad with anticipation once they get a look at this. You're sure--this is the perfect form of your story. You've cobbled it together lovingly and carefully, never coasting and never settling for the second-best choice. You've done exactly what you set out to do. So it's ready to get sent to that agent, that editor, that publisher. This is what's going to make your mark on the world.

Sit down. Take a deep breath. And then walk away from the keyboard, my friend. You're not thinking rationally right now. You're working on a rush of serotonin and adrenalin. You're high on your own writing. And when you come down from this ego-driven state, you'll realize there's still plenty of work to be done.

Editing--it's not just for editors anymore.

Having taken the past three days going over my "perfect" manuscript and having thanked unseen forces countless times for not allowing me to send THAT steaming pile of mediocrity to anyone who could make a real-world career decision about it, I am living proof that every writer MUST edit and re-write.

Writing, besides being a job (and some would argue, an adventure, but they're silly) is an emotional experience. For the writer. Hopefully, someday it will be one for the reader, too, but we haven't gotten that far yet. In order to make the story work, the writer has to be seriously involved in it emotionally. In order to write the scene, it's necessary to place yourself in that scene mentally. We traffic, after all, in imagination.

So when I write a scary scene, I have to believe in it enough--not really, like I think I'm there, but close--that I have the anxiety. When I'm writing a scene where the character is feeling determined, I have to experience ambition and drive. On the days I write love scenes, my wife tries to find out early and book a meeting at work that will last into the evening, so she can come home late and exhausted. (Too much information?)

This all leads up to the idea that once the work is done, there is real emotion on the page (screen). So when I type "THE END," I'm ready to send that puppy out and let it take on the world.

Thank goodness I have the sense not to do that.