How a Book Is Born, Part 14

If you’ve been a writer for any length of time, you’ve experienced the “this is total crap” moment. You’ve also experienced the existential despair of “I’m never going to finish this!”

These feelings don’t magically go away when you’re published or under a deadline.

In fact, you can pretty much count on battling “this is a piece of crap” and “I’ll never finish it” at least once per book for the rest of your life, so you may as well accept that now.

So, about fifteen thousand words into Catch a Falling Star, I woke up in the morning and I thought, “This is ridiculous! Whatever made me think I could do this? I’m just going to fail spectacularly, and in public, too, so that’ll be extra fun.”

In a deep gray funk I took a shower and got dressed and trudged over to the laptop, which I hated with the passion I normally reserve for men I’ve stopped sleeping with, and I got to work anyway.

1 comment

  1. Perseverance, dear friend! I’ve never seen one line of crap come out of your writing efforts. Keep going… You’re just trudging through the temporary swamp of fatigue but you are strong and able. As one of the Ghost Busters said, “we have the tools and we have the talent!” Now go kick some literary butt!

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