Thirteen weeks after the first day of the second new year

After a series of practical posts, Author has decided to allow herself one that is perhaps less so. Still, such posts do have a place in this blog, too, since they speak about phases that writers—and others who create—go through, phases that could have a substantial effect on writers, on their work, on those practical tasks they are required to complete as part of their carefully-laid practical plans toward the attainment of their very practical goals.
Regardless of the posts that find their way into this blog now and then, ultimately it is about writing, it speaks mostly to writers (and to you, readers and creators of all kinds), and that’s what Author is after all, a writer. A writer who is working on a book. And right now that book, Author’s third and the second in the Oracle series, Author is seeing the end of her work on it, and an end, and the inevitable new beginning already visible beyond it, tend to bring with them a period of turmoil, or mixed feelings. So yes, Author is going to write about it.

When Author reaches the end of her work on a book, work meaning not only the writing but also the preparations toward publication, there is, invariably, a lot that goes on in her mind. For one, reaching this point in her work means that the gray cells in her mind are gradually being freed to think about the next story, what will eventually become the next book to be published. If until now Author’s mind was tangled up in creating the best story that she could for this book and then tangled up some more (well, a whole lot more) with the endless details and tasks that needed to be completed to prepare it for publication, as these details are checked and the tasks are completed, and with the story itself whole in a way that Author is satisfied with it, Author’s mind can begin to move on, and she is already thinking about the next story. Of course, what she is doing now is letting it sit in the back of her mind, without putting any active mental resources (or time) into it. She just lets it be, lets more and more of her gray cell join their peers in moving their attention to it, even while she is still careful to maintain the center of her attention on the book she is finishing, right up until the moment it’s out of her hands so that there is no longer anything she can do in it, until it’s time to let it go.

Of course, letting go doesn’t get any easier. Once again Author is approaching a point where she knows she will soon have to let go of a story she has written, put it out there for others to see. And once again doing that is difficult. As Author has told you in her post nine weeks after the second day of this blog’s first year, “To let go or not to let go”, letting go is tough for her, and that seam between two books, the transition she needs to make, is certainly not an easy one. It does feel different this time, though. Author feels more experienced in a way, she knows exactly what she needs to do in order to end her work on this book and what she needs in order to begin working on the next one, and, as she has already told you, she has already prepared for that. But the letting go part doesn’t feel any easier this time around.

Author has read something interesting this week, something that Steven Spielberg has apparently said: that after he finishes a project he has a low period, that he can’t celebrate, that he needs time to recover. He was talking about shooting films and his reasoning was accordingly, but Author was glad to read what he said, glad that a huge talent like him said it. No, it’s not easy to finish a project, a book included. Letting go of a book means you start to wonder about what its life will be like out there in the world. How it will be accepted, how it will fare compared with your previous one. How your readers will view it. As all creators do, writers take their work personally. As a writer, you put yourself into every book, so of course you’ll feel something when it’s time to publish. And Author is learning that it’s okay for it to be this way. The range of emotions—the apprehension, worry and wondering that sets in when you realize that you book will soon be published, be available for your readers’ scrutiny. The stage fright, if you want. The sadness, because you need to let it go. The unfulfilled need to be able to breathe in, to remember that it’s okay to feel some excitement at its release. The hope that one day you might be able to feel more excitement than fear, and that the day may come that you will actually manage to celebrate the launch of one of your books.
Which brings Author to this week’s tip: the first paragraph of this post speaks of the place of the emotional within what needs to be your very practical path. Just remember this: the practical is important, but so is the emotional, the imagination-filled, the living in what’s beyond the real. It is they that take you into your story, they that create what you will end up publishing. You need to be able to care about your story, about its characters, about its fate and theirs. You need to be able to feel all the emotions you put in your writing for you to be able to convey these same emotions to your readers. For them to be able to lose themselves in your story, you must, too. So when you’re having a hard time dealing with the less fun sides of the range of emotions that accompany the release of a new book, or if anyone wonders about your emotional reactions at any time or place along the way, remember that these are part of who you are as a writer. A good one.

Normally Author would leave it at that, but Sister is bound to say that she would like this post to have a more practical edge to it. So Author will add another note, in that practical tone: this time of emotional turmoil before the publication of a book is one of the reasons Author keeps (very practically) reminding you to do the work, to do everything that’s needed for every book you write without skipping or skimming over any of the required steps, both content- and formatting-related. Because when the time comes for you to let go of a book, you need to know that you did your best. For the book, and for its readers.

www.authorandsister.net