You start a story with a sentence and ten thousand words later you realize the characters had more to say and do than you expected. The next thing you know you're at twenty thousand words and a bulk of the really good stuff you've cooked up is still to come. And then three months (or six or eight or a year depending what your writing speed is) are gone and you've got a tight little sixty-five thousand word book. You didn't intend for it to go this way, but suddenly there's a novel and it's time to put up or shut up.

What are we talking about exactly? You've just finished a book, isn't it time to celebrate? Isn't it time to put your feet up and bask in the literary sunshine? Isn't it time to reflect on this wonderful journey?

Of course not.

You now have to begin the pain staking process of making sure the thing you've just put all this time into is worth it for someone else to pick up and give their time to. All you've managed to do is cut the tree trunk down to a significantly smaller log. Now it's time to whittle away until the only thing that's left is the sculpture you saw in your minds eye, down to the last detail.

And this is fair.

Really, it's how it should be. And it reinforces one of the main things I believe about the art of fiction (and writing in general). There are no lightning bolts (except for the ones there are. exception, rule, yadda yadda) that suddenly strike and leave us with the next 1984 or The Sound and the Fury. There are men and women that work day in and day out, scrutinizing every word to make sure their story and their characters are presented as clearly and honestly as possible. It's not the romantic vision of a notebook, a lake and pensive look. It's a blue collar job.

Finishing my first novel, A Bad Spot, was a big achievement for me. Unlike the examples I listed above it took two years, most of which was spent trying to convince myself it wasn't worth finishing. But, that's another post. What I learned, though, was that there was still much work to be done.

I look forward to this work. It's a big transition to move from the creative and take on the editorial process. Currently 6 out of the 20 chapters have had their edits applied and are on to the second draft. I'll keep the progress updated as I move along and start to share small excerpts. You can check back for blog posts on the process of A Bad Spot.