The Final Stretch

by Janis Patterson

There’s a certain feeling when you’re almost through writing a book. 

No, that’s wrong. There are lots of feelings when you’re almost through writing a book. Delight that the d*****d thing is almost done and you don’t have to wrestle with tying things up any more. Fear that there are things you haven’t tied up. Sadness that you’re on the verge of leaving a world and characters you created, ones that feel familiar. Happiness that you don’t have to work with these uncooperative and headstrong people in a suddenly tiresome setting again. Anticipation that after the polishing and editing are done you can move on to a new idea, a better idea, a bright shiny enticing idea that will be better and easier to write than this one.

Having always been enticed by bright, shiny things, I’m inevitably looking forward to the new project. That’s also the reason I never have less than four projects going at a time. The new shiny thing is always a better idea, and it will be easier to write, and sometimes it makes me feel better to get it started and even just a little bit written. It’s a new world and new people, all just waiting for me to explore, just as soon as I finish this horrible, uncooperative piece of junk I’ve been wrestling with.

It’s very easy to forget that I felt the exact same way about this book when winding up the one before it.

From talking to other writers I gather that most of them feel the same way close to the end of each book. I cannot comprehend the thought processes of those who write series – especially long-running series – when faced with yet another story in the same world utilizing a lot of the same characters. I would die of boredom. However – it seems I am in the minority, as series are very popular now both with readers and writers. It escapes me how people could be so in love with a set of characters in the same general setting that they demand story after story about the original hero’s brothers and cousins and such. Not that there’s anything wrong with that kind of series, though it boggles the mind how one set of characters can believably stumble over body after body. I think it’s called the Jessica Fletcher syndrome. After someone discovers their fourth or fifth body, I would do my best to keep me and my loved ones far away from that murder-magnet. However, if people like that sort of thing – and they obviously do – then I say joy go with them.

Because I am basically a weakling – and because I need to perk up my sales – I have sort of changed direction and am considering writing a series. This will be a different sort of series, though – there will be one central character, but with a different setting and a different set of people in every book. Some of the characters from other books will appear, usually very briefly or only in phone calls or that sort of thing, just to have some sense of continuity and my character’s world. Each book will take place in a different part of the globe and will have its own feel. It’s a very different and exciting concept, and I am gleefully looking forward to working on it.

As soon as I finish this complicated, uncooperative tangle I’m working on now, that is.

Curing Writer's Block

I’m fortunate to have started my writing career as a news reporter, so writer’s block was never an option. I sat at my manual typewriter and pounded out articles in a very noisy press room with one eye on the television set—at one of my first jobs—to make sure that there were no breaking news stories on any of my beats.

I don’t recommend the experience as a way to prevent writer’s block, but persistence (determination) is the best way to counteract the old writing bugaboo. When I'm writing fiction, I find that reading the chapter I wrote the day before is a good way to carry the plot forward as well as making any changes that my subconscious comes up with overnight. Like most novelists, I live with my characters 24/7 and they sometimes talk to me in my sleep.

If editing a previous chapter doesn’t break the proverbial log jam, get something down, even if you have to completely rewrite it the following day (or next writing session). It’s important that you write something every day, even if it’s only a scribbled note on a napkin or notepad that you carry with you at all times. That, in itself, can give you the confidence to write something worthwhile. It also helps to erase the fear that you’re permanently blocked.

Another good way to prevent writer's block is to work on several projects simultaneously. I’m currently working on several and when I tire of one, I go to another.

Blogging is also a great way to keep the writing juices flowing. Writing for one or more blogs not only builds your confidence, it acquaints you with potential readers and gives you valuable feedback. I realize that those who hold down full-time jobs have little time for writing, let alone blogging, and more than one writer has been fired for writing during working hours. But lunch time and breaks are a good time to make notes about your weekly blog, and giving up some TV watching will also help to solve the problem.

Believe in your ability to create. I came across some old writers’ magazines while packing for a  move. In one of them Lawrence Block had this to say on the subject of talent: “A feel for language, an intuitive understanding of how to arrange words in their best order, a sense of what is and is not dramatically effective—all of the elements that make up what we call talent are enormously important. But a great many writers with a generous supply of genuine talent never get any place in this business, while other writers who haven’t been so abundantly supplied with talent become astonishingly successful. So talent helps, but its presence is no guarantee that it’s absence [will bar you from success].”

Persistence is the most important characteristic in a successful writer’s makeup. If you’re not willing to hang in there for the long haul, don’t even attempt to begin the journey.