I feel like the stereotypical child in the backseat of the car, whining incessantly at the people in control. Of course, when I actually was much younger and we drove around a lot, I didn’t have the same sense of impatience displayed by others. Driving places is neat, and I was capable of entertaining myself. For instance, counting as high as I could. With a tenacious child enthused about a challenge, that will pass the time on a long trip.
But now I’m older, and my proverbial car ride is the endless sense of completing a novel. I’m impatient. I look at the days flying by, I wonder how I can still possibly be working on the same project. The Damning Moths approaches a full year since beginning, June 22nd. Minor interruptions are both embraced and repelled. Something new! Something distracting! Oh, heavens, something to lengthen the time it’s already taken me to get this far.
I’m inspired by those who have been releasing books for a number of years and have the practice down to an art. They write fast, edit fast, move on, release another, start again. I know it’s an experience thing; I’ll get to that point some day. I’m looking forward to it like no one’s business. But I can’t help those feelings of wanting to already be at that stage, to be so sure-footed in my work.
I don’t really second-guess myself too much. There are some instances where I’m a victim of my own negativity, of course, but I still persevere. It’s just the length of time. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Why aren’t we there yet?
On one hand, it seems like the last few chapters shouldn’t take me much longer. I’m nearly at the end. I can almost reach out and brush my fingertips against the finish line. But then there’s the flipside, where it’s taken me this long to reach the point I have. I wonder if life will continue to be so busy that I only get stolen moments to focus on my story.
Of course, it won’t end there! The cover is coming along nicely, the ISBNs are organised, and I have a ready stack of resources at hand for all the other little in-between bits which come with releasing a novel. So, yes, I’m eager to be done, but it will just take on a whole new form once the book is out in the world. I guess, in that regard, we’re never really “there yet”, it’s all just another phase of being an author.
~A
The Fane 
No one said you can’t be impatient, that you have to go through your novel as if you were a monk, doing everything in complete harmony and control. Where would the fun be in that? You have to experience the exhilaration of an awesome scene, the doubts of a long, perhaps drawn out chapter. It’s part of why we create.
Very, very true, Joe. Half of everything is the experience itself! But patience in my writing is something I constantly strive for, just to balance myself out. 🙂
~A
Oooh, an ISBN! That’s how you know your book matters.
You know it’s really real when there are ISBNs involved. 😉
~A
Oh, I SO know this feeling! I think it must be worse with the first book – or at least, I hope some of that anxiety and impatience wears off after I actually have something to show for myself, lol! I’m at about 2.5 years on my current novel (granted for the first year, I didn’t know it was going to be a novel). The time things take to finish just never seems to match what I think it should take, or what it takes for other people. And edits breed – they really do! They have little edit babies that you have to fix on top of the original revisions. It’s maddening!
And ack! I don’t have ISBNs yet! (How long do those take to purchase?) Thanks for reminding me! 😉
Exactly! Why can I make perfectly reasonable and valid estimations about everything EXCEPT the time it will take to complete a book? XD Oh my gosh, yes, the edit babies! They spring up everywhere! My only hope is, in time, I won’t have to make such drastic edits, and that will cut out most of the potential for edit babies.
ISBNs arrive in about a week! They are super easy to order, too, so don’t worry! 🙂
~A
That’s good to hear they arrive so quickly! Thanks! 🙂