Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Finishing A Book

After the final conflict is over, it's time for the closure. But where do you start? You're about to finish something you've spent months, maybe a year or maybe even years groveling over and pouring your heart and soul into. Do you really want to end it? If you're like me, you want it to be over and successful—but at the same time you're just about in tears.

With my first book, I stayed up two hours past by bedtime because I was on the final chapter. When I finished I was proud. I was about one hundred feet tall until morning. I got my parents up at one in the morning to tell them, "My book is done! Now to send to the publishers!" See last post. xD

Not quite that easy. I'm on my fifth rewrite of Flame Dancer. The fifth! And I love it each and every time I rewrite it. I've learned to look forward to rewriting it, because I get to relive the adventure with them.

But now I'm almost done with Flame Dancer: Final Mix (the offical version), the one that I won't edit until someone advises me to afterward (like a writer-friend, or an agent him/herself)... it's almost like a sense of losing a best friend. Part of me wants to forget some corrections in order to go back and fix them later, just to keep living the adventure with my characters. Maybe it's just me, but it's a very sad and happy experience for me to end a book.

I guess I could compare it to an athlete playing... football or something, and they run the ball the whole hundred yards. Your heart's pounding, your blood's pumping, and you're about to do the tap-dance you see football players do all the time on TV whenever they get a touchdown. You're on the verge of screaming to the world, "I am the king!!"

That's how it is for me. But at the same time my heart aches at the thought of ending it. Just thinking about the Flame Cycle makes me feel like I've been shot down. But I have a while yet—a long while, and I'm holding onto that thought.

Just another thing I thought I might get off my chest before I go to bed! [And figure out when I'm going to do my geometry homework tomorrow, since I spent the time to finish it writing this... (; ]

Listening to: Take Me Away - Taking Dawn
Reading: I Am Number Four - Pittacus Lore
Quote: "And so the hound weaves the final chapter in this tale of life..." - Dirge of Cerberus:Final Fantasy VII

NOTE: I don't proofread these before I post them. Sorry if any errors glare out at you like they do me—I don't know how to edit this thing yet. :P

3 comments:

  1. Hey Kendra, stopping by via Madeleine =) Oooh a writer! Too cool. I interviewed Gayle Forman and she said she went through 25 drafts of Where She Went, so I think you're on the right track, hehe, anyways, good luck with your project! I'll be sticking around :)

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  2. I'm impressed! I am having so much trouble getting through the second draft of LEMONS. I could swear there are only 12 hours in a day. It's ridiculous. I'm hoping that I'll be able to power through two chapters tomorrow (which is about as likely as my learning how to dance without tripping over my own feet - as in, hardly likely at all).

    I remember finishing THAT BOY IN THE SHED (my first book. It's horrid). I think I was surprised I had written it. Shocked.

    My experience finishing the first draft of LEMONS was different. I had *no* idea how it was going to end, and then, suddenly, I was there. Staring the daunting last 25 pages in the face. I called my cousin and talked *at* her for thirty minutes, sifting through my thoughts, and finally came up with a suitable conclusion to the book. Unfortunately, I'm currently debating whether or not to change the end. We'll see. I'm such a scatterbrained and distracted person that getting anything done on LEMONS is a miracle!

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  3. Looking at your posts on That Boy in the Shed; they weren't bad at all! Shush up you. X3

    Something that I've done for the past few years that's an ENORMOUS help to me is write an outline of the book before I write it. An extremely detailed one. Putting everything that happens in the chapter, little quotes I'd like t throw in, the characters I want to be there, the importance of it for later events, etc. I even put down the music I want to listen to while I write it. I put enough detail into it that it's like the first draft, really. I've found that I've gotten so used to it writing without an outline makes my writing terribly choppy, so maybe it's not the BEST thing. (: Whatever ending you come up with is going to be awesome, I'm sure.

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