Monday, October 25, 2010

The End

There is a book on my shelf I can throw away now. I bought it in 1999. I won't tell you its title or author, but you know what kind of book it is. It's the kind you read, start to throw across the room, and then say, "I can't believe this crap got published. I can write better than this." And then you think, "So why don't I?"

I've written for the stage, with several plays performed in Chicago in the early 90s. I have written several screenplays (a few of which were optioned by Hollywood production companies though none were ever produced). I had a standing invitation to pitch Star Trek: Voyager in the late 90s due to the quality of my Deep Space Nine spec scripts. I've written a nonfiction book (The Making of Star Trek: First Contact), and I've published well over 500 articles in magazines as diverse as The Believer, Publishers Weekly, free inquiry, Dreamwatch, and Babylon 5 Magazine, as well as various nonfiction anthologies. I've got a half dozen published short stories in various magazines and anthologies. I made a living off just my writing for five years in Los Angeles.

But I have never written a novel.

And mindful of how much easier it is to criticize than to do yourself, I've kept this godawful book on my shelf for 11 years, because while its mediocrity offended me greatly, and shelf space is at a premium, once I allowed it to set the challenge, I didn't feel like I could ethically throw it out until I'd responded.

And last night I wrote "The End" on a 96,000 word young adult urban fantasy.

I started it last year on November 1st (thank you NaNoWriMo), and I finished the first 50,000 words at 2am Friday night in my hotel room during an Editor Guest of Honor stint at Orycon 31. Then I set it aside for a few months. Then, sometime in the spring, I picked it back up. At first I started working on select weekends, taking a Saturday to sit in a coffeeshop and type. But there was too much downtime in between writing sessions. I found I was spending more time rereading what had come before than writing new material. Enter my incredible wife, who told me I should write after the kids were in bed, every weekday, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday), for two hours plus a night. And then made me do it.

I can't tell you the times she walked past me where I sat at the bar in the den, glanced over my shoulder to see me surfing the web or answering email, and said, "Stop that. You are supposed to be writing." Or how many nights I tried to beg off working to watch television or turn in early. I don't think there is anyway this book would exist at all if she hadn't chained me to the keyboard. (She is amazing.)

So last night around 10:15pm I wrote the words "The End" on the longest piece of fiction I've ever produced.

There is still a lot of work to do. I'm going to take a few weeks off, then start in on the first rewrite. It needs to be tightened, elements I discovered at the end need to be foreshadowed at the start, and it needs to be trimmed by about 10,000 words. Then it's going out to test readers, and then it gets another rewrite. So it won't be "done done" for many moons. But I've reached the end of something that was started a year ago. And now I can finally throw that book on my shelf, the piece of garbage I've had taking up space since 1999, away.

Only thing is, I may not want to anymore. It's become too important to me.

13 comments:

C Scott Morris said...

Congratulations.
Very few people can say they have written a novel. And unlike many of us, you have a leg up in the publishing world, and should have no problem joining that even more prestigious club: published.
Finishing my novel was one of the proudest moments of my life; after, of course, my wedding day and the birth of my children.
Savor this feeling. You only get one first novel, just like you only get one first kiss or one first love.

Mad Hatter Review said...

Congratulations! This is a major achievement you should cherish. BTW those are some very nice looking bookshelves with a ladder no less!

Christian Berntsen said...

Congrats, Lou.

I'm glad you stuck with it. I crashed and burned at last year's NaNoWriMo, despite your prodding me on (I believe your words were "Don't let me beat you."). I did let you beat me, but I like you so I'm good with that ;D Can't wait to pick up your book off the shelf.

I'm going to give it another stab this year, I think my mantra will be "Don't let me beat me."

Anonymous said...

So, Lou, will you kill me if I say writing it is the easy part? -)

Gregory said...

Congradulations Lou. In attending author readings in the last coulpe of years I've heard how their now published work started as a nanowrimo novel I'm sad I deleted mine when I was depressed last year. I can not wait to read your work considering the novels you choose to publish at PYR.

J.M. Martin said...

I so want to know the name of that shite book on your shelf that motivated you so. Can I borrow it?

Mark Hodder said...

Good work, Lou! But don't let those "few weeks" get out of hand. Set a reminder in your diary now. I find that the "stay away until I can look at it afresh" time is necessary but isn't usually as long as I thought I needed. Two weeks is normally enough for me. Anything beyond that I have to guiltily label "procrastination."

justinistired said...

Congrats, Lou! I'm eager to read it.

Rene Sears said...

That's excellent. And you can never, never over rate the help of a supportive spouse. High fives to her for helping to push you through it.

Count me among those really looking forward to reading it.

Lou Anders said...

Thanks everybody!
S Scott - when I sold my first professional anthology, I ran laps around the house while yelling at the top of my lungs. 9 anthologies in, not so much yelling anymore, but I imagine selling a first novel might reproduce that effect.

Christian - don't let you beat you!

Karen - it's all hard from what I can tell!

GL - oh god, pressure!

Mark - I'm going to check into a hotel for a weekend, so they'll be a definite date as well as the pressure to make it count.

Everybody else - many thanks!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! You star! Must ask you sometime about the play writing --that's an area I'd love to get into but never had the confidence.

Mark Chadbourn said...

Excellent work, Lou. That is a *major* achievement.

jollyspaniard said...

Congratulations Lou, I imagine that's a heck of a feeling. Well done.