Finish the Book!

For close to 20 years, anytime I've been asked to provide advice to aspiring writers, one of my bits of wisdom has been "Finish the book." So many newbie authors get wrapped up in perfecting the first chapter. Or the first three chapters. They tweak and rewrite and fiddle and fix ... and never get beyond those opening pages. Then they get a newer, better idea and start a new project, where they work to perfect those opening pages yet again. 

Wash, rinse, repeat. 

Which is why I strongly advise powering on and finishing the book. Honestly, those perfected first chapters will very likely end up needing drastic revisions once you get the entire story down. So, don't worry about perfection. Write the shitty first draft. Don't edit until you have a completed manuscript to work from.

This has been my advice. 

And now I'm defying it.

I'm working on a proposal for a new book that's been inside my brain for the better part of a year. In the last few months, I've started putting words on the page. I currently have 109 pages, which is quite a lot for a proposal. But I was in First Draft Mode. I know what the next few scenes are and am champing at the proverbial bit to let them play out.

Except, I've had to stop myself. DON'T finish the book. Not yet. Instead, I need to go back and perfect those opening chapters. Tweak, rewrite, fiddle, and fix. AND write a full synopsis.

Cue the hysterical screaming.

"I love writing synopses," said no author ever.

I confess, I've been procrastinating, tackling other tasks and chores. My brain is on page 110. I've written those thoughts, ideas, and snippets of dialogue in my outline notes. But I really really really want to keep drafting the book. 

Finish the book! 

This morning, I finally put aside my procrastination to-do list, opened a new document, and started creating a synopsis. The Cliff Notes version of this book. I must stick with it for one simple reason.

The only way I'm going to get to write the rest of this book is to finish the proposal, send it to my agent, fix it according to her suggestions, and let her sell the thing to a publisher. It's not my favorite part of the writer's life. But it's what I need to do.