Friday, June 22, 2007

The Anxiety of Completion

I'm almost through with a revision and ready to send it to my agent. This makes me alternately want: to procrastinate and drag the process out...or to ship it off hastily with barely a proof-reading.

Anybody had that experience?

I'm managing to keep steadily working on it without following either rash course. In between bouts of writing, I plunge into a frenzy of gardening or crossword puzzles, both of which are somehow relieving. I'm open to other strategies, if anyone else is familiar with this state. I

I'm also excited about this project, which is a great feeling.

2 comments:

billie said...

Peggy, I think I'm discovering there's anxiety in just about every nook and cranny of writing a book and getting it out into the world.

I have no strategies except just go with the flow and find the other things in life that make you happy (like the gardening and the crosswords) so that you remind yourself the book thing is not the only thing.

After my Weymouth time I've read again in writing group and discovered that I have further to go... so, with some anxiety, I have hurled myself into the process of tearing into the first 25 pages, holding nothing sacred except the goal to tell this story and render Laurel, AJ, and Eve speechless with delight. :)

Funny how once you rip into something that first moment, the rest gets so much easier!

Sending good thoughts for your book as it wows your agent and publisher first, and all of us later on.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the good wishes, Billie. I was just reading a book yesterday (Unlock your Creative Genius) which said that the reason writers procrastinate about getting into their work is that they think, in spite of previous experience, that it's all as difficult as the first few minutes. Which it almost never is.