I
know I lead a small and uneventful life. Maybe that’s why completing a novel
and handing it in feels like such a heroic accomplishment. Not as much
different from having a baby as it ought to be.
It’s
a most peculiar time. The months of struggling against incessant distraction
and interruption, to sustain the imaginative authenticity of an invented world,
takes every ounce of strength. Sometimes I am badly behaved, during that
process.
And
then it’s done, and sent in, and one tries to live with equanimity with the
world’s resounding ‘So what?’
Much
like the hiatus after a death, the days are oddly empty; one’s identity rolls
up, completed. A line is now drawn beneath who and what I was last week,
yesterday. What now?
I
believe sometimes people imagine that when a work is complete there must be
celebration, affirmation, excitement. That it’s a jubilant time. But the
reality is, that one is spent. And the ensuing silence feels very, very long.
Yet it is in the long silences that the whispers begin & a new world grows & the whole thing begins again ~ trying to capture in words what the mind's eye sees. Be blessed.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that! The sowing of seed.
ReplyDelete:0)
xx
Well, as I have always said...after the birth of a child, the mother needs two full weeks of rest in order to recover well. I know that feeling a bit, Pen.
ReplyDeleteI hope that, in your moments of emptiness, you'll hold a sense of the tremendous joy your imagined world has brought to folks like me.
Love and peace to you, sweet sister.
:0)
ReplyDeletexx
Congratulations on your trilogy, I just read a review and came over to see your blog.
ReplyDeleteI am delighted to hear you have successfully completed the latest book, and can imagine how strange it must feel to be in that transition period between leaving one "world" and being consumed by the urge to write once more....
ReplyDeleteI have only ever done NaNoWriMo and found that at the end of that month, after writing 50,000 words, that I would be pacing the house for several days, quite lost and not knowing what to do without *having* to write, yet being too exhausted to write any more.
Thank you, Terra. xx :0)
ReplyDeleteWow, Elizabeth - 50,000 words in a month is going some!!
Each time I did it (for five consecutive years!), I thought it would be impossible, but I had a strict routine of 1800 words per day and found that manageable.
ReplyDeleteSome days, the story would flow and I would write for hours, but I found that I could generally produce my 1800 words in an hour but then have to spend about three more hours correcting typos (my typing is awful, LOL!) and editing :-)
Dearest Pen like you, after I complete something I feel no need to celebrate as the job is done.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you have reached your goal. I imagine that at times being an author is lonely but there must be other times when the story of character takes over and you are racing to get the story now.
Enjoy the quiet and wait for the next beginning. God bless.
:0) xx
ReplyDeleteDear Pen, Congratulations...I cannot imagine having completed an essay let alone a number of books! You look stunning with your new hairstyle! I must say it is very becoming to you.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine what it is like to finish a novel... but I can say, "Great hair!" :)
ReplyDelete:0) Thank you, friends! xx
ReplyDeleteStasi Eldredge in "Captivating, unveiling the mystery of a woman's soul" writes:-
ReplyDelete"The scariest thing for woman is to offer our beauty into situations where we don't know if it will make any difference. Or worse, that we will be rejected. For our Question is, 'Am I lovely?' And to be rejected is to hear a resounding 'No.' A woman doesn't want to offer her beauty unless she is guaranteed that it will be well received. But life offers no such guarantees. We, too, must take risks."
I raise my hat to you, Pen
And... Yes, you are lovely! x
:0) xx
ReplyDeleteOh well done Pen, you have accomplishd a Good Thing. Your sense of the world's "so what" must link to your inner sense of "what now?" I remember a similar feeling when I completed my OU degree, another kind of self motivated writing at home, which brings an intesity of focus - then there's a sort of vacuum that one isn't sure how to fill. Perhaps the best thing to do is just to be with the silence and see what comes up next - wait and rest, recover your daily equilibrium and be gentle with yourself while you do xxx
ReplyDeleteI really like your hair! Looks good! That's great news about your book!
ReplyDelete:0)
ReplyDeleteHello, friends!
Waving!
xx
I can't even begin to imagine, Pen. Great news on your MS! Today I completed a year-long copyediting certificate course by uploading a long complicated edited document that drove me bonkers. I didn't have to write the words, only edit them, and it feels at once accomplished and deflated. I got a deal to edit a cookbook but that won't start for a couple of weeks. Time to breathe. . . .
ReplyDelete:0) xx
ReplyDeleteGreat news about the birthing of another book!! You are now in the post production phase so plenty of rest, wholesome food and cups of tea are the order of the day; and like any newly delivered mum you have the funky cheer me up yet practical haircut too!! Looking good Pen!!
ReplyDeleteSan xx
Hello, friend! Waving! xx
ReplyDeleteI only know you, dear woman, by your writing--specifically, the Hawk and Dove books. These books have had a profound influence on my husband and me. He is a pastor of nearly 30 years of the same congregation and much of what you write resonates deeply with what we have tasted as we live in the on-going process of brokenness, repentance, and forgiveness with each other.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I want you to know that this tangled woman of faith in a little town in Indiana, USA is praying for you today.
I wish I could share more articulately what it is that I am praying, but it just comes as tears. So, from a distance I weep over you this day.
I believe by faith that in preserving the emptiness of our souls for his good purposes to flow through is our greatest work and quiet joy (thoughts provoked by my never-ending reading of "The impact of God" by Ian Matthew). Well done, dear sister.
His abundant grace and peace to you,
Karla
What a lovely message. Wildly waving to you in Indiana from Hastings on England's southern coast this sunshiny day. Thank you for your prayers! A big help indeed. I started a new novel - what I hope will be Vol 9 in the Hawk & Dove series, tho no contract as yet - I began well, then got overwhelmed by busyness of life all around, and ground to a halt. Today - with grit and determination! - I began again, and progressed well. Again and again I find this - that people praying for me makes all the difference in the world. xx Thank you.
ReplyDelete