Agonies of a Young Author

I found this delightful summary on Ilona Andrews' blog, and thought I'd re-post it for the general enjoyment. Also, because I need to spend my time doing other things, like homework. (*sigh*)

Anyways.

This is how the book idea works (only for me, take out a couple of zeros, or substitute "words" for "seconds")

The Progress of a Book:
10,000 words – New idea! Shiny, shiny, shiny!

15,000 words – So what exactly happens next?

20,000 words – Maybe this idea isn’t as good as I thought.

25,000 words – This idea sucks.

30,000 words – Oh God. I hate it, I’m stuck, I shouldn’t have written this in the first place. Stuck, stuck, stuck.

35,000 words – Maybe this wasn’t so bad.

40,000 words – I could work with that.

45,000 words – It’s lagging. I know it’s lagging. I need to definitely fix the first chapter.

50,000 words – Ugh

55,000 words – Can I just quit now?

60,000 words – God, I hate this stupid story. It’s pure crap. It’s the worst thing that I’ve ever written. Why won’t it just die and rot in the gutter in hell?

65,000 words – Have to finish, just write and don’t think about how much it sucks…

70,000 words – Just get it to finale, just get it to finale, I can do this.

75,000 words – Actually, you know it’s not too awful bad…

80,000 words – It won’t fit. There is no way I can pack this conclusion into 15 K.

85,000 words– So help me God.

90,000 words – Die, book, die!

95,000 words – I am done, I’m done, oh saints, I am done.

2 weeks later: New idea! Shiny, shiny, shiny….

Argh, that's so how I feel right now! I have a great idea floating in my head, and I'll think about it for 10 days or some, and I discard it because I've convinced myself it's all crap, without ever writing a word. I really regret that, and I'm trying to stop this awful habit of mine. Trying to write done everything, to just get it down.

So that during summer when I have lots of time to revisit shiny things, I can.