What is it about finishing a writing project that’s so charged with emotion? There are lots of wise words, not so wise words and downright stupid psycho-babble written about fear of finishing.
(And that image reminds me of one of the best jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe this year: “My name’s Fin. Which means it’s very hard for me to end emails without sounding pretentious.”)
FEAR of finishing? FEAR?
I tell you what my main emotion is upon finishing a substantial piece…
HUGE RELIEF
Almost immediately followed by EVEN HUGER
There are a few other downsides to finishing a project, which I freely admit.
Here’s a quote from another writer called Daniel Swenson. (Maybe a comma would help that sentence?) Another writer, called Daniel Swenson.
“Finishing closes a door. It makes a commitment. It says “okay, that’s the best I can do” — whereas shoving an unfinished piece of writing in a drawer says “well, maybe I can do better later.” And that’s perfectly valid, assuming later ever comes.
But an unfinished work can take on its own sort of romance, if we let it. A mediocre book is just a mediocre book, but an unfinished, unwritten work of unalloyed genius, well, that’s a joy forever, isn’t it? But if you’re serious about being a writer, I suspect you don’t want your body of work to consist entirely of imaginary books.”
Yes, finishing a novel, a screenplay or a theatre piece means that, unless you shove it into a drawer, virtual or otherwise, there are CONSEQUENCES…
1) You open yourself up to being evaluated – which could mean rejection and criticism. (Why do I always assume it WON’T mean praise and acclaim?)
2) You have to embark on the often soul-destroying task of getting the work out there which, to me, is far more difficult than actually writing the thing in the first place.
3) You’re now in a position to start something else when you’re probably feeling a bit like this:
I often turn to Neil Gaiman. I don’t think he noticed yet.
“Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished.”
So here’s to glorious failures.
And to finishing stuff.
And to starting new stuff so you can go through it all again.
Of Night and Light