I finished it.

I just wanted to share this with all of you…

I finished my book. I am now in the process of editing and writing an introduction for it but the main part; all of the ideas are down on paper. I printed it out at four this morning. Insomnia! BTW I don’t use any exclamation marks in it. If I get really courageous I may put a chapter in the fan fiction part of it. Be warned that it is not horror or flat out comedy. It is more of a drama/comedy/biography.

What I really wanted to know from all of you is about the title.

The Title Dun Ta Da Dun…

“A Partially True Autobiography of Someone Other Than Myself.”

It’s a long one to be sure…I like the title but I would like some opinion on it. It does fit well with the book.

Ta.

PS. Take your time in mulling it over. I won’t be able to check in to the board until tonight.

Thanks.

Huge! Finishing a book is huge! If it's your first, huger! Congrats FL.


Take a day. Breathe.


"Finishing a book is like taking your child out into the back yard and shooting it."
-- Truman Capote


I don't know what he meant by that, but it's my favorite finishing a book quote.

Thanks for the response.

I believe what Capote meant by, "Finishing a book is like taking your child out into the back yard and shooting it," is the time you spend on a child developing it, nurturing it and bringing it into being is like writing. I have spent a year writing this thing. I came home from work and worked on it. I spent weekends working on it. Vacations have been spent in front of my computer piecing this thing together. I took this thing from an embryo, to birth, through the turbulent teenage years, to an adult and then completion or death. I work with children and each year I take on new kids and develop them into being and then throw them out into the world of public schools. I experience death each time a child goes. It is not simply the separation but the act of tossing this child out into the world. I am ready to toss my book out into the world but I still want to care for it. I want to be there when, and if, someone else picks it up and wonders what the hell did he mean by that, or console it when someone throws it into a corner and says, ‘This is shit.’ A book is like a child. We don’t want to let it go but we know that we have to.

Ta.

You beat me, Ferrit. I'm about {--} this close to being able to say the same thing. Editing damn near complete.

I only have the last chapter to really dissect, and then I'm in the first book club, too.

Yay!

Congratulations.

So when are you starting the 2nd?

This book was way too personal and I want to break away from it. My next book is in the works already. When I get tired of writing I like to do what i call research, which is mostly looking around the web and playing music. I have a few ideas that i have been toying with in the science fiction, historical fiction, comedy genre. I like mashing things together like a thing my father used to call hobo stew. He would go to the refridgerator and take out all of the left overs that didn't have anyting green growing on it and put it into a pan. At a temperature of 400 for about twenty minutes dinner came out of the oven.

BTW...
I did not intend to finish it until September but I became inspired over the last two weeks and it finished itself. I dont like to think that i finished it because the characters did it.

Ta

Hey, congrats on the book!

My first novel (it was by reading Chris' work, and the few e-maills we shot back and forth, that helped inspire me to begin writing fiction after a long hiatus, during which I wrote a lot of angst-ridden poetry--much about NOT writing) is now about 85% complete. And no, it doesn't contain hideous sentences like I've just written.

It's amazing how writing something so immense as a novel steals your every waking moment. Certain responsibilities (read: bathing, shaving) get dashed out the window (until the family begins complaining). Now that I'm coming down the home stretch, I feel I have finally found a pace and sonic environment that works best.

Any way, congratulations on all your hard work. I hope it gets a grand reception, and I wish you all the best during the editing process!

-Scott

Congrats! It's a great feeling.

Have a glass of wine, apologize to all your long lost family and friends for your moodiness. Do your laundry.

Oh wait! That's my to do list.

Here's yours:

Pat yourself on the back. Do nothing but bask in the glow of completion for 24 hrs.
_________________
. . .once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.
(The Velveteen Rabbit)

Last edited by earthshoes on Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

Re: I finished it.

Heartiest congratulations!

What did Vonnegut say? Something like, "Anyone who writes a book is a colleague of mine."

Again, congratulations!



john palmer

The quote is...
And anyone who has finished a book, whether that thing has been published or not, whether the things is any good or not, is a colleague of ours.

It is from Like Shaking Hands With God (a conversation about writing.) Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer.

It is still available on Amazon. I read it not too long ago.

Congratulations

I don't know if you ever had the problem before you finished your book, but now you can no longer procrastinate over it Is it relieving at all to be done? I don't imagine shooting your child would be a relief (unless s/he whined enormously??), but finishing a book I would associate with some amount of relief.

PS I don't know if anyone said, but I like your title quite a lot.
_________________
White and feathery, yet crude and noisy, the chicken is the backbone of our farming community.

what a nice man

Ferrit Leggings wrote:

The quote is... And anyone who has finished a book, whether that thing has been published or not, whether the things is any good or not, is a colleague of ours. It is from Like Shaking Hands With God (a conversation about writing.) Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer. It is still available on Amazon. I read it not too long ago.

What a nice man! What a nice thing to say. God bless him! And Stephen King, and Ray Bradbury, and all the other writers who've taken the trouble to try to help us with our writing by writing books about writing -- not to mention our own Author Guy who set up this forum for us, and personally responds to our questions, etc. What a Guy!

It's almost overwhelming, isn't it?


Almost overwhelmed,

John Palmer

Congratulations on finishing your book. I'm writing one myself, just started really. I only have 4 chapters finished thus far and it has been hell. kudos to everyone trying to write one. blarg.
_________________
Help! Help! I'm being repressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system! Violence inherent in the system!

John Palmer,
It is odd saying God Bless him to Vonnegut, being a member of the American Humanist Association.

BTW>>>
I have finished my editing and am looking to send it out into the world.

Goudron,

thanks for the vote of confidence in the Title. I would like to say that I was in deep meditative thought while coming up with it but lets say I was in a small room reading the Bathroom Book. Though, some would say I was in deep meditative thought.

Hillary,

I read in another post that you chopped your book down to under 300 pages. Don't worry, mine is only 180 but I think it is good and I judge my writing on weather I would read it myself and I would read it.

Ta and thanks.

god bless him

Ferrit Leggings wrote:

John Palmer, It is odd saying God Bless him to Vonnegut, being a member of the American Humanist Association.

Sometimes nothing eelse will fquite do it. A bit of trivia -- I may mangle this a tad, but someone can call me on it if I do -- K.V. once addressed the Humanists after past president Assimov's death, opening up with, "Well...now Isaac's in Heaven," and got a big laugh.

Something like that...


john palmer