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June 14, 2010

the four big moments of writing a book

5 Comments

[“Suc­cess­ful”, which I sent out in the news­let­ter a few weeks ago. You can buy the print here etc.]

This wee­kend I sent the final, edi­ted draft of “Evil Plans” off to my publisher. It  comes out in April.

A few hours later, a cou­ple of peo­ple were asking me, “Why aren’t you cele­bra­ting? I’d be hit­ting the bars right now…”

Heh. Finishing the book is really not that big a deal. All it marks is the end of a mas­sive, fairly tedious, weeks-long edi­ting and “polishing” ses­sion, LONG AFTER you’re done with the meaty, crea­tive, fun part.

To me, there are four really big moments in get­ting a book out. Finishing the book isn’t one of them:

1. Coming up with an idea for the book. That’s big. A big EUREKA moment that cuts through all the clut­ter like a sharp blade. The big ini­tial flash of ins­pi­ra­tion that gets the ball rolling. That’s all very exci­ting, but you never know how long you can keep the momen­tum going. It all might die out after a cou­ple of days, it might last until you get the thing published and it hits The New York Times Bes­tse­ller list. You never know.

2. Lan­ding the publishing deal. That’s what every aspi­ring wri­ter dreams of. It’s a HUGE moment, espe­cially the first time, though the eupho­ria doesn’t last long. Once you’ve sig­ned the con­tract and cashed the advance check, within nano­se­conds all that exci­te­ment is sud­denly repla­ced with the heavy weight of “Damn, now I have write the bloody thing.” And the bet­ter job you’ve done con­vin­cing the publisher what a rocks­tar you are, the hea­vier the weight is.

3. Relea­sing the book. Seeing it hit the bookshel­ves. All those months and months of work, put to the test. That’s quite thri­lling, espe­cially the first time, though if your book bombs (and if it bombs, it bombs quickly), that can be devastating.

But the big­gest moment for me, hap­pens about half­way bet­ween Num­bers 2 and 3:

4. The moment you rea­lize that your book isn’t going to be shit, after all. That moment when you rea­lize that, “Hey, this is actually going to work, after all”. That moment when you rea­lize that the publisher didn’t waste his money giving you an advance, after all. That moment when you first rea­lize that all the work you’ve done up to that point, wasn’t in vain. The moment you rea­lize that all the peo­ple who had put their faith in you in get­ting this book of the ground, also didn’t do it in vain.

That’s the best time to hit the bars, if you ask me.

And don’t worry, I did…

Tags: Evil Plans, Hugh MacLeod, Hugh's books

5 Responses to “the four big moments of writing a book”

1. Jessica Meats says:

   June 14, 2010 at 9:20 AM

   You should pro­bably be clear that your steps are for publishing a non-fiction book. It’s a little dif­fe­rent for fic­tion wri­ters (par­ti­cu­larly if you’re a con­pul­sive wri­ter for whom step 1 occurs a dozen times a week).

   1. Get an idea for a book.

   2. Rea­lise that your plot isn’t going to dead-end half way through and that you still like the idea enough to actually get to the end.

   3. Get­ting a let­ter that doesn’t say, “Dear [insert name here] you sub­mis­sion doesn’t quite meet our needs at this time.”

   4. Seeing your book on the book shelves.

   That’s the point I star­ted partying.

   Reply
2. Rabbi Rami says:

   June 14, 2010 at 9:24 AM

   I loved this, Hugh. I am wor­king on the final (?) edits of my 20th book, and your insights still ring true. I am eager to read Evil Plans. I con­ti­nually refer back to “Ignore Every­body” which I keep right next to my desk, and recom­mend it to peo­ple who have not yet lear­ned to ignore me.

   Sha­lom,
   Rami

   Reply
3. Sarah Page says:

   June 14, 2010 at 10:38 AM

   Hugh,
   I pic­ked up your book yes­ter­day and read the whole thing in one sit­ting. Bri­lliant. and Very ins­pi­ring.
   Thank you.

   Reply
4. Erica Douglass says:

   June 15, 2010 at 1:23 AM

   Okay Hugh, I am going to write a book!

   I got the idea. I’m ready to imple­ment. A bit sca­red, but that comes with the territory.

   I can’t wait to see how it comes out. I can only hope it’s as ama­zing as yours!

   Reply
5. cinderkeys says:

   June 15, 2010 at 2:45 AM

   I’ve never writ­ten a whole book. If I did, though, I’d add a step:

   5. Polish and edit down.

   You may think it’s the boring part, but I like it far more than the part where I’m wri­ting from scratch. So much easier.

   Reply