Finish Something
Agents and editors don't matter if you don't get the work done.
My first editor had a bottle of scotch in her lower left desk drawer. this was the best thing. Not the scotch, that burned my throat. But somehow having a fifth of it in her desk in that tiny newsroom, like the hardboiled editors on television, made the job seem even more real.
I was a newspaper reporter weeks out of journalism school, working in a small rural community, covering interesting people and I loved that job.
It was also one of the most demanding I ever had. I learned to work hard, write fast, and finish.
Most days I’d report and write five-ish stories, as well as business briefs, and legal announcements. On Tuesdays, I’d write stories in the morning that would be in the paper three hours later.
I didn’t have time to fret over every little word. Even if I wanted to. And, I made mistakes. Usually, the nerves shook me in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be asleep. But during the day I did the best I could in the time I had to finish the stories. I wrote like crazy.
I pumped out pieces about city council meetings, high school basketball teams, and profiles on the rhododendron club president and a heroic old aviator. I’d finish one piece and move right on to the next.
And I got better. Not because I wrote so dang much, but of course, that’s part of it, but because I had to finish. There was no time to obsess. I had to make it good and fast and get it done.
Finish something.
Finishing a piece every day shows us what we are capable of. Builds motivation. And gives us something to work with, to revise, to think about, to publish.
Yet too often, we start and then skip to thinking about agents and editors and advances and pitches and readers and the next book.
But that’s no good. Because that’s a fantasy about writing, not actually writing.
We have nothing until we do the work.
Finish the work.
And this, you know, is the hardest thing to do, and ultimately the thing that matters most.