『Euphoria』のカバーアート

Euphoria

Euphoria

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The Five-Minute High. Writers, you know that glorious feeling when you finally hit Send? Enjoy it. Because in about five minutes, you’re going to remember everything you should’ve changed.Euphoria: The Joy of Hitting SendThere’s a particular state of euphoria that happens when a writer finally hits Send.If you follow authors on social media—and hopefully you’re following me—you’ve seen us post about this magical, mythical thing called THE END.We celebrate it. We take pictures of it. We announce it to the world.And it is absolutely worth celebrating.But here’s the secret: the end isn’t really the end.It’s not the end until that book is published and out into the world.Still, one of the greatest moments in this entire process is when you attach that finished version of the document to your Trad editor’s email or if your Indie to your developmental or line editor’s email, and hit Send.There is nothing quite like it.Before the EuphoriaLet me back up for those who don’t know my process.I write the book, but I also work with a personal editor—someone who knows my gifts, knows my weaknesses, and, most importantly, knows how to push me.That editor is actually the first person who really sees the book.They see it as pages in the rawest, ugliest version. The version where someone has to say, “Girl, what were you thinking? I cannot get from A to Z with this.”Sometimes it’s not that bad.Sometimes it absolutely is.But that relationship matters. One of my editors has been with me for twenty-nine of my books. Think about that. They know my writing. They know what I’m capable of.That’s part of my process.Your process may look completely different.And that is exactly how it should be. Whatever it is, you work that process and finish.You Have to Get to the EndFor me, I have to hit the end.I need to write the book from beginning to end before I can step back and ask the most important question:What is this book really about?Now, if you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know I am a serial outliner, serial timeline maker, serial spreadsheet girly.I do in-depth character analysis. I chart tension arcs. I study character journeys. I build character profiles. I work through scenes. And we haven’t even started talking about the historical research. That is an entirely different bucket.I do all of that work.And yet something organic still happens during the writing.Some arcs I imagined at the beginning become sharper and more important. Others disappear. A theme that seemed small suddenly becomes the heartbeat of the entire book. A character reveals something I didn’t fully understand when I started.That’s why I need to reach the end.Only then can I look backward and ask: What journey did I actually put these characters through? What changed? What survived? What is this story saying?Sometimes the answer is a deeper version of what I thought the book was about.Sometimes it is something completely different.But I cannot fully know until I get to the end.Stop Polishing Those First Three ChaptersWhen I was a young writer, I would polish and polish and polish those first three chapters.Then I would polish them some more.Now?Let’s just call me a pro.I know better.There is more than a fifty-percent chance that the synopsis I write before I start a book is not going to be the synopsis of the book I actually finish.That original synopsis is an educated guess. It is based on facts, research, character work, structure, and everything else I know at that moment.But it is still a guess.By the time I hit the end, I finally know what book I wrote.And then one of my favorite parts of the process begins.Editing.That is when we spit-shine the prose.That is when I deepen the dialogue so the words say what I need them to say while the subtext whispers everything the characters aren’t willing to admit.That is when I paint the house.That is when I put clothes on the characters—and those clothes need to do more than look pretty.Jane Austen understood that. Clothing can tell us about accomplishment, aspiration, money, status, personality, and how someone wants the world to see them. Is this a person of high style? Or did they just roll out of bed?Every detail should carry meaning.But I don’t necessarily know what the meaning should be until I know the whole story.Sprint to the EndSo, to every writer out there struggling to finish the book, my advice is simple:Finish the book.Work in sprints.Write out of order.Write the scenes in your head that are so vivid you can practically see the characters standing in front of you.Get words onto the page.You can stitch them together later.Don’t spend months polishing something when you don’t even know whether it belongs in the final book.Sprint toward the end.Dirty write.Put down the thoughts. Put down the dialogue. Put down enough description to remind yourself what is happening.Literally, anything can be fixed when you have reached the ...
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