WHAT I LEARNED FINISHING
MY LATEST BOOK
By Steven Ramirez
So where have I been the past few months? Off-world? In a way,
yes. I’ve been holed up in my basement finishing the sequel to
my zombie novel,Tell Me When I’m Dead. And let me tell you,
there is no better feeling than typing that final word and calling it
done. Much better than the funk I found myself in last
November after NaNoWriMo when I only managed to bang out
25,000 words. Whew! So yesterday I sent a draft to my beta
readers—whoo-hoo! After one more revision, I will send the
book to my editor. By the time the cover, the editing and the
formatting are complete, the book will be published in late
summer—just like the last one. Cannot wait, my friends. I think
I’ll celebrate by tearing into that Milky Way I’ve been saving.
So here’s the thing. Not only did I finish but I learned some
lessons along the way. And I wanted to share those with you.
Take them or leave them. I hope they help other writers out
there.
Lesson 1:
The Book Doesn’t Write
Itself
Believe me, I’ve tested that theory. I have gone days without
writing. When I get back to my computer, I am still at the same
spot. No Microsoft Word fairy is clickety-clacking away while I
watch old ‘Fringe’ episodes. This lesson is obvious to most
people, but it wasn’t to me. Often, I think I fool myself. “Plenty
of time,” I say. Well, guess what, there isn’t plenty of time. Time
is finite, and we need to write. Also, I find that when I haven’t
been writing for a while, I become irritable. Not good when you
have a family.
So \