If you are one of those fortunate writers who has written the words 'The End' on your manuscript this year, congratulations! Finishing is such an elating experience - the end of a long and sometimes lonely journey, but one which is invariably worthwhile. Writing those words on the final page is always, for me, a moment of quiet triumph and satisfaction; I can't think of a buzz quite like it.
If you're like many writers however, the idea of completing a writing project can seem like a very distant goal. At this time of year in particular, it's easy to look back at all the good resolutions that one made at the beginning of 2009 to make this the year that you completed your book, yet somehow, here we are in December and you discover that the novel is still half-baked and those elusive words 'The End' remain out of reach.
When I thought about my own experience of finishing - something I want to share in this post and in the coming days - one thing that struck me was how much the support of other writers has contributed to my ability to finish. It's for this reason, that I've launched 'The Completion Club' a new group, beginning in January 2010 that offers affordable year-round support and is designed to enable writers to reach completion in the year ahead and to submit to publishers. My aim is to offer a support structure that will make completion a reality for all members.
I'll write more about the Club in my newsletter this week, but today I want to begin a short blog-post series to share my experience of finishing by writing about what motivated me to finish each each of the five novels I have written. My aim over the coming days is to take each novel, one at a time and to reflect on the process of completion. So I'll begin with:
'The Age of the Fish' - Completion date: Spring 1992
This was my first novel which I began aged 25 (1990), an Atwood-esque sci-fi tale set in a ficticious world where a drug culture prevails and a single man, an innocent, dares to confront the system. The title came from the German novelist Odon Von Horvath's (pictured right) "Jugend Ohne Gott" about the Hitler Youth movement. Horvath predicted that one day the soul of man would become cold like the eyes of a fish: he called this time 'The Age of the Fish'.
My novel began as a short story, but a story so complex that it simply had to develop into a novel. I began writing it whilst employed as a radio producer, shortly after graduation, and it began as a quirky fantasy piece, though as it grew, I became passionate about the ideas and the characters. As soon as I knew that I was writing about drugs, I engaged in the process of reading other novels in a similar genre: I read Burrough's 'Junky', de Quincey's 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater', Eric Detzer's 'Monkey on my Back' for starters. It was fascination that drove this novel, both in my subject and in the process of writing. I entertained myself too, indulged myself doubtless. Who knows what I would make of it today - I must dig it out...
I was learning how to be a writer then, discovering how I might commit to the process. I was excited to watch the novel grow from 20 pages, to 50, to 100... The bigger the manuscript got, the more possible completion seemed. As a radio producer, I was often producing interviews with authors including Julian Barnes and Jane Smiley, which was the perfect job. I gleaned every little bit of information they could share. It was listening to them speak which made me realise that perhaps being a writer was a real possibility. All I had to do was keep putting one word in front of the next.
This was the novel that eventually got me a place on the MA in Creative Writing at UEA. (After the interview, I sobbed profusely in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral, convinced that Rose Tremain didn't think me up to it!)
I believe that what really motivated me to finish 'The Age of the Fish' was that I was still writing it when I began the UEA course. Yet over the first term, I learnt so much about the process of writing that I knew I could do more than this, I knew I could do better. I wanted to begin a new project. So what really motivated me to complete was the excitement of my new ideas, the desire to create a new work whilst on the course. I was determined that by Term Two I'd be on a second project, so I worked long hours to get this one done - and at that time I had the luxury of being a full-time writer (note, I say writer, not writing student - a key definition).
The manuscript is now the one 'under the bed' (a lot of first novels end up that way - it doesn't matter, it's part of the job). But 'The Age of the Fish' did get me my first literary agent and was part of the package that attracted my first publisher, Hamish Hamilton/Penguin. I'm grateful to it for that. And I'm grateful to my husband David who first said 'that's not a short story, that's a novel' and thus started me on the path. Also to my first boss Sarah Dickinson who trusted me, as a new graduate, to work with big-name authors. And to all the friends I met at UEA who encouraged me along the way. I learnt so much that year and will never forget the experience.
In my next post, I'll write about the completion of my second novel 'The Temple of Hymen' but in the meantime, if completion is something that matters to you, do check out The Completion Club. It offers year-round support to writers determined to complete their novels in 2010, for less than the cost of a couple of lattes a week. Those who enrol before my birthday on December 22nd will save up to £170 and also qualify for a free one hour coaching session. And those who enrol will also be feeling very smug this time next year, having just typed those elusive words 'The End' on the final page of their manuscript...
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