How to finish birthing a book with quiet, dignity and grace

[blockquote source=”A. B. Yehoshua”]The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.[/blockquote]
 
What A. B. Yehoshua said is all well and good, but that’s a bit like saying the most difficult and complicated part of having a child is having sex.
 
To me, the most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the “almost” end!
 
Let me explain.
 

Nine days to write

 
I wrote the preliminary manuscript for my book, Draw Forth, in nine days. I knew I wanted to write this book before the end of the year, and before I knew it it was December 22nd. Suddenly, I realized that if I was going to actually get this book out of my head and onto the page before the calendar turned to a new year, then I needed to get busy in a hurry!
 
When I thought about my book’s structure, I saw that it had nine basic sections or chapters to it. Coincidentally, there were also nine days left in the year. Voila! My book-writing problem was solved! I cleared the last nine days of my calendar in 2013, and decided that I was going to write one section of my manuscript a day until it was done. And that’s exactly what I did. Each day, I’d arrive at my favorite coffee house, share a table with my writing buddy (who was also working on his own book), and we’d write head-to-head for the day until we had hit our goal. I was disciplined and consistent: even Christmas Day found me writing at the coffee house before going over to my boyfriend’s parents’ house for the holiday. And at 4pm on December 31st, I went to my New Year’s Eve party with a clear conscience and a tremendous feeling of satisfaction for hitting my goal: my book’s manuscript was complete!
 
Which, by the way, is not the same thing as my BOOK being complete.
 

Nine months to complete

 
That’s where I am right now: almost being complete. If my book is my baby, then I’m in the hospital bed, holding on to the bed rails with an iron grip, and screaming at the doctor to screw the whole natural childbirth idea because I WANT DRUGS RIGHT NOW GAWDAMMIT!!!!!
 
So to speak.
 
Because those initial nine days of writing the manuscript? That was the EASY part compared to birthing the book itself!
 

A “labor” of love

 
First there were the rounds of edits with my editor. Then there were the rounds of edits with my test readers. Not to mention my own edits after having a bit of distance from my own writing. Then there were more rounds of edits with my editor again. Then there were the corrections needed where I went in to try and “tighten up” sections of the book, only to realize that I was doing more harm than good.
 
Then there were the weeks wasted while vendors I hired to do things (like design the cover and interior) flaked out, failed to communicate, and needed to be let go of.
 
Then there were the weeks of scrambling to find new–and AWESOME–vendors who worked with integrity and didn’t laugh too hard when I shared my production timeline with them, compressed because of the time lost while trying to make things work with the initial vendors.
 
Then there was the realization that all of these manuscript, design and illustration pieces had to come together RIGHT NOW for the book to be completed on time…and I still needed to create the illustrations because I had been waiting to finalize the manuscript copy so we could use it for the interior design. Oh, and I needed to do all the logistics work still, like get the ISBN numbers and register my publishing imprint! AND have the PDF ready for upload by September 15th so it will be ready to be released on the 29th.
 
And did I mention that I have a business to run–and clients to serve–all along the way?
 
It’s no wonder that nowadays I feel a lot like how the woman in the picture looks! (Especially after I’ve looked at my book’s countdown timer page!)
 

Five tips for surviving the delivery

 
I’m committed to this baby, and I want to survive the process with some modicum of quiet, dignity and grace. (Even if it’s just in my imagination.) Here, then is what I am doing to keep myself from imploding during this last sprint of my book-creation journey:
 
1. I take REALLY good care of myself. When things get stressful, it’s easy for me to focus on my immediate obligations and let the self-care fall to the wayside. Not this time, buddy! My self-care is sacrosanct! My work hours are fixed and firm: no working overtime for me right now! When I’m tired, I don’t tell myself to suck it up and push through: I give myself permission to rest. Heck, I even get massages on a regular basis. My self-care has become a non-negotiable: if I am going to do my best work, I need to take the best care of myself. Period.
 
2. I get help. At this late hour in the production process, it is tempting for me to say “aw, heck: I’ll just take care of all this stuff myself!” Cover design? I could do that! Interior layout? I could do that! Final editing? I could do that! But that would be the equivalent to me delivering my baby of a book out in a field, when there was a hospital with highly-trained medical staff right in front of me. So I get the help I need to complete my book, so I can focus on what needs to be done by me. (Like drawing the 200+ illustrations that go into my book!)
 
3. I commiserate–AND celebrate–with my friends. It would be easy for me to write a blog post that says “hey, everything is great and under control and super-awesome with my book!” But it’s not. It’s real, and it’s messy. I turn to my friends when I need to own my failures and celebrate my successes. Whether it’s our monthly Failure Conference (when we get together to talk honestly about what’s not going easily or well with our businesses and projects) or simple Facebook chats with fellow author friends to encourage each other’s progress (with a healthy dose of Pusheen stickers), having a community of REAL support is priceless…and this keeps my spirits aloft even when I want to curl up on the couch and watch Simpsons reruns. (And thank the heavens for my boyfriend, who knows just when to show up with that proverbial box of chocolates for my hysterical book-pregnancy self!)
 
4. I breathe. I also suck on ice chips, but mostly I breathe through the anxiety of this last push until the stress wave (aka “contraction”) subsides. It helps me to stay present to the process I’m currently in, instead of escaping into a semi-permanent state of panic and overwhelm. (Not that I have never entered Overwhelmington County…just that when I trip across its county line I breathe and bring myself back to the other side!) Sometimes I only need a few deep breaths. Other times, I need to sit for a while and breathe. Either way, breathing helps me create just enough space in my mind to see things more clearly, so I can regroup and move forward in a less stressed manner.
 
5. I love my book. It’s tempting to get so caught up in the stress of the final push of creating this book that I start to resent the stress and effort. (I miss my normal life!) When I find myself slipping into this state–and I do–I take a step back and remember why I had to write this book in the first place. It’s one of the things I’m meant to bring forth into this world. (I can’t not write this book.) And that means going through this last little bit of brain-scraping labor to bring my book into the world. It’s just a little while…this pain and stress will end. But the book will remain, and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with you!
 
Of course, right now I’m more like the woman in the the delivery room who is screaming at her husband, “YOU did this to me! We are NEVER having sex AGAIN!” But that will pass.
 
Very soon, I’ll get to introduce my baby to you. In the meantime, please send your best wishes for a smooth, easy, and relatively-painless delivery. Because if the above picture is any indication, I could use all the well-wishes I can get! ;^)
 
I cannot wait to see what you draw forth,