The End

There's something very satisfying about typing those two words...

THE END

You spend hours, days, weeks, months and even years working on a story, struggling over beginnings, middles and endings, determined to get the words just right. 
You write and you re-write. 
You edit and you tweak. 
You draft and then re-draft. 
You curse it for being so troublesome and you nurse it like the fragile creature it is... but eventually the time comes when you know you have to let it out into the world for someone else to read. 


I've not been working on a huge novel recently - I've been working on a picture book, and even though there's not many words in a picture book, writing them is not as easy as some people might think. The story that I've just finished has been stomping and roaring around in my head for a little while but I've finally finished it. My lovely fiancée, Vicky, has given it a final read and offered her much valued thoughts - the very last tweaks have been made and it's now been sent to my agent.  


I could now just sit with fingers crossed to await her thoughts on it... Sometimes my agent offers suggestions that might improve the story - and that's great... I tweak it some more. Sometimes the story goes straight to a publisher... if they like it, they too offer their thoughts and even more tweaks can be made.... so even though I think the story is finished... it's only THE END for now... more work will be needed.


So yes, I could sit with fingers crossed, but all of the above takes time - days... weeks... even months. So instead, I'm going to get on with writing something else... A bigger book... a darker book...


It's hard to write when you cross your fingers - so if you're not too busy, could you please cross your fingers for me.