I love the out of doors, in my fitter days I enjoyed long walks in the countryside and have frequently visited Snowdonia and Scotland to explore the hills and smaller peaks. Or take a gentle ramble along a valley beside a quiet stream. A walk up a little hill to see a waterfall, perhaps.
One thing I have learned about in mountain walking is the lure of the false peak.
That point when you are getting tired and see what looks like a peak ahead of you, your step gets lighter as this ‘ending’ draws you toward it. The appealing thought of a long rest and lunch dancing in your mind.
Then, just when you think you’re there, you crest the brow or ridge and discover the mountain has lied to you, and behind this peak is another steeper slog to the top. Another backbreaking lung bursting stretch of path or scree or scramble.
Of course when you reach the top and get your rest and your lunch (possibly warm and slightly soggy sandwiches that nonetheless taste delicious when eaten on the side of a mountain with a spectacular view), you will then be confronted with the requirement to go back down – ‘that’s easy’ you tell yourself, it’s just downhill. But it doesn’t take too many downward steps to remind the soles of your feet and your knees that the ‘all downhill from here’ saying isn’t as easy going as it seems.
This applies to writing – stories, novels poetry, whatever your niche. I think it’s a great metaphor for the whole process.
The false peak is the point where you are nearing the end of the writing process – the end is in sight, soon you will have ‘finished’ the novel – only you haven’t, because once that first draft is complete, you then have the slog and scramble of getting your draft edited and ready to send out. A big job with novel WIPs of course.
This is where I am with my novel; I have (for months) had just one or two chapters left to finish the draft and I now think I am genuinely putting off writing them so that I don’t have to start the editing slog.
The downhill after that, is the ‘easy’ bit of sending the work out: find an agent or seek out publishers independently (if that is the route you plan to go down); send the actual manuscript (after writing the important pitch letter); steel yourself for the inevitable rejection; the ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ of publishing. As I’m not at that stage yet I am relying on the information from Quora (Other Q&A sites are available) that most agents prefer digital manuscripts – a small mercy in light of the current cost of postage stamps.
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