It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.
— Virginia Woolf
This is exactly how I feel at the start of a new project. It's like that giddy rush you feel when you first fall in love. I love my story, I can't get enough of it. Then, something maybe doesn't work exactly how I want it to. I have to work a little harder, move things around. My words don't seem as brilliant. The polish isn't as shiny.
But, if I care about it enough (and heaven knows there are enough manuscripts I've shoved in a drawer and have never looked at again) then I keep at it, working at it until it's everything I wanted it to be.
The giddy rush comes back when I write the end and begin to edit. That also fades after a while as the work becomes more intense. And then it's done and a new giddy rush hits :)
And Ms. Woolf is right - it's that determination to not give in that keeps me going. If it wasn't for that, I'd never finish a book.
How about you? Do you feel that initial rush of first love that eventually dies down? What keeps you going?
