You know that sensation you get when you finish your first draft? When you land that last fullstop. And you welcome that premature sense of finality that reverberates with the accomplishment of getting through your entire debut manuscript. Once the pangs of labour eddy off your constrained joints, the baby is out and screaming, and you (the Frankenstein) can retreat from the keyboard and recline...for mere moments. Well, there's a name for that feeling: First Base Syndrome.
First Base Syndrome (FBS): When signs of an interval from a strenuous exercise subdue said individual into complacency. A safezone for the disillusioned.
It's safer not to feel safe in the safezone. Keep your mind on and your ideas lively. There is still a way to go for the self-afflicted scribe once the pen goes down. Still work to be done - whether it be redrafting, rereading, cover-designing, formatting, blogging (hehe, that fourth wall, huh), agent-dating, actual dating, or holidaying (once the primal draft has been locked in its cage and stored for some four to six weeks to come at least). That's only the case if you plan on introducing your work to someone who isn't the "ooohs" and "awwws" of your mother.
The motivation needs to remain hot, the determination constantly steadfast with the end goal always in mind. By now, you should already know which direction you're going and where you want your first masterwork to be. And that is exactly what it is - your masterwork. But no masterpiece ever stopped at the first draft. No sprinter ever stopped at the first hurdle. And there has never been a homerunner who didn't first make it past the initial base...
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