What's next?

When you're done with one thing, it's time to start the next thing.

THE INSPIRATION: Moving on

“When I ask ‘What’s next?’ it means I’m ready to move on to other things, so… what’s next?”

—Jed Bartlet, “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I,” The West Wing

We spend a lot of our time making things. Talking about making things. Figuring out how to get better at making things, and get better at letting the things we make be good enough.

But what do we do when the thing is done?

We move on.

What’s next?

THE FAT ORANGE CAT: Done

Your character is done. Done making dinner. Done with the relationship they’re in. Done taking anyone’s shit. Done being shitty to others. Done smoking. Done drinking.

Let them be done, and see what happens next.

The “Get Your Stuff” link will bring you to an item I selected specifically to accompany this post, but you do not have to buy that thing in order to support me. Just keep popping through Amazon and buy the stuff you were going to buy anyway.

THE TROPE: The Finale

In series-based stories, we have finales. For seasons, for entire series, eventually, they come to an end, usually with a big flourish that ends the story and tells us what it all means… if they stick the landing.

Which, let’s face it… sometimes they don’t. And no flag on the play… finishing a regular, one-moment-in-time story is hard enough. Finishing a season? A series? A thing that is not only telling a story but employing hundreds of people and under the pressing thumb of whatever media monolith is paying for said hundreds of people?

Honestly, it’s amazing that any series, ever, has a great finale. So rather than complain when a finale falls apart, let’s take a moment to celebrate those miracles when a finale actually works and leaves us feeling satisfied with a story well-told and well-ended. Off the top of my head, I can think of only three: Buffy, The Good Place and Breaking Bad.

Which ones am I missing?

THE QUESTION: Now what?

“I just finished a book, and I don’t know what to do next. Do I rest? Do I start the next book? Should I revise?”

—Now What?

Dear Now What?,

What you do now is not an easy question to answer. If the book you just finished was only a first draft, you do NOT revise now. You put it away for six weeks at least, and try to think about it as little as possible so that when you come back to it, you’ll have the distance you need to experience it as a reader, not a writer. Not thinking about it for weeks is a tall order, though, so starting the next book—giving yourself something else creative to think about—can definitely help.

But also, after finishing up something huge like a BOOK (congratulations, by the way), you may need some time to crash and rest. Doing things that are not writing might be the order of the day, for a while. Engage in other hobbies. Go away for a weekend. Work on yoga, or meditation. Do something restorative, depending on what restorative means for you.

When it comes down to it, only you can answer the question of what’s next. Write down all your options on a piece of paper, close your eyes, and sit with it for a bit. The answer will come to you.

That works for a lot of things, actually.

THE PRACTICAL: Our precious stories

This was the first Christmas I’ve had without kids for 22 years. Kinda crazy. So when Ian looked at me and said, “What are we gonna do for Christmas?” I said, “Nothing.”

So that’s what we did and Writer… it was glorious. We each chose the most important television shows from our respective childhoods—Star Trek: The Next Generation for him, Moonlighting for me—and we traded an episode of each and it’s been incredible, for a lot of reasons.

One, it’s a great new way to get to know your beloved. To engage in a story world that is precious to them is a fascinating exercise, especially because some of the things that were precious in our childhood can sometimes not age so well. He and I would trade off apologizing for the things in our stories that were clearly broken, and then get to the parts we loved and enjoy sharing them with each other. So as a relationship exercise—highly recommended.

But also, it was fun to mix and match, to go back and forth, to finish one and find yourself starting to crave the other. I watched TNG a bit when I was in college, but I didn’t remember much of it at all. But going back through it, some of the episodes are really great, and there’s nothing like good sci-fi to launch fascinating philosophical discussions. Ian had never watched Moonlighting, but I reference it so much that it helps for him to have context. And where TNG can sometimes be very deep, Moonlighting is fast and funny and terrible in a lot of highly entertaining ways. They complement each other oddly well.

Kinda like me and Ian.

We already have our next selections ready, so when one runs out, we each populate our playlist with the next, alternating back and forth. It’s gonna be years before we run out.

What are your precious stories?