A Book is Opened, and a Book is Shut: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun

When we start reading a story, we open the book. When we start writing a story, we open our imaginations. 

When we finish reading a story, we shut the book. When we finish a story . . . when we finish a story. . . when we finish a story . . . .

Not so easy to shut the imagination, is it, writers? We have learned to let our imaginations play and plumb and plunge. For me, the trick is knowing when to stop being open, when to say no to just one more idea that would make the plot richer or the character deeper and finally finish the story.

I love the play and openness of imagination, so it's hard for me to turn off the spigot. I'm struggling with this now in a difficult book I've been working on intermittently for the past five years. It's time to polish and finish. One way I've found to make this easier is to think of the process like this. The gift my imagination has given me won't be complete until finished. I honor that gift by polishing it like a beautiful stone. I bring out the luster of what is, shut the book, and place on a table a thing, imperfect, made.