Writers Need to Finish

Finished manuscripts are lucky.

Oliver “Shiny” Blakemore
3 min readMar 5, 2024
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

I got a request for a full manuscript from an agent! If you know a little bit about the industry, you know why that’s exciting.

In terms of the numbers involved, that’s like entering a marathon with ten thousand other people.

In the first half of it, half of the other runners just decide to wander off ’cause it’s too hard.

Then, another two thousand or so people realize they’re in the wrong race and leave.

Another few hundred decide they may as well stop for a pastry, and they never start again.

Just before the end, another few hundred spontaneously die.

And fifty people finish the race in a dead heat.

Those fifty people all get the reward: they get to start a super marathon! Hooray!

It’s tiring. It’s exhilarating.

And I’m proud of myself for getting this far.

There’s a lesson I want to pass on

I had to finish a manuscript to even enter that marathon.

You have to finish manuscripts. You have to. If you don’t, then you can’t compete. At all. You have to finish manuscripts to begin working.

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Oliver “Shiny” Blakemore

The best part of being a mime is never having to say I’m sorry.