I'm in the final stages of reading through my monograph manuscript before I submit to the publisher. I am HATING THIS. Please tell me stories about how awful you thought your first book was by the time you finished it, please and thank you.

A friend told me that this part of writing a book is like a breakup, not because it's sad/heartbreaking, but because now your ex gets to go out into the world and tell their own story about the relationship; you no longer have a shared, respectable narrative.

(this part of writing the book is not sad at ALL; I can't wait to get the fucker out of my house and reclaim half my wardrobe space)