Trust the audience, honey

Stephen King says the scariest time is just before you start. Baloney! No disrespect to the master — he knows a thing or two or plenty about writing that I’ve surely yet to learn — but the scariest moment isn’t at the beginning when your terror’s mitigated by hope and gumption and the innocent desire to discover what will happen if you really see this thing through.

No.

The scariest moment is five minutes after you finish. That’s when thinking about and preparing for the striptease becomes the moment you rip the curtain down and face the stage. And it’s your…