Finishing well means giving your whole heart always

I remember my first book talk. It was the first time I stood before readers after publishing my debut book. At that moment, I felt as if I had spent all my luck. I was hosting the event as a writer in the very same café where I once sat as an aspiring author, drafting page after page.

Even so, I lost sleep worrying whether anyone would attend a book talk hosted by an unknown writer. I felt grateful for even a single reader who had taken the time to read my book, so I stayed up all night preparing small gifts. Contrary to my fears, I encountered warm and generous readers. We shared a joyful time discussing books, life, and writing, and I struggled to conceal how overwhelmed I felt. Throughout, I kept reminding myself to stay calm.

After the talk ended, I walked the readers out. I wanted to remember each of them as they left, knowing I had no way of knowing when I would publish another book or meet readers again. In the now-empty café, one reader who looked like a high school student stayed until the very end. When I asked if they had anything to say, the response still resonates clearly even after 10 years and makes me sit up straighter. "I wanted to stay until the end of the book talk. Just like reading the last page with full attention."

My motto has always been the same: finish well. A motto is something you keep close as a guiding principle, and in my work, my relationships, and everything I do, I constantly remind myself to finish well. To me, finishing well means giving my whole heart until the very end. It means maintaining the same steady spirit I felt at the beginning, preserving sincerity that remains honest and clear, and showing devotion that is patient and true. Beginning, sincerity, and devotion must be carried faithfully to the final moment.

As a writer now in my fourteenth year, creating work both on screen and on the page, sometimes collaboratively and sometimes alone, I have learned something important. Many people brim with passion in the fast-paced world of creative work. Far fewer know how to finish well. A faithful ending is achieved only when beginning, sincerity, and devotion are tied together in a firm knot. The path to that knot is tedious, slow, and often exhausting.

It may sound cliché, but the heart matters. That is exactly why it is so difficult. You cannot see it or hold it, and it wavers at every moment. I dedicate myself to steadying that wavering heart and tightening the knot again and again. Even if it takes time, I revise and refine my work, striving to grow little by little.

I constantly check myself to see whether the sense of beginning I felt when writing my first book, the sincerity I showed while walking readers out, and the devotion I gave to the final period remain intact. I believe there is always a reader somewhere who will read the last page with their full heart. Even if I am not a particularly gifted writer, as long as I finish each work with integrity, I take quiet pride in the belief that one day my writing may be discovered and read anew without shame.

"I have nothing to boast of except that I still work as diligently as I did in my apprentice days. Even when I am writing a trivial piece, I tell myself to avoid nonsense, to be honest, and to convey even the smallest grain of truth. But I doubt that diligence alone can conceal my lack of talent." Nodding to the words of writer Park Wan-seo, a writer who has barely written for a little more than 10 years makes the same promise again today. Work hard. Give your whole heart.