One of the hardest parts of any writing project is deciding when you're finished. Talk to any writer, published or not, and they'll tell you that there are always things about their story they'd like to go back and tweak or change. Deciding when you're done with a story and ready to share it with the world is a deeply personal decision, and I don't know if I can really give hard and fast guidelines of when you know. I can only talk about my process and hopefully, it will give you some insight for when you might be reaching the finish line of your story.
I've been working on my first novel for about ten years now. It's been through five iterations with major plot changes, and countless drafts with micro changes in between. I'm coming to the point in this project though, where I'm just about ready to let go of it and shop it around to agents for publication. Of course, there will be more edits while going through that process, but one of the biggest pieces of advice I continue to get from established authors and agents is to make sure your manuscript is as close to finished as possible before sending it off.
When I think about what it means to have my book "finished" or close enough to it to be sent out to agents, there are several areas of editing I look at. The first is the plot. I've changed so many aspects of it, and that frankly has been the biggest pain when going through edits. Trying desperately to make sure everything makes sense and all the plot holes have been filled. In this last run, I had to rewrite so many scenes because one of my main characters completely changed what she was doing. I make these changes trying to add more gravity to the novel. In the first run, I didn't want to hurt any of my characters, they were precious and delicate, but after countless read-throughs, I realized that protecting them didn't make for much emotional depth. Once I gave them real stakes and desires, it became obvious I needed to reevaluate each character's plot arch and make sure they were doing something worth reading.
I also look at the character growth. I've talked about plot vs character before and while my books are character-driven, tweaking the plot in revisions actually helps me get to a deeper place with my characters. This week I rewrote the last chapter of my book and because of all the plot changes I had made, I needed to write a new scene that was just the two main characters talking. They needed to break down what had happened to them and reach an understanding. If I skipped that emotional scene where not much happens, but the characters grow, then all the depth I put into the plot would be lost. It's a constant balancing act.
One reason I know I'm done with this book is because there are no more plot points or character arcs I want to change (for now.) I feel confident I got my point across and the narrative will strike a chord with readers. Of course, there are still a million little grammar things I'm sure I missed along the way. I do my very best, but even with Grammarly, I'm destined to miss something in a 100k-word book. Knowing I'm at the end has been more of an emotional journey than a logical one, but then again, that's how writing has always been for me. I write with my heart then edit with my brain. Now that all my edits are done, it feels like those two are finally in alignment and ready to let go.
This is a different feeling than when I finished the draft I sent out to beta readers as well. When I sent out that draft I knew it needed improvements, I knew there were plot holes and changes I wanted to make, but I needed help seeing them. I'd been too close to the work to see it clearly. After getting their feedback I was able to implement those changes and make what feels like the final version.
It's frustrating though because I know as I go through the process of trying to get published, I'm going to get notes from agents and editors. I'm going to need to keep revisiting the book and making edits based on those notes. I so desperately want to just be able to send this away and be done with it. It's been ten years building and I want to be able to move on. Of course, I love this book, but I'm also ready to focus on new projects. I'm sure that's also part of the feeling of being ready to say goodbye. The pull of new projects percolates on the horizon of my mind. I've been taking notes for what I want my third book to be, and I have the notes from my beta readers for my second book sitting, waiting to be looked over. I'm ready for something new.
Saying the end isn't easy, but knowing I took my time with this project, and poured so much love and care into it, helps me know it's the right time to move on.
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