Are we nearly there yet?
When to press send…
As I approach the end of book 3, that age-old phrase lobbed from the back of the car to the front on long journeys has come back to haunt me: are we nearly there yet? Or put more baldly, how do I know when this bastard book is finished?
This book has been a particular beast to write as it involves a lot of backstories, subplots and different personalities (all of which I want to do justice to) but I’ve spoken to a lot of other writers and it seems like most of us, regardless of how successful or celebrated we are, reach that point in drafting where we just want the whole thing to be over. For me, it comes just after the ‘can I throw my laptop out of the window?’ stage.
I’ll have been burrowing into the book for most of the year (for My Best Friend’s Murder it was actually just over a year) and I’ll get to the point where I don’t know if I can go any deeper. How many more times can I deliberate whether a sentence needs a ‘just’ or an ‘only’? Or in fact, neither. Is it time to just press the big red button and press send? Balanced against all the frustration, the urge to sweep the desk is the tiny devil on my shoulder that whispers: what if it’s not done yet? What if it’s not quite good enough and I could spend another two days/weeks/months/years tweaking it until it really shines? So how do you know? For me, it’s when the sparkly new idea that’s been waiting in the wings starts shouting a little louder. That tells me that I don’t have the headspace for what I’m working on anymore, that I’ve given it all I can and it’s time to seek a second opinion. At this point in my career, I’m lucky enough that that second opinion is my agent, but in earlier days, it was a trusted friend or an editorial consultant. Having someone else’s thoughts will either breathe fresh new life into your book or tell you it’s good to go. Either way, you can’t get there on your own.
Are you there yet checklist
I always run through a quick checklist to make sure there’s nothing I can fix myself before I press send.
· Are your characters consistent? If your main character is quiet and retiring in the first half of the book, should he/she really be dancing on a table by the second (unless it’s part of her character development!)?
· Have they changed names? My characters change names at least once or twice during the course of writing my book. I recently sought feedback from a writer friend who had no idea who Tony was when he popped up out of nowhere at the end – because his name had been Mike all the way through!
· Have you adhered to the technologies of the time – you’d be amazed at how many iPhones sneak in where they really shouldn’t?
· Is your scenario credible – would characters really act the way yours do or are you just trying to service a plot?
My list is my no means exhaustive – but I hope it helps. Let me know how you get on…