Tuesday Tip: When to Be Done

I have until May 15th to make changes to my novel before turning it back in to Write By the Lake, but I realize I'm already mostly done revising this draft.

How do I know? The law of diminishing returns.

As things stand right now, there are still improvements to be made to the prose, but the improvements I'm making now are generally not worth the time I'm putting into them. I'm making small tweaks here and there, tightening things up a little, and yes, it's making the novel better. But not that much better.

This is the point where you need to set the project aside. Submit it somewhere, send it out into the world, and start something new.

I have this nagging feeling in the back of my head that there's a connection I forgot to make involving the new subplot, but for the life of me I can't find it. So my plan is to print the whole thing out again and read through it one more time, and then be done until the retreat starts.

I'm looking forward to getting back to the other projects I was working on before Write By the Lake said yes. 1794 is going down, by God. And then probably the three sample chapters of my non-fiction book proposal so I can get that circulating. I'm hoping to have a draft of 1794 finished by Write By the Lake, but I doubt the non-fiction will be done by then. After that we'll have to see, but there are at least four projects on my back burners that I'd really love to get back to.

If only I didn't need to sleep...

Image: nuchylee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

100 Words About: Done

Yeah, I'm late. I'm also sick. So sue me.

Done. It's a lovely word. I whisper it to myself, soft as a morning breeze on the beach. Done. I'm done with my stupid novel.

Again.

Any of you who have finished a novel at least once should know what I mean. It's an incredibly liberating feeling. Freedom! I can work on whatever I want! No manuscript-millstone around my literary neck demanding that I finish it. No more little voice in the back of your head reminding you that you haven't worked on it today. Ahhh, blessed silence.

Of course, after a six-month break or so, in which you may have done a lot of other writing, you might find yourself digging the manuscript out (because odds are you haven't had anything but rejection letters on it yet). You look it over. You find places that need fixing. And before you know it…boom. You're shacking up with your old buddy again.

I finished it twice last year alone. I have no idea how many times I've finished it since I started.

But it's done, again, and out the door. With luck I won't have to look at it again until someone else is telling me what they want fixed. Won't that be a nice change?