When is it done?

“Finish your novel, because you learn more that way than any other.” – James Scott Bell

When do you know a project is finished? I’m not done with the book about running. I continue to layer the mental health thread through it. And I’m not sure even after I finish that if I’ll be ready to let my baby fly.

When can you let it go? When is it ready to see more than just the eyes of the few folks you’ve entrusted to give you feedback. The essays and magazine articles I’ve written were only completed with a deadline. There could have been another round of edits, another writing practice to find the perfect description, another review by someone else. But I had to let each piece go. An editor was waiting.

I haven’t sold any of my books before I’ve written them so it’s different. I’m the one creating the deadline and it hasn’t worked that well. I’m a critical critic, an evil critic even. The product is never good enough. Now honestly, the previous book-length projects haven’t been finished, not even the one about my father that I worked on for a decade. The shape is still not there. It might be good enough for someone else, but it’s not enough for me.

That’s the dilemma. How do I get it to a place where it’s ready for me to let it go? Perhaps it would be easier if I did have an agent or an editor. Perhaps then I would accept that person’s judgment and say, “They say it’s done, so it must be done.” But I’m not sure if even that will soothe my perfectionistic heart. There is so much space between the idea that’s in the mind and the black and white squiggles on the page. A vast distance, that.

What’s a writer to do? For today, I will continue to work. And when it feels right inside of me, I’ll start sending it off to agents. I might have to ask for help letting go. We’ll do some ritual. We’ll chant or do an incantation. Then we’ll burn a symbolic copy of the manuscript and toast it with decaf lattes.

How do you let a manuscript go — other than by abandoning it? This is an area where I really need to grow!

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