How Will You Know When Your Novel Is Done?

When will you be truly satisfied with your novel? How will you know when you’ve succeeded?

How will you know when you’re done?

Will it be when you LOVE your book? When you stop cringing as you read it? When you can’t think of a single change left to make?

When beta readers rave about it? When they tell you the romantic scenes made them swoon and the funny scenes made them laugh, the scary scenes gave them nightmares and the sad scenes made them cry?

When a reader tells you your book impacted them profoundly? That it changed the way they think about something that matters?

Or will it be when an agent requests your full manuscript, then returns with an offer of representation? When an editor offers you a book deal? When your book is published and you see it on bookstore shelves?

One of the most difficult editing decisions you’ll face is determining when your book is done. When you have finished, when it’s ready to share with the world, when this project you’ve poured so much of your heart into is complete.

In this episode, I’ll help you uncover the factors that matter most to you.

You’ll learn:

• How most writers I talk to define “success”
• What agents are REALLY looking for
• Why you want and NEED external validation—and when external validation becomes harmful, not helpful
• What you TRULY want for your book
• And more!

Calling your book “done” will always be a challenging decision. After all, art is never finished, only abandoned.

But when you know what you value most, you can chase it with clarity and determination, and celebrate when you reach it.

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Interested in working with me? Fill out the form at: alicesudlow.com/contact 
• Share how you’ll know you’re done: alicesudlow.com/101 

Transcript

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How will you know when you're done? Will it be when you love your book, when you stop cringing as you read it? You can't think of a single change left to make, or when Beta readers rave about it, when they tell you the romantic scenes made them swoon and the funny scenes made them laugh. The scary scenes gave them nightmares and the sad scenes made them cry. when a reader tells you your book impacted them profoundly. That it changed the way they think about something that matters or will it be when an agent requests your full manuscript then returns with an offer of representation. When an editor offers you a book deal, when your book is published and you see it on bookstore shelves. One of the most difficult editing decisions you'll face is determining when your book is done, when you have finished, when it's ready to share with the world, when this project that you've poured so much of your heart into is finally complete. I can't make that decision easy. But in this episode, I'll help you uncover the factors that matter most to you so you can declare your story done on your terms and feel Unshakably proud of what you've created. Welcome to your next draft. How will you know that you've reached your goal, that you've realized your creative vision? How will you know when you are done with your book? Over the last few years, I've asked many writers a version of this question. I've typically phrased it like this. What does success look like for this book and for your career? As an author, and I've heard of a variety of answers. There are lots of ways that writers can measure their success. The most common response I've gotten though is I'll know this book is successful if it gets traditionally published. Some writers even go a step further and say they want the book to be good enough to get traditionally published. On the one hand, I love when writers tell me that. what I hear is they are committed to telling a great story really well. They want their book to be good. They want to be proud of it. They want readers to love it. They want to present it to the world in a polished, professional way. They are serious about their writing. and on the other hand, it makes me feel stressed and a little afraid for those writers. I'm afraid because they're pending their measurements of success on factors they can't control. And that's just a recipe for disappointment, for pouring your absolute best into a project that you're passionate about, and then still feeling like you failed. but at the same time, I get it. Art is subjective as the adage goes. Art is never finished, only abandoned. in fact, the full quote is from Paul Valerie, and it's particularly relevant for those of us working on novels Here it is. In the eyes of those who anxiously seek perfection. A work is never truly completed. A word that for them has no sense, but abandoned and this abandonment of the book to the fire or to the public, whether due to weariness or a need to deliver it for publication is a sort of accident comparable to the letting go of an idea that has become so tiring or annoying that one has lost all interest in it. In other words, a book is done. When it is published or when the author quits working on it. And since you're not going to measure your book's success by the fact that you gave up on it, the logical marker of success of doneness is publication. On its own. That's not a problem. Of course, your book is still in progress before it's published and after it's published. There's a finished, finalized, immutable version of it out there in the world for readers to engage with. There's a clear line of demarcation between in progress and done when done means the words are printed on pages and bound together. The problem is when traditional publishing gets wrapped up in this, when getting published, stops being about the printing of the words on the page and starts being about winning the approval of gatekeepers. When writers tell me, I'll know this book is successful, when it's traditionally published, they aren't pinning its success on the printing of the words onto the page, nor are they pinning it on the impact that it will have on its readers or even on how they themselves feel about what they've created. Rather they're pinning its success on external validation from a select group of industry professionals. They want an agent to choose them, an acquiring editor, to tell them when their book is good enough, a traditional publisher to give them a seal of approval in the form of the publisher's callon on the book spine. In other words, they will know they're successful when someone else tells them they're good enough and honestly. Even that isn't the root of the problem. You are writing stories with the intent of sharing them with other people. You want other people to read them, and you want those people to have a certain type of experience when they do, and you need someone else to read your words and tell you whether they're landing that way or not. You cannot know how your words will impact other people without sharing them with other people and getting feedback. So wanting someone else to read your writing and respond in a certain way is not the problem, even when that someone else is an agent, and the way that you want them to respond is by offering representation. So why am I afraid for those writers? Where does the problem lie? The problem is in the good enough. You'll know you're successful when an agent indicates that your book is good enough. The assumption here is that what the industry gatekeepers define as good enough aligns with your intentions for your book. This is simply not true. Yes, agents set a very high bar for the manuscripts they choose to represent. Yes, publishing is extremely competitive and you need to put your best foot forward in order to have a solid chance of landing a publishing deal. But what gatekeepers are looking for. Does not necessarily align with your truest, most honest definition of creative success. Gatekeepers are looking for books they can sell. That's it. When we get down to brass tacks, that's the goal. They are looking for products that they can sell, ideally once that are a low risk investment for a high probability of return. This does not mean that they are looking for groundbreaking news stories. It does not mean they're looking for excellent writing. It does not mean they're looking for controversial perspectives or hard to swallow messages that society desperately needs. It means they're watching the market to see what book buyers are currently buying, and they're looking for books that they believe they can sell to those buyers. They are thinking, what is the maximum number of buyers I can sell this product to? And sometimes those things align with excellence and groundbreaking stories and controversial perspectives and hard to swallow messages. But that's not the thing they're looking for when they're looking for books to publish. They're looking for a product they can sell and that they can maximize the sales. I have asked a lot of writers how they define success. And not one of them has ever said to me that they will know they're successful when they maximize the number of buyers they can sell their product to. In fact, when I dig a little deeper beyond simply getting published, they say things like this, I have something I want to say and I wanna say it in the best possible way. I want to get this book in kids' hands so they can change how they engage with the world. I want to write this kind of story that I would be obsessed with. the kind you keep thinking about for a long time after you read it. I want this book to resonate with people. I'm an expert in a field that makes most people's eyes glaze over, And I want to translate my expertise into a story that will make readers care about this topic as much as I do, I want my readers to love my characters so much. They create fan art of them. I want to write the book that I needed to read when I was younger. I want to create something. I'm proud of the way that industry gatekeepers define good enough. The way that you define good enough are not the same. It's crucial that you know that because it is possible to craft an outstanding book that fulfills your creative vision and still not get traditionally published. And it's possible to get a book traditionally published and feel disappointed, unsatisfied, a little uncomfortable about the book that you wrote. After all, you do have standards. You don't wanna fling your first draft step on Amazon and hope that readers stumble across them. You have good taste and you know the difference between the books that you love and the books you don't. And you want to write one of the good ones. You want your book to be good enough because you want it to be good. You care about your story, and you want to tell it well. You want it to impact readers in a certain way, and therefore you have to get outside feedback in order to know whether it's achieving that or not. But you must understand the way that industry gatekeepers define good enough, and the way that you define good enough are not the same. You want something more than what industry gatekeepers will ask of you. They want a sellable product. You want something greater. Deeper, more personal, more profound, something less tangible, less superficial, less directly tied to a dollar amount. And I want you to know what it is that you truly want. I want you to know what success truly looks like for you so you can chase after it with all of your heart and not be lured off track by the fool's gold of someone else's profit. And so I started asking writers a different question. Let me walk you through a little thought experiment. In fact, I encourage you to close your eyes if you're not driving, and it's safe to do so. Of course, really visualize this as I walk you through it. Picture the manuscript on your computer exactly as it is right now today. Got it in your mind. Great. Tomorrow your dream agent calls you and offers representation. She's got an editor lined up already at your top choice publisher. The editor loves it. The publisher loves it. They give you a huge advance and decide to fast track the book's release. They send it straight to the printer without making one single change to the entire manuscript. The words you've written as of right now, go from your computer straight to the printed page. First week, a hundred thousand readers read your book and they love it. You take a trip up to New York City and when you're walking through Times Square, you see your own face and your book cover lit up on a billboard. The exact manuscript on your computer right now today is tomorrow's smash Hit of the year, and everyone is talking about it. How do you feel? My guess is. You don't feel pure bliss. You might feel uncomfortable, confused, a little embarrassed. You might feel disappointed like you missed your shot because you want to, to send that story into the world as a masterpiece, but instead, it's out there in whatever state it's in right now. My favorite response so far has been when a writer told me he'd feel serious doubts about the taste and judgment of all those people who loved the book, do they really have so little discernment to recognize when a book just isn't ready, how do you feel? Notice whatever feelings come up and then explore them. Why do you feel that way? What makes you feel embarrassed? What makes you feel uncomfortable? What makes you feel disappointed? What is the gap between what your manuscript is right now and what you want it to become? Can you name the shape of that gap? What's missing? What needs to be true for that gap to close? Now, one more thought. Experiment, Close your eyes again if you're not operating heavy machinery. This time, imagine your manuscript finished truly complete. You are incandescent, inexpressibly, proud of what you've created. You have realized your creative vision on the page. You love it so, so, so much. You've taken the movie that plays in your imagination and you've brought it to life in words. You are perfectly satisfied with every aspect of it, and you wouldn't change a single keystroke. You've dreamed of getting this book traditionally published for a long time, but now that it's finished, the years that it'll take to get it on bookstore shelves seem far too long to wait. You want this in reader's hands now, and so you save it as a PDF. You drive to your neighborhood staples and you print a hundred copies and binds them with binder clips. You go out on street corners and you hand your manuscript out to anyone and everyone you see. You feel like if yo-yo Ma spends an afternoon busting in the town square, the people who pass, you are lucky to get to encounter your art today and you are so excited to share it with them. What would need to be true about your manuscript for you to feel this confident in it? My guess is your gut is telling you the plot holes would need to be filled and the climax would need to be chef's kiss satisfying. The scenes would need to be unputdownable and make your readers feel big. Feels the line by line writing would need to be powerful, evocative, voicey. The characters would need to be so lifelike. We imagine they're real. The meaning, the underlying purpose that drives you to tell this story would need to shine through. Not as blunt didactic preaching, but as a subtle, nuanced invitation that will resonate in reader's minds and hearts long after they close the book. What is your gut telling you what would need to be true about your manuscript, for you to feel so proud of it that you hand out the PDF on street corners? You can open your eyes now. I'm curious. What you uncovered in those visualizations. In one scenario, you had all the attention and validation of traditional publishing, but you were probably cringing in the other. You were so proud and excited about your story that you self-published it as a PDF on the street. What did you discover about what you want for your story? What do you truly value? What will make this book truly satisfying to you? There is no wrong answer Here you alone get to decide what you want your story to be. You alone, Get to define what success means to you. You alone get to decide when you want to share your story with the world. What matters to me is that you know what your answer is because I don't want you to go chase someone else's definition of good enough and then find that the billboard in Times Square is unsatisfying because their definition of good enough doesn't match yours. My friend Kim Kessler calls your good enough. You are minimum viable, proud. It's the thing, your book must be the thing it must do, the qualities it must have in order for you to be satisfied with it. what will truly make you proud to share your story with the world. I want you to know that whatever answer came into your mind as you think about that question, that is a worthy goal. Your answer is a worthy goal, and I want you to chase that above all. beyond anyone else's approval or accolades. Can I be honest? This podcast episode was really hard to write. Some episodes just flow. This one was like pulling teeth, even though these are all thoughts that I have been mulling on and developing deep conviction about for years. So about a quarter of the way through, I started taking screenshots of my script and sending them to my colleagues, Kim and Brannan. I asked them, If you have space to read, could someone come behind me and check that this is making sense? I'm about to write about how the issue is when you start tying done up in gatekeeper validation, and I'm finding this whole episode very difficult to write. So I've decided to go looking for external validation in, And they didn't reprimand me or call me a hypocrite. Instead, they helped me tease out the ideas that I really wanted to convey in this episode and confirmed where those ideas were coming through. The thing is, it's totally normal to want reassurance, And it's an immutable fact of the creative process that you need outside feedback in order to know whether your intentions are landing. You can't know how readers will respond to your writing unless you share it with them. Validation that your intentions are coming through is crucial. You're not going to stop wanting validation because you want your work to matter, But you have to go to the right sources to get it, sources that share your creative vision and can help you determine whether you've achieved it. Those sources aren't agents. Agents are only validating whether they believe they can sell your book to editors and then to readers, not validating whether or not you have realized your creative vision. Rather, you need coaching to help you determine what your vision is and own it with confidence, and you need editing to make sure that vision reaches the page. If you are feeling the way that I was when I was sending Kim and Brandon screenshots, if you're feeling like you've written a lot of words, but you're not sure if your vision is coming through, if you're feeling like you've spent an age and a half on your novel and you both want it to be done, and you have a gut feeling that it's not ready yet. If your minimum viable, proud is eating at you and won't let you settle for an agent's good enough. if you really, really, really want a creative partner to join you in your story and show you what it needs to make it truly excellent, Then reach out and let's talk. Go to Alice sudler.com/contact and fill out the form to tell me about your story. That's alice sudler.com/contact, and of course, that link is in the show notes as well. Also, I would really love to hear what came up for you in those couple of visualization exercises. How did you feel about the manuscript on your computer today being published exactly as is? and what came up for you when you imagined a manuscript you're so proud of that you go pedal it on street corners? I would love to hear What your answers are, so head to alice sudler.com/ 1 0 1 and let me know in the comments what came up. I'm very curious. I'd love to hear, I believe in the story that you're telling. I believe in your capacity to tell it. I believe that it is so much more important than simply a product that someone can sell. I believe that you are worthy of your minimum, viable, proud, and it is worth the effort that it takes to achieve. I hope you believe that too. Until next time, happy editing