Achieving Excellence

When is a novel finished?

When I first started writing, I naively assumed that it was when I wrote the last word on the page. Of course, I also assumed that I would write the perfect story with the first draft! Thankfully, the people who mentored and encouraged me through that initial phase helped me to start refining my book without destroying my very fragile self-confidence, for which I will be forever grateful. I took on board their gentle criticisms and made changes. There. The book was finished.

I started to send it out to agents and continued working on my second novel, confident that such a great story would soon be picked up. I started work on my third book while noting the rejections, or more often, the silence of agent after agent. Was it my introductory letter? Perhaps my synopsis wasn't clear enough.

When the global pandemic sent everything into a tailspin, I had an opportunity to join the Writer's Weekend online. Normally, this event was way out of my budget, but they offered a taster session at a reasonable price, and I devoured the information like a starving woman. Afterwards, I printed off a copy of Book One, sat in my conservatory with the sun pouring through the open doors, took my red pen and began to read.

My book was definitely not finished!

Hardly a page escaped my severe hand. Sometimes, whole pages were crossed out. It was exhilarating and frightening in equal measure. How would my manuscript survive such a radical edit? How could I not have seen this from the start?

In the three years since taking those first wobbly steps as a writer, I had grown and changed. I had been refining my craft and learning all the time. My precious firstborn child which I had originally protected with a fierce love wasn't perfect. But I wanted it to be. I sat at my computer and made the revisions. Finally, my novel was finished.

By this time, I was in the middle of my fourth manuscript, so I laid it aside to concentrate on my prequel. I didn't have time to write a new synopsis and cover letter right then. It would have to wait.

This year, I started to think about the idea of self-publishing, so out came that first manuscript again. I wanted to check for typos and errors to make it as good as possible. I ended up changing a few more things as well.

So, is it finished now?

I don't think I can do anymore on my own, but I also can't afford the services of a creative editor. The people who offered to read it have never got back to me with their thoughts, so as far as this journey goes I am done. The story is probably not perfect, but I have done my very best to achieve excellence. In the end, that is all any of us can do.