As a writer, even an unpublished undiscovered writer, the thing I’m most frequently asked is “How close are you to be done?” This may from the outside seem like a perfectly reasonable question, but it drives me crazy. Sometimes I want to say, “my book will be done when it’s done and only then.” But I don’t say that. I explain that I’m a certain amount through a certain draft and I’m not sure how many more drafts I have to write and even once I think the book is done, my agent and publishers (if I ever get such things) will definitely send me back to fix things I never would have thought of.
But today, I realized that I have a way to roughly calculate my progress. Before embarking on my current draft, I created an outline. I can quantify an outline. As of right now, I am 31.481% of the way through my current draft. Let’s just round that up to 32% shall we?
Now this number is very fluid. I may come across a whole section of my outline that I will simply decide to cut, which will boost that percentage. Or I may discover that I’ve completely neglected a story line which will pull that percentage back down. Like I said, it’s all very fluid.
But what matters, is not when the book will be done. It may be this year, it may be next year. I think I can finish it this year. But I won’t beat myself up if I don’t. Rushing won’t make the book better. I’ll probably just make a mistake and get frustrated and need to go back and do more work. The book will be done when it’s done. But what I can say, is that with each draft I complete, the words on the page more closely resemble the vision in my head.
Thank you for reading.
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