I’ve written a a number of novels. There was that Fantasy space opera I started writing when I was 16 and got some 90,000 words in. Then the NANOWRIMO experiment that turned out the foundations for a pretty good novel (really should get back to that some time). Plus tens of other writing projects and experiments. But this book, The Thieving King, second in a series I’ve yet to sell… well, it’s the second novel I’ve started with a view to actually selling.

And in approaching it, I’m coming to learn a bit about my own process.
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So the novel has been “done” and I’m in that state of post-novel ennui thinking about what I should do next. Should I start on the second book in the series or write something totally different.

On one hand, if the book does get picked up, I’ll have about a year to get book 2 done. No more being able to take my time, it’s into a world of deadlines. On the other hand, if the novel doesn’t get picked up, what use is book 2?
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There’s the old adage that art is never finished, only abandoned. But, for me, I think it’s more a case of “art is continually finished, until it is abandoned”.

Flash back to last year when I completed the novel draft. It was incredibly exciting. A novel I’d been working on, trying to shape in terms of structure and voice finally came together, and was there on the page. In essence, it was finished.

Except it wasn’t. I then had to go over it, rewriting bits, editing others. I gave it to alpha readers and that resulted in more changes. Then it went for professional assessment and yet more changes were required.
It’s those changes that were finished Friday, meaning that the novel is now ready to send to agents. It’s certainly finished in that sense, but if an agent does pick it up, there’s a good chance further edits will be required. If a publisher then picks it up, there will be another couple of rounds of smaller edits. There will be more and more occasions of the novel being ‘finished’.

I have a bottle of champagne in the fridge. Actually it’s just a cheap cava, but it’s as good as. It’s sitting there waiting for the novel to be finished. Yet each time, I reach another milestone, I think of future occurrences of the novel being ‘finished’ and decide to hold off until the next time I finish it.

It’s been a pretty crappy summer this year. There’s lots I could write about it, but some of it is ongoing, and as they say, “there’s probably a book in it”. Possibly several.

On the positive side, things are slowly resolving themselves. Writing and editing are getting back to normal and I’m keen to make up for lost time once they are. These things come along to try us, and try us they have. Only thing you can do is to try and stay positive and soldier on.