So how do you know when your book is finished?
Great question.
“No work of art is ever finished, just abandoned.” Leonardo Da Vinci
I, for one, really understand what he means. You probably do too or you would have just skipped this post.
At some point an artist has to abandon his current work and get started on the next one, or there will never be a next one, just as the current one will never be either. If you don’t “Ship,” you have given nothing to society. You have risked nothing, and we have gained nothing.
Deep down inside you know when you have taken something as far as you can. From there you can either ask for help to make it better, or send it out into the world and move on. We artists must learn to be happy with that. I could re-write “The Dishwasher’s Son,” for the next several years. Who knows what it would turn out like if I did, but then you would never know would you? I would never “ship” it. It would just languish in the re-writes and I’d complain about how long it’s taking and how hard it is to “finish” a book.
Well it does take longer than expected, and it IS really, really hard to “finish” a book.
You will have to decide at some point to let it go out into the world and become what it is destined to be.
And let’s face it, if you get really lousy reviews and they all say pretty much the same thing, you could do another re-write with those changes in mind. There is nothing written anywhere that says once you’ve shipped your product, you can’t improve it. How many versions of popular songs are there? Have you ever heard an artist do an “unplugged” version of their own song? Your audience could actually help you become a better writer. But only if you “ship.”
I know it’s scary to ship your art. It’s a huge risk to put something you’ve been working on for a long time out there for others to see. (and judge) They are going to judge it. They are going to judge you. If you can’t handle this, maybe writing really isn’t for you. Maybe gardening is. Or TV, or six martini lunches. Or reading to your cat.
One thing is for sure, if you write or paint or sculpt or whatever, and you just keep your work in a drawer or garage some place, you just wasted a lot of time. It’s like that old question, “if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it, did it make a sound?” Who cares? Nobody heard it. It never mattered to anyone. The world goes on like it never happened. Like you never happened. What a waste.
All for the want of a little courage.
Just ship it and get over it.
After a while, you’ll get used to the comments, and your art will change, and the comments will change, and one day you may find an audience that really likes your art. Then you and your art will have mattered. Wouldn’t that be better than to have not existed at all?
Art matters. You matter for having created it. So just “Ship It” and get over it. Move on. The next step is going to be a doosey.