How Do I Know When My Story Is Done?

Like so many questions about writing, this one is difficult to answer. Technically speaking, your story is never really done. There are always ways to change it and improve it. However, at some point, you have to make the decision that the story is good enough. You have to say that you aren’t going to make any more changes.

This can be difficult. It can be hard to know if the story is “good enough.” After all, we are our own worst critics, so we never believe that our work is “good.”

One thing that might help is to have others read your story. Start with an editor (or two), so you can fix any content or character problems. Then, you’ll need to make sure your grammar and sentence structure are correct. After your story has gone through a few rounds of editing with a professional editor, then you can send it to beta readers.

Beta readers play an incredibly important role in the writing process, and it’s a job that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Like an editor, beta readers give you suggestions on how to improve your story. In most cases, beta readers have not been trained as editors, but as readers, they know what works in a story and what doesn’t.

The goal of your story should be to invoke some type of emotional response in your reader. To do this, they have to understand what your story is about, what emotions you are trying to convey, and react to your characters in either a good or bad way (not all characters have to be likable). If you haven’t accomplished this goal, then you’ve probably failed in your writing attempt. That means you probably need to go back and rework your story.

Editors and beta readers are great resources for helping you achieve your writing goal. They can point out flaws and plot holes, along with ways to improve them. However, keep in mind that everyone who reads your book will bring their own experiences and biases to the work. No two people will react to it the same way—and that can further complicate if you view your story as finished or not.

Every reader is unique, and even if readers aren’t reacting the same way to your story, if they are still reacting, you’ve probably accomplished your goal. Some will love it, and some will hate it, but as long as they aren’t saying, “Huh? I don’t get it,” then you’re on the right track. (Side note: there still may be a few readers who are confused by your story, but as long as the majority of them aren’t having this issues, you’ll be just fine!)

In the end, no matter what an editor or a beta reader says, you are still the creator of the story, you get final say in what gets changed and what doesn’t. Editors and beta readers will have different ideas of how a scene should play out or about a character’s personality, but you get to make the final determination if you take their suggestions or not.

Writing is both a simple and complicated process. There are rules, but there aren’t any rules. When it comes to creating, most of the time you have to follow your heart and your head to determine when the story is done.

How Long Does It Take to Write a Book?

Like so many questions in writing, this one isn’t easy to answer. It can take as little as a few months to a few years to write a book—it all depends on how long it is, what age level it’s written for, how much time you dedicate to it, and how many rounds of edits you put it through.

I think the reason people ask this question is because they are worried or afraid of the amount of time they’ll have to commit to a novel. It can be daunting and scary to think that you’ll be working on the same story for years down the road, but if you are dedicated and intent on writing a great book, you’ll do what you have to to make sure it’s the best it can be. Conversely, if you can’t commit to working on something for months or years at a time, then perhaps a novel isn’t the best option for you as a writer.

However, that’s not to say that books that take weeks or a few months to write are terrible books. Some authors are faster than others and have more time to dedicate to their writing. The amount of time spent on a story is not indicative of how well it is written.

And let’s not forget about the amount of edits your story needs to go through—that adds time too. It is recommended that you have at least four editors go through your story before it’s ready to be published, and that’s not counting the amount of times you read through it. Of course, having that many editors go through your manuscript might not be within your budget, so it might not be feasible. Although, it is highly recommended that someone should edit your story before you attempt to get it published.

On average, you can probably expect to spend at least 6 months working on your book from first draft to final manuscript—although for some, that might seem like a short amount of time. If you’re not under a deadline, there’s no rush to get your book finished. You don’t win a prize for getting it done in a certain amount of time. Take the time you need to make sure the story reads the way you want it to. In the end, as the author, you have to be proud of what you’ve created before you can share it with the world.

Where Do Ideas for a Story Come From?

I think every author in the world through the course of time has been asked this question. I believe that there is a general curiosity among readers to know how the author came up with the amazing story that is on the page. I also think that readers believe there is some sort of magic well authors are able to dip into to draw out their ideas.

The honest—and not incredibly magical truth—is that story ideas come from everywhere. A lot of my stories (Life After the Undead, Finding Eden, and Humanity’s Hope) came from dreams. I had to flesh out the ideas and make them more plausible (so many weird things happen in my dreams that are hard to put on paper!), but the main idea came to me while I was asleep.

Other times, ideas are influenced by other stories and how the world (or I) react to them. Sometimes, something happens in the news that spurs an idea for a story. It’s possible to overhear a conversation in public that will plant the seed for a story.

The point is that there isn’t a magical well that authors go to for ideas. We don’t have special or exclusive access to ideas. However, it’s what an author does with those ideas that makes all the difference.

A good author can take a mundane idea that they get from the news or an overheard conversation and turn it into something magical. The author’s world building and character creation can make the reader believe that this idea was handed to them from above by a creature bathed in an ethereal glow—and that is the real magic.

Ask any author and they’ll tell you that they have dozens of stories that failed because they couldn’t make the idea work. It may have seemed great at the time, but as they put it on the page, it wasn’t as wonderful as they imagined.

Ideas can be found all around us at any given time. As authors, we have to be aware and open to receiving them and knowing what to do with them. We have to know which ideas are going to create a great story and which ones are going to fall flat—and that often comes with trial and error.