DO YOU HAVE COMPLETION ANXIETY?
How to know when your book is done and how to cope with it being over
In my twenties, struggling with my first novel, I found myself at a bar where I ran into another writer who was celebrating: he’d just finished his most recent novel and he and friends were raising shot glasses.
“But how do you know it’s done?” I asked him.
“What do you mean?” he responded, the warmth and certainty now gone from his voice. “I finished it. It’s done.”
I wasn’t being an asshole on purpose. I didn’t realize I was ruining his moment—every ending and every draft deserves to be celebrated—it had more to do with my curiosity over how he could declare his novel “finished.” I was in knots over where to go next with my own book—in my third draft, I still hadn’t come to that sense of completion. Maybe this was a super power known only to men? Or men with a bottle of Jägermeister in hand?
Questions of confidence and alcohol aside, when do you know a book is done?
