4 Things to Avoid When Finishing Your Novel

When you’re halfway through a draft or a major revision, it’s easy to recognize and delight in your novel’s strengths. It’s easy to imagine that you will—someday soon, tomorrow probably—correct every single flaw. But as you near the end of a draft, and your book remains imperfect, you might start to panic. You might make some bad choices. Here are four things to avoid.

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1. Don’t call it quits prematurely.

I have a habit of growing frustrated with my manuscript and deciding, abruptly, that the book is as good as it’s ever going to get. I’ve come all too close to turning in a typo-ridden document with my own furious comments—“WHAT IS THIS PARAGRAPH EVEN?”—hovering in the margins. Don’t do that. Chill. Ask yourself how much time you have to finish your book. Make a list of problems you can reasonably fix within that timeframe. Take a break.

2. Don't Google yourself.

While taking your break, you may feel compelled to Google yourself. Particularly if your debut novel came out last month, or you just released some other sort of publication. Because maybe a kind librarian from Houston has been blogging about how brilliant you are, and maybe her praise is the fuel you require to finish your work.

Don’t. Best case scenario: someone in Houston thinks you’re a genius and you decide to Google yourself again in twenty minutes. Worst case scenario: you have three new one-star reviews on Goodreads.

3. Don't delete spasmodically.

When looking over your novel for the last time, try to avoid haphazardly deleting words and sentences that suddenly seem clunky and bad. Maybe they are clunky and bad, in which case, your editor will let you know. More likely, those details that only start to feel gratuitous as you near your project’s end are, in fact, totally necessary. When I’m finishing a draft, I find myself skimming lines that I know are powerful and focusing instead on the understated bits in between—which, out of context, are as jarring as potholes. But what’s really jarring is when an author has deleted all the small actions and observations that carry the reader from one crucial point to the next.

4. Don't download your manuscript.

After submitting your book to your agent or editor, do not obsessively download your own attachment, fearing you accidentally changed the font to Wingdings and/or submitted an old college term paper in place of your novel. You didn’t. I promise.

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