One of the greatest challenges of writing is knowing when you’re done.

We all fear turning in the manuscript too early: getting rejected, and for things that maybe could have been fixed, had we not rushed to finish. We’ve wasted our chances with the editors or agents who saw it and came away less than impressed.

But there’s the flip side, too: who among us hasn’t spent far, far too long on a manuscript? “I can’t submit this! It needs a major rewrite!” we cry, spending months or even years polishing something that probably should have been submitted long ago—or shelved. It’s so easy to forget that we have a host of novels inside us, waiting to get out. And the line is getting pretty frustrated while they wait for the slow, slow novel in front of them to get the heck out of the way.

Here’s what some of the writing books on my reference shelf have to say about when to put your pencils, and keyboards, down:

“If you feel very close to having finished, and you cannot go any further, than you may want to risk [submitting]. But it really is a risk.” –Susan Bell, The Artful Edit

“You get a bunch of the octopus’s arms neatly tucked under the covers…but two arms are still flailing around…if you also know that there is simply no more steam in the pressure cooker and that it’s the very best you can do for now—well? I think this means you are done.” –Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“I guarantee you that as long as you’re willing to keep piddling around with the same manuscript, you’ll find ways to make it different. You don’t want to make it different. You just want to make it as good as it can possibly be, and then get it out the door.” –Holly Lisle’s website

And Robert Ray (The Weekend Novelist) doesn’t given any answers, merely a cautionary tale about F. Scott Fitzgerald. His follow-up to The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, took nine years to write and revise. When it was done, he released a rewrite of it. According to Robert Ray, it wasn’t even any better.

In summary? Revise. You can’t skip that. But listen to your inner voice, and your body. If you get that itchy feeling that it’s done… if you know somebody could maybe do better, but you can’t… then I say it’s probably time to release that baby into the wide world and start on the next project.

Though it sure wouldn’t hurt to hand it to a critique partner first…

There are times when a writer knows they’re headed down the wrong road, as they’re drafting a story. But you can’t easily make a u-turn. You’ve built too many hooks and leads into it. Besides, there are all those nicely finished chapters behind you, with the finish line right up ahead. Yet, that finish line is in the wrong county. Maybe even the wrong state. But… it’s a finish line.

Writers, what do you do? Do you keep barreling down the road, trusting that your story will hold together enough to cross the finish line? Sure, you might be missing three wheels, a rear-view mirror and your bumper… but you crossed. You can fix up that old lemon after the race is done.

Or, do you stop right there, take apart the whole car, and make it into the airplane that it should have been all along? (Of course there’s always the risk you’ll pull your plot to pieces, then sit there in the hot desert sun and say  “hmm, wonder what the heck I should do with all this scrap metal now?”)

Right now I’m opting for the barrel-towards-the-finish line method, on my project. Ask me in a few months if it was the right choice. But with just 8 chapters to go, give or take, it’s a gamble of only a few weeks’ time. Seems to me that I’ll find good stuff in those last chapters, even if they’re wrapping up a plot that I know needs major work.

So I’m off to coax my jalopy along for another few pages. Now, where’d I put my road map? And why is half of it always blank?

And most importantly… how much farther before I can stop for an ice cream cone?

Today I’m happy to welcome Sarah Ockler, author of debut TWENTY BOY SUMMER, to my blog. Sarah is not just a fellow Debutante—she is the brains behind our blog tour operation. She also has been running some awesome contests to celebrate the launch of TWENTY BOY SUMMER.

If you’re looking for a book that has both romance and depth, this is one to check out. You can even read an excerpt here. Then buy it today!

A bit about TWENTY BOY SUMMER:

While on vacation in California, sixteen-year-old best girlfriends Anna and Frankie conspire to find a boy for Anna’s first summer romance, but Anna harbors a painful secret that threatens their lighthearted plan and their friendship.

TWENTY BOY SUMMER is a debut YA novel that explores what it truly means to love someone, what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.

Sarah answered my three fave questions:

I think teen books can, and should, be read by grown-ups. Tell my grandma Grace why she should read your book.
Grandma Grace, being a Grandma and all, has probably experienced her share of love and loss. Twenty Boy Summer will bring her back to those bittersweet days of of intense love, changing friendships, letting go, and discovering new hope. Plus, there are some super cute boys in this story, sure to make Granny blush in the best kind of way. ;-)

What would your 16-year-old self say if she read your book?
She'd probably say, "I love this story. I want to go to Zanzibar Bay, too, where I can be someone else entirely, where no one knows my history... only my self-invented potential."
I am fascinated by writers' inspirations. Tell me about a real-life setting that found its way into your book.
The setting of Zanzibar Bay is a fictitious compilation of lots of summer places, but the one that I thought of most during the writing was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where I took a few summer trips with my best friend's family back in high school. I still remember the feel of the sand on my feet as the waves rushed over them, the smells of the cocoa butter suntan lotion and the saltwater, the neon shops along the strip, and of course, the cute surfer boys. Oh, the sunsets were kinda cool, too. ;-)

Thanks for hosting me, Pam!

And finally, all about Sarah:

Sarah Ockler wrote and illustrated her first book at age six—an adaptation of Steven Spielberg's E.T. Still recovering from her own adolescence, Sarah now writes for young adults. After several years of wandering between New York City and Denver, she and her husband Alex now live in Upstate New York with lots of books and an ever-expanding collection of sea glass. Twenty Boy Summer is Sarah's first novel. Visit her online at www.sarahockler.com.

What if I wrote

like I mow?

Start with

Straight Lines

but soon…

swerving,

lines gone crazy,

stopping

to smell wildflowers.

They grow at the edges.

Aim for the tallest parts

first

because it’s satisfying…

who cares if it takes longer?

It’s all done

Eventually.

What if I trusted my writing

like I trust

my mowing?

Wander

stop

start

done, in time for lunch.

Would I finish my book

if I wrote

like I mowed?

And what

would it be like?

I never sit still—or if I do, I’m folding laundry while watching TV and skimming a magazine. Lots of people multitask, but I think overmultitasking (OMT?) is a particular problem for today’s moms. How can we fit in work, mothering, play, eating and sleep without doing more than one thing at a time? Sometimes I fantasize about being a sleepwalker. So long as I washed dishes and did push-ups while I was sleepwalking, that is. None of that walking into walls and through windows stuff. And just imagine the excuses for one’s editor. “Oh, pages 45-75 read like an acid trip? Shoot, those must be sleepingwalking pages. Don’t even remember writing those."

But lately I’ve been slowing down to a mere fast jog, instead of a sprint in three directions at once. I’d like to pretend this is because I’m getting wiser with age, but in truth, I’m just a little tired.

I blame my diet. Yes, it’s making me tired, and not because I’m trying to knock off chocolate as a daily diet supplement. I recently read an article in Oprah Magazine that talked about implementing changes in your life. This change expert—and many apologies to him, because my OTM’ed brain can’t remember his name—said that studies show we can only exert discipline for so long, and in doing so many things. The human brain tires of discipline relatively quickly. So, he said, don’t try a new diet and another behavior change at the same time.

So, um, blasting through a novel draft, doing a new exercise program, going on a diet and staying disciplined with my stay-at-home dayjob…just maybe that’s exerting too much discipline at once. Can’t quit the novel or the dayjob. So maybe I need to go easy on the other stuff.

Am I looking for excuses to eat chocolate? Oh, maybe. It could be that I actually managed to get a little wiser today, though. Certainly the getting older part happened!

I've recently come to realize that I am a sprinter--not a marathon runner--when it comes to writing books. When I write, my fingers fly: in a really good session, I can put down 2,000 words in an hour or two. But then I'm wiped out.  I can't take a short break, then return to my computer to whip out the next chapter. I need a couple of hours, or even a day or two, to get my writing mojo back.

I actually like running this way, too. If I'm running a road race, I like picking someone ahead, sprinting to catch up, and then walking or slow-jogging until it feels like my lungs won't burst out of my chest. Then I sprint for my next "victim". I have tried the other way--running at a steady pace--but guess what? I achieve the same rate, almost always finishing those 5Ks in around 35 minutes (I never claimed to be a FAST sprinter...), no matter how I try to run it. But my legs are a lot happier if I do the sprint/rest thing.

Until I realized I was a writing "sprinter", I got angry with myself. How could I write a chapter so fast and then "laze around" after that? WHY couldn't I keep the pace up? Why? Why? This was particularly annoying to my librarian side, who enjoys setting little schedules and goals for how many chapters get done in a week or a month. Sprinters do not always cleave to the little schedules, but we always reach the finish line in time!

Now I understand that I write in bursts, and rest in bursts, and that's OK. Some people do it very differently: they put out two or three pages every day, without fail. Either way, I bet we reach the end of our project at about the same time. 

Fellow sprinters, you might want to check out fun motivational things like NaNoWriMo (though this requires sustained sprinting over an entire month, so eat your Wheaties), the more gentle JoNoWriMo+1.5, or the take-as-much-punishment-as-you-like Write or Die online tool.
 

• No matter how many books you've published, or what awards you've won, the next one will tie you up in knots.
• So much of the publishing business is out of our control, no matter how hard we try to control it.
• Full-time writers are adept jugglers too, often doing school visits and editing jobs too.
• I am not a very good spoons player. Not yet, at least...

ABOUT WINGS
Aprilynne Pike's WINGS is the first of four books about an ordinary girl named Laurel who discovers she is a faerie sent among humans to guard the gateway to Avalon. When Laurel is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a human and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to both worlds.

APRILYNNE, MEET MY FAVE QUESTIONS...

--I think teen books can, and should, be read by grown-ups. Tell my grandma Grace why she should read your book.
If your grandma Grace has read a lot in her life, then she probably would enjoy seeing something very new. I always tell people, you've never seen faeries like my faeries. And that is what I would tell you grandma. This is a story different than any she's ever read before. It's also clean and mostly language free, which--I have found--most grandmas appreciate.;)

--What would your 16-year-old self say if she read your book?
I like to think that she would have really liked it. But considering how much I read, perhaps it's more rational that she would have read it, enjoyed it, checked it off her list, and then moved on to the next book.

--I am fascinated by writers' inspirations. Tell me about a real-life setting that found its way into your book.
My book involves faeries who are members of the plant kingdom. A little known fact about me . . .um . . . I'm really good at killing plants. I like to say I have a black thumb. But because I was writing about plants for most of the summer, it made me think about my own plants and actually remember to water the grass. So because of Wings, my grass was greener that summer than any other summer.:)

ALL ABOUT APRILYNNE
Aprilynne Pike has been spinning faerie stories since she was a child with a hyper-active imagination. At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can usually be found at the gym; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula. Aprilynne currently lives with her husband and three kids in Utah, and dreams of warmer climates.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Superpowers are awesome -- unless you actually have them, like Avery does. There's only so much he can pass off as "adrenaline" before people start to get suspicious. Probably it's best to lie low, so guys in white lab coats don't come to carry him away, to find out what makes his freakish body tick. Who wants to be vivisected? But flying under the radar becomes a whole lot harder when you can actually fly. It's dangerous to be different, so for now he'll pretend to be normal, unremarkable Avery -- a dull boy -- anything to keep his secret safe.

What he doesn't expect is the horrifying truth about where his powers came from, who else might have them, and the madness of one villain's plan to turn this superpowered dull boy into something even more powerful and amazing.

SARAH SUBMITTED HERSELF TO QUESTIONING...
--I think teen books can, and should, be read by grown-ups. Tell my grandma Grace why she should read your book.
Grace, you know you want to dress up in spandex and leap from rooftop to rooftop under the cover of darkness while fighting crime. It has always been your dream to be a vigilante. Now, it's true that DULL BOY is light on the spandex, but no one else has to know that! When you get caught, YOU CAN TOTALLY BLAME YOUR SUPERHERO ANTICS ON DULL BOY!

I'll take the fall. I don't mind.

--What would your 16-year-old self say if she read your book?
"#$%^ing finally! I can't believe we didn't get published at 17!"

--I am fascinated by writers' inspirations. Tell me about a real-life setting that found its way into your book.
I don't use real-life settings, but they all feel real to me now. :)

SARAH'S SECRET IDENTITY
Sarah Cross has saved the world, like, five times since fifth grade -- and you didn't even notice. Learn her secrets at www.sarahcross.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Danielle Joseph was a college DJ for five years on the Gyroscope, a world music show. She also interned at several top Boston radio stations while earning her BFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Marketing Communications and Advertising from Emerson College. She has taught Creative Writing and English to Middle school students.

Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Danielle now lives in Miami, Florida with her husband and two young sons. These days you can find her cruising around with the tunes blaring and her internal DJ hard at work.

 

Here's a little about

What if the guy who took your breath away was the only one who could help you breathe?

Savannah would be happy to spend the summer in her coastal Carolina town lying in a hammock reading her beloved romance novels and working at the library. But then she meets Jackson. Once they lock eyes, she’s convinced he’s the one—her true love, her soul mate, a boy different from all the rest. And at first it looks like Savannah is right. Jackson abides by her mama’s strict rules, and stays by her side during a hospitalization for severe asthma, which Savannah becomes convinced is only improving because Jackson is there. But when he’s called away to help his family—and seems uncertain about returning—Savannah has to learn to breathe on her own, both literally and figuratively.

This debut novel has it all—an endearing, funny, hopelessly romantic main character, lots of down-home Southern charm, and a sunny, salty beach setting that will transport you to the Carolina coast. 

Ever since her mother died and her father lost his shoemaking skills, Fortunata has survived by telling fake fortunes. But when she's tricked into telling a grand fortune for a prince, she is faced with the impossible task of fulfilling her wild prophecy-or her father will be put to death. Now Fortunata has to help Prince Leonato secure a magic sword, vanquish a wicked witch, discover a long-lost golden shoe, and rescue the princess who fits it. If only she hadn't fallen in love with the prince herself. . . .

Deva likes searching for patterns, which is how she explains both her degree in mathematics and the echoes of old fairy-tales in her stories. She also loves tea, gardening, and playing the fiddle. She lives in Maine with her husband and her dog.