Can You Say Your Done?

I have been working on the next book in my Executives Wives Club series

Breath - CEO Affair is about another of the wives, who lost their husband in a fatal car wreck.

The first question I ask myself when I finish the first draft is...

What else do I need to add?

Did I put everything I want in the book in the draft?

Usually, the answer is no. Why?

Because as I'm speeding through getting all the plot ideas down on paper, I may not be thinking about everything that is involved in the background for each character.

The first draft is just that a draft. Now, it's time to add more to the mix.

So during my rewrite process, I make sure to add things I may have missed.

More setting,
emotion
deepening scenes.

Once I go through the manuscript and add these things, I then ask if about the word count. Is it too high or too low for the genre I'm looking at.  Usually, I like to have somewhere between 85,000 and 100,000 words.

Next I start in on the grammar, spelling and tightening the proses.

This can take weeks to reread the manuscript and check for errors.

One of the things I like to do is have the Dragon software package read the story to me. It helps me hear where problems in the wording might occur.

Right now, this is where I am in my book -- Breath - CEO Affair.

Working consistently I hope to finished this phase of the rewrite process up and then get on to chose the perfect cover.

Am I done?  No...but I'm moving toward that moment where I send it off to my editor.

How about you? When do you say your done?

Tina