I’m not sure at what stage a novel is finished. Perhaps when it’s published and out in the world. At one of our Milktown Writers’ Group sessions on ‘projects’ in June 2026 (we’re running them every three months) I put two ideas for novels on the table for discussion. I’d done a lot of work on both of them and had reached a point where I didn’t know which one to develop and try to get to a finished stage.
I had to justify and explain both ideas - a useful exercise in itself. Predictably, some people liked one idea, some liked the other, but it came down to one piece of advice: ‘both are pretty good, but you need to choose one or the other and get it finished.’ Obvious, really. Who’d be mad enough to work on two novels at the same time?
Now, after a lot of sweat and hard work, revising and editing and making sense of it, Home and Dry (working title) is ‘finished’. It’s about Holly, who finds herself living in a crazy, shared house in the countryside. After a displaced childhood she’s desperate to find a proper home, but The Pines is in disrepair and running out of money, mainly because the owner, Alex is being mercilessly exploited. When the person who is unwittingly subsidising the whole venture turns up, things take a turn for the worse. The Pines starts to fall apart; only Holly thinks she can find a way to make it work.
Can community living work? What does it mean to be settled and to find home, anyway?
I’ve learnt a load about writing a pitch and a synopsis over the last few weeks.
If anyone wants to have a read of Home and Dry, or part of it, let me know. I’m still open to constructive thoughts.