Stage 1: This is a brilliant idea! Once this thing is published, it will make me instantly famous and very, very rich.
Stage 2: Okay, it’s a good idea, but how in the world am I going to make this work?
Stage 3: Whatever possessed me to think this was a good idea? Joss Whedon himself couldn’t figure out how to make all these pieces come together.
Stage 4: Okay, okay, I think I see how it can work. I really am pretty smart.
Stage 5: But I SUCK as a writer. This has to be the most boring pile of manuscript crap ever committed to paper.
Stage 6: So that was a pretty good scene. Clever banter, a little humor. Maybe not every reader will abandon ship on page 1.
Stage 7: I have a book! It didn’t turn out quite like I thought it would (or, it turned out nothing like I thought it would), but there’s a worthwhile story here.
Stage 8: Okay, it’s out in the world. How do I make people aware of its existence?
Here’s where I am with the first three books in my demon series:
Book 1: Stage 8
Book 2: Stage 7 (with sudden trips back to Stage 3 as I work through my editor’s feedback)
Book 3: Stage 3
How about you?
Eight Ladies Writing 
Pretty much. 🙃
I like your classification system, Jeanne! I have:
One book stowed away in the trunk, where it’s likely to remain for the foreseeable. It’s finished and I like it, so I guess it counts as a 7, though as and when I dust it down for publication it will probably find itself right back at 3;
One book (Alexis) at 7 but with edits pending so also likely to bounce back and forth between there and 3 over the coming months, and
One book (Christal) currently at 6. I think/hope it’s through 4, but ask me next week and it could well have slipped back to 5.
Some time next year I hope both Christal and Alexis will be 8s. I can’t wait, even though I know it will be exchanging one bunch of problems for a new set 😉
That it will. I think one of the greatest myths of the writing world is that publication is an end-point. It’s really a starting point. It’s probably just was well most pre-published writers don’t realize that, though. It would make them toss their laptops aside and run for the hills.
LOL! Many abandoned. Bunny Blavatsky: Stage 5, regressing to Stage 2 at times.
Jack and Olivia: Stage 5. How did I ever think I could actually get this into shape? I’ve got a lot of parts, but am lacking a strong core.
An Asteroid Hit My Planet: Cold Storage; first draft at 7, but it needs to head back to stage 1 for a re-write.
New NaNo 2018 Duchess of Spaceliner Industries: Stage 1 lasted about 5 minutes, and I have gone straight to Stage 2. See-sawing.
(-: Very glad to see that there’s things that have made it to step 7 and 8 in the world!
I think it’s the ping-ponging between stages that I find most disturbing, but with persistence they can all reach Stage 8. Maybe one day one of us will see Stage 9–many people have read it and liked it!
I’m very grateful that I’ve gotten to Stage 9A — a few people have read it and liked it (-:. I need to keep plugging away!
9A sounds pretty nifty!
I have been stuck on stage 5 on pretty much every book (already written, being written, and in planning stages) this week. Ugh.
Stage 5 is the worst. Don’t hang out there!