I’m sure new writers, people with stars in their eyes and ideas in their heads, probably think that the wisdom of the King of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland actually holds true:

“Begin at the beginning, “the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

While these words might work well for a portion of the process, getting to the end of a book most certainly isn’t the time to call it “done”. As a matter of fact, books don’t even usually begin at the beginning. Before you can even start the actual writing of your story, there is plotting, character development, outlining, research, and more to be done.

Then, you write “The End” … and you start all over again.