It’s a tricky place to be as a creative writer trying to market yourself online when you don’t have something finished and ready to share. There’s a voice in your head that says you should share some kind of glimpse every now and then. But a much louder voice drowns it out with questions:

How much longer until it’s finished? What if it changes a lot between now and then? What if someone steals my ideas? Who’s even going to be interested in something they can’t read yet? What can I say about it when it’s a work in progress?

One thing I’ve learned from my years of working in marketing: it’s a million times easier to market yourself when the thing you’re offering is clearly defined. Not necessarily finished, but clear.

For example, I’ve been working on some digital resources as part of my business for the last several months. They’re all outlined and in various stages of completion. If you put me on the spot to pitch them, I could tell you exactly what they’re going to be, what’s included, and how they’ll help. I can also delightedly emphasize there’s no A.I. involved—not in the creation of the resources themselves, and no “here’s 50 ChatGPT prompts” garbage. When will they be ready? Sometime in 2026. But it’s not hard to hype them up even as I’m working on them.

But those are business products. Isn’t creative writing in progress different?

Despite my personal record of once writing 20,000 words in one week (definitely before becoming a parent and starting my business), I can’t say my novel is coming out soon. I can’t even say when this draft will be done. And there’s no telling what might change between now and the next time I bring it to a critique group. But I know it’s at a place where I can start sharing more about it.

“How do you know when you’ve reached that point?!”

There’s a big difference between how I think and talk about my manuscript now versus three years ago, when I thought it was much closer to being done than it really was. Three years ago, I would have felt like a frustrated toddler struggling to fit all my big thoughts into little sentences. You’d end up sitting through a meandering rant about everything going on in the story without getting a clear idea of what it was about.

And now? It’s like I have three little index cards in my brain with talking points for my manuscript.

• Card 1: A simple overview of the plot and genre with a few highlighted setting details.
• Card 2: Some basics about the main character that tie into the plot.
• Card 3: A couple of my favorite spoiler-free details about the sci-fi elements.

I’m not frazzled when someone asks what my book’s about. I don’t worry they won’t “get it” if I just stick to the cards. But most importantly, when I think about all the changes the manuscript might go through, these are the things least likely to change. Even if they do, they’re just going to be more developed, not cut.

For example, there are robot-like guardian mechanisms in my story. That’s a detail I’ve often shared. Earlier this year, I changed them a little bit. I gave them a new speculative fiction quirk: they can sense a person’s intention. Did that change parts of the story and give me a lot of revisions and rewrites to do, pushing back the timeline for when this draft will be done? Of course it did. But it didn’t change the story in a way that would cancel out what I’ve previously shared to start building interest.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve asked other writers when is the right time to start talking up a manuscript online. Everyone has a different answer. Some say to wait until it’s query-ready (if you’re going the traditional publishing route). With self-publishing, some say do it sooner rather than later. Theoretically, you’d get some market feedback and can make adjustments to your writing accordingly. Others shrug and say you’ll never know if you’re ready until you try.

This isn’t the first time I thought my story and I were ready. My humble Twitter following grew from posting excerpts in response to different daily prompts for writers to share their current work in progress. But it feels different this time. I feel in my bones that we’re ready.

Like the resources I’m building for my business, my creative writing has reached a point of clarity. I know what it will be when it’s done. I could pitch it on the spot and hype it up, no problem (even though I still don’t know when it will be finished). There’s no need to worry people won’t “get it” because of how clearly and simply I can describe what it is.

What do you think? Does clarity make you feel ready to talk about your work in progress online? Or is there something else that tells you when it’s time?