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How do you know when your story is done?
1. You stick a toothpick in the center, and if it comes out clean, you're done.
2. The manuscript has attained a nice even golden-brown color.
3. You can't bear to look at the manuscript any more.
4. Every bit of tinkering you do now just makes it worse.
5. The skies open and an angel chorus surrounds your desk, singing, "You're done!"
6. Your deadline is here.
7. The book or story is published and cannot be changed unless a new edition comes out.
8. You're dead and therefore cannot revise any further.
9. None of the above.
Last night I was working on my latest novel. In the past week, I have gone from thinking this is a great book, better than the last one, to thinking it's so awful that I will be chalking this one up to "a learning experience." Obviously I have lost all perspective, and it's time to bring on the critique.
This book hasn't been seen by anyone else, except for a first-chapter critique I got at a conference a couple of years ago. And that was the old first chapter. The new first chapter is different. Anyway, I always figure there's no point in getting a critique on a story whose flaws and fixes are obvious to me. I need a critique when I've gotten to the point where I can't see the remaining flaws, or I can see them but have no idea how to fix them. And that's where this WIP is.
It will be going out for its first round of critique today, unless my computer crashes. Because while I know this book is not done, this draft is done. My instructions to my readers: Be merciless.
2. The manuscript has attained a nice even golden-brown color.
3. You can't bear to look at the manuscript any more.
4. Every bit of tinkering you do now just makes it worse.
5. The skies open and an angel chorus surrounds your desk, singing, "You're done!"
6. Your deadline is here.
7. The book or story is published and cannot be changed unless a new edition comes out.
8. You're dead and therefore cannot revise any further.
9. None of the above.
Last night I was working on my latest novel. In the past week, I have gone from thinking this is a great book, better than the last one, to thinking it's so awful that I will be chalking this one up to "a learning experience." Obviously I have lost all perspective, and it's time to bring on the critique.
This book hasn't been seen by anyone else, except for a first-chapter critique I got at a conference a couple of years ago. And that was the old first chapter. The new first chapter is different. Anyway, I always figure there's no point in getting a critique on a story whose flaws and fixes are obvious to me. I need a critique when I've gotten to the point where I can't see the remaining flaws, or I can see them but have no idea how to fix them. And that's where this WIP is.
It will be going out for its first round of critique today, unless my computer crashes. Because while I know this book is not done, this draft is done. My instructions to my readers: Be merciless.