Monday, 12 September 2016

Stop tweaking your writing

You know that feeling of going round and round and getting nowhere?


I am rewriting a story and post each chapter as I finish the rewrite. I read comments and read the chapter again and tweak.  
Recently I tweaked a chapter three or four times and one of my readers said- 

"Stop tweaking and move on or you will lose the flow of the story, and your momentum."

She is right.
I was worrying about leaving something in or not and then realised -If you are going to submit to an agent then they will tell you if something needs removing.
If you are going down the self publishing route its good to have other people read your manuscript to pick up plot problems etc as well as using a professional editor.


So how do you know when to stop?

When you put a word in, then change it, take it out and return to the first word
You are adding scenes or even chapters rather than reducing the word count.
You are nit-picking.
You edit but the story does not improve.
You have edited for everything you can think of but need just one more...
You have been editing for years!
Your unique writing voice dissolves under the onslaught.

It will never be perfect, but it must be finished to send out into the world.



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