When do you feel a story is finished?

[English Lady]

I have been writing hard all week for a deadline which is tomorrow.

This morning I wrote the last sentence on the story and now I feel I am finished.

However, it will be even more finished when I edit it later.

And if it is lucky enough to be chosen for publication it'll be properly finished when I've approved the proofs and it's all prettied up for publication.

So when do you feel your story is finished?

I think one of the reasons I have such a dislike for editing is that when I finish the imaginative process and write the last word of that first draft I feel like I am done. Everything else is just hard work in my mind, essential hard work, mind but hard work all the same.

 

[jomar]

I don't think they're ever finished, just time to put it out there. I could edit/revise over and over and refine it to the point I either finally quit changing things or do a complete rewrite, but who has the time for that...

I sort of enjoy the second (final) draft because of the changes for the better I make. However, it's all for fun for me since I've only submitted here so far.

 

[TxRad]

If it's for publication, it's finished when my editor and I quit arguing about it.

There's nothing in the world like a satisfied editor.

If it's for fun, then it's finished when I go over it a couple of time to spot the major errors.

 

[lance gt]

I'm finished pretty well on the last key stroke. I usually edit for content and spelling as I go, so there is little at the end to change. I've read the story 5-6 times at that point, so I don't have much in the way of changing anything and it's ready for submission.

 

[Daniellekitten]

By the time I get done writing them, I usually don't want to see them again. I just spent three days editing a story to send to a publisher before my fantastic editor even gets to see it. I wouldn't know what to do without him. Will takes my work from...okay... to fantastic. I couldn't do it without him.

 

[sr71plt]

I feel mine are finished after I've reviewed them once. If later I adjust them, that's refinishing them. If an adjustment changes the thrust of a story, I think of that as a new story.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

The two extremes are shown by Georges Simenon (Maigret) and his best friend André Gide.

Simenon could knock out a 200 page novel in 4 or 5 days and published in excess of 350 novels.

At the same time, Gide could never regard a work as finished and kept editing and revising forever. He only managed to publish 5 novels in his 81 years and although he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, he stayed poor.

Simenon, who once for a dare wrote a complete 150 page novel in a day whilst sitting in a glass booth in a bookshop full of customers, had 3 wives, 10,000 lovers (according to him) and was stinking rich. No nobel prize though.

Who was happier in himself? Just asking.

 

[musicus]

finished

A story is done when you feel you have gotten it totally out of your system. And a week later you feel there is nothing else you want to add.

I have been writing hard all week for a deadline which is tomorrow.

This morning I wrote the last sentence on the story and now I feel I am finished.

However, it will be even more finished when I edit it later.

And if it is lucky enough to be chosen for publication it'll be properly finished when I've approved the proofs and it's all prettied up for publication.

So when do you feel your story is finished?

I think one of the reasons I have such a dislike for editing is that when I finish the imaginative process and write the last word of that first draft I feel like I am done. Everything else is just hard work in my mind, essential hard work, mind but hard work all the same.

 

[English Lady]

I don't think they're ever finished, just time to put it out there. I could edit/revise over and over and refine it to the point I either finally quit changing things or do a complete rewrite, but who has the time for that...

I sort of enjoy the second (final) draft because of the changes for the better I make. However, it's all for fun for me since I've only submitted here so far.

I'd never put anything out there if this was how I felt!

If it's for publication, it's finished when my editor and I quit arguing about it.

There's nothing in the world like a satisfied editor.

If it's for fun, then it's finished when I go over it a couple of time to spot the major errors.

I never argue with my editors. They're scary. *chuckles*

I'm finished pretty well on the last key stroke. I usually edit for content and spelling as I go, so there is little at the end to change. I've read the story 5-6 times at that point, so I don't have much in the way of changing anything and it's ready for submission.

I wish I could do this but when I'm writing I can't put my editing head on.

By the time I get done writing them, I usually don't want to see them again. I just spent three days editing a story to send to a publisher before my fantastic editor even gets to see it. I wouldn't know what to do without him. Will takes my work from...okay... to fantastic. I couldn't do it without him.

I know, I'm the same. I know I'll enjoy them again 6/12 months down the line when I read them because I'll have forgotten bits of it by then.

I feel mine are finished after I've reviewed them once. If later I adjust them, that's refinishing them. If an adjustment changes the thrust of a story, I think of that as a new story.

Yes, I refinish things too!

The two extremes are shown by Georges Simenon (Maigret) and his best friend André Gide.

Simenon could knock out a 200 page novel in 4 or 5 days and published in excess of 350 novels.

At the same time, Gide could never regard a work as finished and kept editing and revising forever. He only managed to publish 5 novels in his 81 years and although he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, he stayed poor.

Simenon, who once for a dare wrote a complete 150 page novel in a day whilst sitting in a glass booth in a bookshop full of customers, had 3 wives, 10,000 lovers (according to him) and was stinking rich. No nobel prize though.

Who was happier in himself? Just asking.

I am like the first dude, kinda but sometimes wish I was more like dude number 2. I'll report back when I'm rich and famous though.

A story is done when you feel you have gotten it totally out of your system. And a week later you feel there is nothing else you want to add.

Yes, I think I agree with this too.

 

[Recidiva]

I tend to write obsessively and not methodically.

Writing is a beach.

It's like getting all the way into the water and then staying there. I don't get out, I don't dry myself off, I just write until I've exhausted my possibilities.

I will read and re-read and re-read and tinker until I get to the point where my eyes just start sliding off the words.

I get inspired to go, I pack up, I spend all day in the water, and I know it's time to go when the sunburn appears and I'm getting lightheaded and distracted and I can't concentrate.

It's a bad story and I'll abandon it if at the end of the day my eyes sliding off it aren't due to satisfaction and "Okay, that's good." Instead I get the feeling it was a good idea, but the weather never really cooperated and the waves just weren't there. No shells on the beach. Dragged down with the undertow and it never really lived up to its promise.

It's done when I just can't find anything new to add or take away and if I do much more, it's going to be overworked

 

[ExoMani]

I outline my story, characters, and setting(s) before I start writing.

I intermittently proofread, from the beginning, while I’m writing, and keep track of the number of proofreads by making color-coded notations in the story’s text.

By the time I’ve finished my first ‘draft’, I’ve already proofread most of my story several times, and have completed most of my editing.

After that, I finish my editing, proofread the whole story a few more times, and I’m finished.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but by that time, I know the story is just about as good as it’s ever going to get. I know I could improve it, if I let it ‘age’ for a couple of weeks and then edited it again. But, you’ve got to submit a story for someone else to read and comment on, sooner or later.

If I plan to write another story, or chapter, using the same characters, I’ll go back and re-edit and re-submit the original story. At that point, the story is as good as it’s going to get.

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Good question and not easy to answer. For me, it depends on the thing that I wrote. If, for example, it's an article for work, it's finished when my editor proofs it and I make any corrections he has. If, on the other hand, it's something I write for other reasons (i.e. fiction, plays, poems), it's over after I've finished it and then scrutinized it until I feel it's without error. At that point, I don't want to look at it anymore. I want it over and out of my life.

 

[BrazenFellow]

I really enjoy working on historical articles, tactical/operational papers, or technical articles because those have a very definite finite quality. They're done when they're done.

Out of the dozens of fiction pieces I've written most feel like an opening to more. This however is a plot issue. From a technical standpoint, I am careful to write things I won't have to go back and revise later, unless a better way to phrase something comes to mind when I review it. As a result I can sometimes spend ten or twenty minutes thinking about a paragraph before I write it. By the time the story is complete I've gone through it a half-dozen times and it is good to go.

 

[sr71plt]

Reading ExoMani's post brings up a related question in my mind: When do you feel a story is ready to start on writing?

If I thought I knew everything there was to know about the characters or how a plot or setting could be used or more than a hazy notion of where it was going, I probably wouldn't bother to start writing it at all. The enjoyment for me is the surprise and delight of how the story unfolds and everything manages to fit together during the process of writing it.

 

[Recidiva]

Reading ExoMani's post brings up a related question in my mind: When do you feel a story is ready to start on writing?

If I thought I knew everything there was to know about the characters or how a plot or setting could be used or more than a hazy notion of where it was going, I probably wouldn't bother to start writing it at all. The enjoyment for me is the surprise and delight of how the story unfolds and everything manages to fit together during the process of writing it.

Yeah, I really don't start with outlines at all.

I usually start with one crystallizing moment and then it has to fall into place from there.

 

[jomar]

I'd never put anything out there if this was how I felt!

Ha! Not that bad, really. But it does get down to diminishing returns at times.

 

[Dragonlipz]

When it quits calling me. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the voices I hear and the summoning of the muse.........

 

[lance gt]

Yeah, I really don't start with outlines at all.

I usually start with one crystallizing moment and then it has to fall into place from there.

That's about where I start too. I get an idea for a story and start writing it. I'll change it on the go, as ideas filter in and make sense to it. I like to write it as if I'm watching it happen, that way it's interesting to keep reading and writing it as I go. If I get bored of it while writing, I know a reader will as well. I try to keep the interest level going through each chapter and when it looks like a decent place to end it, that's where I start writing the epilogue and end it, before I go crazy and write another chapter, and another.

 

[Recidiva]

That's about where I start too. I get an idea for a story and start writing it. I'll change it on the go, as ideas filter in and make sense to it. I like to write it as if I'm watching it happen, that way it's interesting to keep reading and writing it as I go. If I get bored of it while writing, I know a reader will as well. I try to keep the interest level going through each chapter and when it looks like a decent place to end it, that's where I start writing the epilogue and end it, before I go crazy and write another chapter, and another.

And they tend to resist crystallizing the way I intend.

I wanted to write nonconsent, I ended up essentially writing romance.

I wanted to write horror. I ended up essentially writing romance.

Apparently there's places I don't wanna go.

 

[lance gt]

And they tend to resist crystallizing the way I intend.

I wanted to write nonconsent, I ended up essentially writing romance.

I wanted to write horror. I ended up essentially writing romance.

Apparently there's places I don't wanna go.

I have the same problem. I like to write in a certain genre and when I branch out, I'm fixated on my usual and it won't gel in the new one. I have to totally divorce myself of every regular story and think in a whole new way, like I'm someone else and living that way. I have to watch videos or read stories to get a feel of that lifestyle and then immerse myself into it to write something that doesn't smack of the usual. Writing in different genres helped me go outside my own box and explore. I still have probs with certain genres, but it helps get me understand the differences needed to write a story.

 

[English Lady]

Reading ExoMani's post brings up a related question in my mind: When do you feel a story is ready to start on writing?

If I thought I knew everything there was to know about the characters or how a plot or setting could be used or more than a hazy notion of where it was going, I probably wouldn't bother to start writing it at all. The enjoyment for me is the surprise and delight of how the story unfolds and everything manages to fit together during the process of writing it.

An idea in my head is usually all I need. Sometimes, if I anticipate not being able to start that story straight away I will write down 2 or 3 paragraphs of an outline so I can go back to it later but usually I do no planning whatsoever.

My characters develop as I go as does my story and often it'll have a different ending to what I expect or I might not even know the ending when I start writing!

That is the thrill of writing for me and why I find editing such a task. I'm getting better at it though.

 

[Liar]

I always have the finishing scene in my head when I start writing. It's what I work towards and when it gets there, I'm done. Sans pouring over the thing for typos.

 

[oggbashan]

When I hit the submit button I've finished. The story is dead, past it, history.

I watch for a few days to see what response it gets but I'm moving on to the next story. After a few months I don't even recognise it as my own production. I've moved on. The story is the same and a snapshot of what I was thinking about the story at that time.

I find it very difficult to go back to revise and improve an existing story, or to write another in the same series. I have to re-read the story and get myself interested in the characters again.

I also have problems with part-completed stories. They are just as hard to restart as writing another episode of an existing story. I have over 100 part-complete stories yet I'm more likely to finish a completely new story than to finish a stalled one.

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Reading ExoMani's post brings up a related question in my mind: When do you feel a story is ready to start on writing?

If I thought I knew everything there was to know about the characters or how a plot or setting could be used or more than a hazy notion of where it was going, I probably wouldn't bother to start writing it at all. The enjoyment for me is the surprise and delight of how the story unfolds and everything manages to fit together during the process of writing it.

Eudora Welty said she wrote "because I want to see what happens."

What she meant was, she'd put her characters in a situation and she wanted to see what would develop.

I agree with Jomar. My stories are never finished. Even the meaning and theme of a story can change months down the road, and I rarely open a story of mine where I don't fiddle with some sentence structures and stuff.

But when I'm working on a story, eventually I reach a balance between satisfaction and disappointment. They're never as good as they could be, but they're usually good enough.

 

[sr71plt]

Eudora Welty said she wrote "because I want to see what happens."

What she meant was, she'd put her characters in a situation and she wanted to see what would develop.

I agree with Jomar. My stories are never finished. Even the meaning and theme of a story can change months down the road, and I rarely open a story of mine where I don't fiddle with some sentence structures and stuff.

But when I'm working on a story, eventually I reach a balance between satisfaction and disappointment. They're never as good as they could be, but they're usually good enough.

I'm not quite at the Eudora Welty stage. I have a good idea what I want the story arc to be and where I want it to end--and it usually does go there. It's just that the journey there is so much richer when I don't get trapped by detail before I start writing.

I don't think I've left any story with a feeling of disappointment. I think they all turned out to be at least as satisfactory as I was aiming for when I started. And once I've started the writing of a story, I've yet to abondon one. I sometimes haven't started writing one that was ruminating in my head though--but that's usually because it leaves before it's convenient to start writing or because another, more compelling story idea or two intruded before I able to capture the original story concept.