How do you deal with impatience?

[SilenceDances]

Sometimes when I'm writing a story, the desire for others to read it makes me think that it's finished. When really, when I go back to read it weeks later, I realize it needed more work. Do you experience this? How have you dealt with it?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Sometimes when I'm writing a story, the desire for others to read it makes me think that it's finished. When really, when I go back to read it weeks later, I realize it needed more work. Do you experience this? How have you dealt with it?

Mine aren't finished until I say so or my characters say so. My writing technique is such that I review and edit as I write, so by the time I get to the end it's pretty much scrubbed through already. At that point I might let it sit for a day or three, but rarely longer. What I don't do is rework and rework it - if it isn't up to my standards, I've known that way, way before the end of writing.

 

[lovecraft68]

I read mine to my wife one chapter at a time and in addition to that being a great way to catch mistakes, it gives me that feeling I'm sharing it and also avoids that 'done now' feeling because reading it I can tell its not until it finally is.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Sometimes when I'm writing a story, the desire for others to read it makes me think that it's finished. When really, when I go back to read it weeks later, I realize it needed more work. Do you experience this? How have you dealt with it?

I don't fight impatience, I roll with it and just accept that it's not going to be perfect. I'd rather send my time writing the next story than polishing one that's already 99% done. If I was selling it, I'd put that extra time and effort in but on LIT, nope, I treat it as a good draft and just accept that there will be minor mistakes.

 

[My I]

I just unlock my procrastinator side and let it and impatience fight it out.

 

[Gotham_Central]

I think this is where beta readers, and if you can pull it off, more than one, serve a very important role. I recently went back to a piece that my local writer's group loved and found myself very disappointed. I had failed to engage all five senses in the scene, which cost my characters their full voice.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Sometimes when I'm writing a story, the desire for others to read it makes me think that it's finished. When really, when I go back to read it weeks later, I realize it needed more work. Do you experience this? How have you dealt with it?

Been there, and a couple of readers have called me on it. The cure in my case was to get over this place and get less interested in reader response.

 

[SimonDoom]

I know exactly how the OP feels. I often get impatient to finish and publish a story when I'm in the middle of writing it, particularly when it's a chapter in a series and I read comments from readers impatient to see the next chapter. I think Handsinthedark is right: you have to shut the readers out of your mind and focus on the story. I feel if I rush it I will know and will be dissatisfied.

My writing style, too, is very different from Electricblue's. I find that as I write the first draft my satisfaction with what I'm writing varies a lot from passage to passage, and I have to go over the whole thing once I'm done. I don't edit evenly as I go; some sections come out in a much more polished manner than others.

 

[DrDelirium]

I find that if I gag and hogtie someone, it doesn't really matter if they're impatient or not. Oh, wait... (gotta remember to read the posts, not just the headline...)
I have too much patience. As a result, things don't get published.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I possess the soul of a farmer, and farmers cant be impatient.

That said, we know how long things take, and get rid of what takes too long to perform.

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[sr71plt]

Most of my work goes to the market first and thus production delays pretty much say "so what?" to my impatience and I'm not publishing it here for so long that I usually have to review it to remember what it was about. I've had some contest pieces that I've pushed to see up on Literotica within twenty-four hours of writing them, and I often regret having done that, as I always add and refine in each and every review I put it through. I find I'm more impatient and less caring about pieces I submit under a different name than this account name and don't usually sit on them as long before posting--nor do I usually go back to look at them.

 

[HeyAll]

Keep writing a bunch of new stuff to keep your mind away from the old stuff.

 

[KindofHere]

.......................

 

[TxRad]

Impatience.

Why be impatience? It will be finished when it is finished. Would you want the mechanic working on your car to be impatient? Crafting anything takes time and patience. It is ready when it is ready and not before.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Like Blue, I do most of my editing/re-working as I progress, but I always do one final read-through before posting or publishing anything, too. To avoid rushing anything--and to ensure that I always, always have a backlog--I won't do a final read-through on my latest story/chapter until I've finished the next one and I won't start actually posting a new series until I have a minimum of 1-2 months of backlog.

My current project is a guaranteed cure to any leaning I might have towards impatience. It's a long, multi chapter piece where I think I would be crucified if I started publishing and then didn't have it all ready to roll regularly. So i have to have the whole thing written, done and dusted before the first word goes live. It's months away - life is busy too, and the words arrive at their own pace. I'm driving my first reader insane!

 

[RelationshipGoalsXXX]

How have you dealt with it?

When I'm not sure if the story is 100% complete, I use my wife as a bit of an editor + continuity checker + wall to bounce ideas off of.

 

[SilenceDances]

What I've learned from all you wonderful people:
1) I need a wife.
2) I should go write some other stories to take my mind off of it for a while.
3) Buy a farm, and learn some self-control.
4) Distract myself here on the forums when I feel like posting too soon.

Thank you lovelies.

 

[GoldenCojones]

I personally deal with impatience ... poorly

As to the OP's real question, I fall prey to that more often than not, but I usually don't realize it until it has been posted and a reader calls me out on it.