What do you do as soon as you finish a story?

[Whanmore]

Do you fist pump? Take a drink? A Smoke? Do you publish immediately? Or re-read 1000 times? I just finished a scene, obviously. I sit back, drink smoke and see if I can get horny reading it. Mostly end up fawning at how much I love it. Then publish it on Lit two months later. How bout U?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Publish, and usually start writing something new. It's when I read it a year later that I might think, that's not too bad.

 

[THBGato]

Re-read it, before sending it to my wonderful new beta reader. I check the timezone difference in where (they say) they are versus where I am, then log on when I think they might just be awake and act on comments they make as soon as they make them.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

If it hasn't been edited yet, then I usually leave it at least 24 hours before re-reading and editing to try and come at it with fresh eyes.

If it's completely finished, I just sit on it until I feel ready to upload it on here, which is sometimes fairly soon but sometimes I like to leave it a while.

And as for my personal behaviour, it depends on how hot the final scene was... I'm no stranger to playing it out in my head for a while.

 

[mildlyaroused]

If it's a longer work, I put it away for a few weeks before sitting down to properly edit. Have a drink, go out with some friends. A few days off. As far as the ones I've published here, I was too keen to submit them to wait for that long...

 

[TheLobster]

Nice timing, as I just finished writing a decent-sized story (18k words). I don’t really have any habits or rituals around this, but I feel like leaving it to simmer for about a day, then come back tomorrow to re-read & edit. Then probably give it one more read before thinking about publishing.

 

[orangecurious]

re-read it. do that again. decide i don't like it and sulk. read it again. publish it, maybe.

then read it again when it's up and spot the typos.

 

[oneagainst]

Uh, generally get on with whatever the hell I was supposed to be doing

 

[AchtungNight]

Go over it in my head and then with my eyes plus a spell check program, make sure I’m happy with it. Then publish and commence the hoping for good feedback.

 

[MyBareTorso]

Publish, and usually start writing something new. It's when I read it a year later that I might think, that's not too bad.

Exactly the above...

 

[KeithD]

More often than not that's when I realize I've needed to go to the bathroom for a half hour, so I go take care of that.

 

[StillStunned]

Spend half an hour trying to come up with a catchy description in 60 characters or less.

 

[lustychimera]

Plug it into a voice reader. It's great at highlighting grammatical mistakes especially, but it also does a decent job of pointing out weird phrasings and pacing issues. And it's fun to listen to if it's a good program.

The best is to sit on the story for a couple weeks then reread it as a final proof, but I tend to be too impatient.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I move it to my pending folder to sit and simmer for a while. I read and reread my stories over and over, editing and adding or deleting things until I can't find anything else. Sometimes this process takes months, sometimes, as in the case of my latest story, only a few hours. I've had a few stories stay in pending for over a year before I was finally happy enough with them to published them.

 

[StillStunned]

Spend half an hour trying to come up with a catchy description in 60 characters or less.

I should clarify by adding that I consider the story "finished" when I've already gone through the whole "write, rewrite, edit, Read Aloud" process.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

More often than not that's when I realize I've needed to go to the bathroom for a half hour, so I go take care of that.

I can relate to that ...

 

[EmilyMiller]

What do you do as soon as you finish a story?​

It varies a lot. After writing 20 750 word stories in 21 days, I needed a break. Often after finishing a long (for me) and complicated (for me) story, I also need a break. But sometimes I’ve got multiple things I’m excited about and then I just plow on with the next one.

Emily

 

[Rob_Royale]

Finished the first draft on my first sci-fi story last night. Today begins the proofreading process and punching up the sex scenes.

I don't really have a celebratory practice. After it's submitted, I just go and do something else, take a day off from the keyboard.

 

[Abbafan]

Let it sit on my hard drive for a while then delete it, cuz i'm paranoid.

 

[intim8]

Do you fist pump? Take a drink? A Smoke? Do you publish immediately? Or re-read 1000 times?

No celebration, and I smoke while I'm writing, so while I probably do light one up after, it's just another in a long line.

On the other hand, I don't have as much of a distinct "finish" with the way I write. There's no grand final period at the end of the final sentence, there's just progressively more fine revisions until it gets over some vague line that says 'publish now". Kind of like sanding a piece of wood. It could always be a little smoother, but at some point there's a diminishing return.

I used to then publish it almost immediately, but I've learned to sit on it for a couple of days, do one last read, fix anything that jumps out, then run it through grammarly and prep it for posting with things like preamble and postamble notes and a more thought out title and sub.

 

[cababge]

Probably have a smoke then go to sleep. The momentum carries me late into the night so when I finish it's usually bedtime!

 

[Whanmore]

Probably have a smoke then go to sleep. The momentum carries me late into the night so when I finish it's usually bedtime!

Tell me about it

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I thought this was about finishing reading stories, at first.

When I finish a 'decent draft', I have a feeling of satisfaction. Like knitting, I've creating something in the world that didn't use to be there. I'll soon read it through to see what I stumble on, and do more editing to make it flow better and tighten it up, but I do a lot of that going along, too. If I haven't been enjoying my words and the world they create, I can't expect anyone else to.

I'll try to leave it a couple weeks before editing again, though if there's an event that's often not possible. Then a final edit on the PC to fix the formatting and all, and ping it to Laurel.

Then I try to ignore it and not check hourly to see if it's been accepted. Followed by trying not to check more often to see how it's going, because the pattern is always the same, some good votes followed by bad ones, then very few until a sweep gets rid...

 

[HeyAll]

Ideally, if there's enough time, as soon as I finish a story I try to forget it. Then start a new story the next day. After the next story is done, then I go back and edit the first story.

That's what I've been doing lately and it results in a better edit -- in terms of what to cut out and reduce. Now you're looking at the story with fresh eyes.

 

[Devinter]

I flip a coin to decide if I should upload it or not. Then I start on the next one.