How do you know when you are done?
After the excitement of finishing your first draft, and the tedium of making all the fixes and changes you knew you had to do, how do you know when you are really done and the manuscript is ready to send out, or that you need to polish it some more?
The answer to this is tricky. On the one hand, you definitely don’t want to send your baby off to be read by agents before it’s done. You want to give it every opportunity to succeed. On the other hand, you don’t want to become such a perfectionist that you are still fussing over word choice five years after the first draft was done. I have worked with many writers whose tortured perfectionism was actually hiding a deep fear of success, the hidden reason why they never managed to finish anything.
So how do you know which it is? A sincere desire to do the best job you can, versus a hidden saboteur who will never be satisfied, and will prevent you from ever being done?
Here are some clues.
•Do you have any niggling sense that there are some things that are still not right? Have you addressed them head-on? If so, you are probably done. If not, give yourself that time.
•Did you let the manuscript sit for a bit and then read it fresh? If so, did you make the corrections you saw it needed? If not, do so now.
•Have you started changing words back to what you originally had? If so, you are probably heavy into perfectionism and it’s time to let go.
•Have you thought about what you will do if the manuscript does get picked up? Does it send you into a panic? If so, start taking some deep breaths and be prepared to move on. This is a sign that fear is ruling you and perfectionism has taken hold.
•Have you asked for an outsider you trust to read the manuscript for you? (Be sure to see my earlier post to make sure you are picking a good reader.) If so, and they had suggestions, have you evaluated them and done the ones you thought were right? If so, you are ready to move on.
The truth is, everyone feels fear when it’s time to send the manuscript off. Everyone thinks there is something they could do just a little bit better. A real work of art is never quite done, you just have to stop after awhile. Because this is what it is for now, and there’s probably a new work waiting in the wings for you to give it some attention.