Vlog: How Do You Know When You're Done Revising?

You asked, I answered. Today I'm talking about how to know when you're done revising your manuscript.

RELATED VLOGS:

• Why I Revise in Passes
• When Is Your MS Query-Ready?
• First to Final Draft: BEYOND THE RED

How do you know when you're done revising?

Twitter-sized bites: 

How do you know when you're done revising? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. #vlog (Click to tweet) 

Not sure when to declare your WIP done? @Ava_Jae vlogs on how to know you're done revising. (Click to tweet)

Critique Etiquette: Should You Resubmit Revisions?

Photo credit: cellar_door_films on Flickr

So you’ve won a critique of your query letter, or first page, or first paragraph, or first fifty pages, etc. Or maybe you’ve come across a writer whose giving away critiques for free, or an event in which a bunch of writers give away critiques, or whatever the case may be. Point is, you’ve won a critique and you’re excited—and you should be! Critiques are exciting. And a little nerve-wracking. But worth being excited over. 

You send your critique off and you wait. Maybe the writer sends it back in an hour, maybe in a week, maybe longer, but regardless of how long it is, it feels like forever. Then the critique arrives in your inbox and you open it and…

Wow. That’s a lot of red. 

But you’re a writer! So you take the notes and you use it to rework your submission, but you’re not totally sure that it’s better. Or that those changes you made really worked. What if you made it worse? Oh God, what if you ruined it? What if?

At this point, you’re probably feeling pretty tempted to send it back to the writer who left you those helpful edit notes to take a second look at it. Just to make sure you didn’t go overboard. Or you didn’t miss the point of the notes. Mostly you just want to make sure you didn’t destroy your work. 

But while it is so tempting to resubmit that revision to the writer in question, and trust me, my lovely writers, I know how tempting it is, should you do it? Should you resubmit that revision? 

There are two possible scenarios with two very different answers. 

• Scenario 1: The editor invited you to resubmit a revision x-number of times. This happens! It does, and when it does, it’s wonderful and I hope you thank that person profusely if you decide to take them up on their offer, because they’re not obligated to offer, but they did, and that’s really awesome of them. If this is your scenario, then send away! And be happy because the editor will reassure you that you aren’t losing your mind. 


• Scenario 2: The editor did not mention anything about resubmitting a revision. This also happens. If this is your scenario, then do not resubmit, at least, not without asking first.
  
  The thing is, winning a critique is not an automatic invitation to submit your revisions afterwards. Many editors or critiquing writers consider freebies a one-off, and rightfully so—you’re getting their services and their time for free, and the thing with revisions is they can go on pretty much forever if you let them. They take a lot of time, and not everyone is able to give away that much time for free.
  
  You see, it’s not that one revision is a big deal—the issue is that when you ask an editor (or whoever is looking at your work) to look at your revisions without an invitation, you’re asking them to do so for anyone who asks, however many times they ask. Because once you say yes to one person, it’s much more difficult to say no to someone else, or even no to the same person when they want to send a third or fourth revision.
  
  By asking someone to take a second look at your work, when they hadn’t agreed or opened the door for you to do so, you’re putting them in an uncomfortable situation. On one hand, saying no isn’t fun, but saying yes makes it even more difficult to say no later. 

It’s a simple enough mistake, and I totally understand why some writers don’t realize that this is something than can make for a very uncomfortable situation for the person editing your work. Just remember: when in doubt, ask. But definitely don’t assume the answer is yes. 

Note: Just to be clear, I’m not writing this post to reprimand anyone. As I follow many editors on Twitter, I’ve seen this issue mentioned more than a couple times, so being that it’s not often discussed, I figured I’d write about it. 

Also, in paid or swapping situations, this is usually established right from the beginning. But if not, the safest thing to assume is if they didn’t invite a resubmission, you shouldn’t resubmit. Though if you’re not sure, it doesn’t hurt to ask. 

What critique etiquette tips do you have?

Twitter-sized bites: 

Is it ok to resubmit revisions after a critique? Here's why you may want to pause before you do. (Click to tweet)  

"Winning a critique is not an automatic invitation to submit your revisions afterwards." (Click to tweet) 

Editing: How Do You Know When You’re Finished?

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It’s often said that writing is rewriting, and the importance of editing is well emphasized, but when it comes to talking about the end of the editing process and announcing a final  draft, writers tend to get a little vague. 

You see, the truth about final drafts is that they don’t really exist until someone decides that this draft that you’re holding is indeed the final one. Sometimes that “someone” is the writer, and sometimes it’s an editor, or an agent, or another publishing professional, but the point is that this is yet another subjective step. 

I’ve heard it said that the final draft of a book isn’t a real thing—there is a draft, then a published draft, but final one? Final in the sense that it will no longer be tweaked (besides the occasional fix of typos), perhaps. But the perfect draft doesn’t exist, which makes the pursuit of perfection an impossible task. 

For unpublished writers without an agent or editor to say this is the draft that will be published, it can be even more difficult to decide when a WIP has reached the final draft (or draft ready for submission, at least) stage. With no one to force them to stop editing, it’s not uncommon for writers to edit with no end in sight. 

So how can you tell when you’ve reached the final draft?

There are two major clues to look out for, namely: 

• Your betas and CPs are happy. Have I mentioned lately how helpful betas and critique partners are? This is yet another reason why—when you start getting mostly positive feedback (i.e.: most betas agree that you don’t have any major gaping plot holes or huge character problems, etc.) you know you’re definitely close. 


• You’re happy. By “happy” I don’t mean that you think it’s perfect, because chances are you’ll never think it’s perfect. But when you read your WIP, you’re no longer cringing at the writing. You look at your work and you don’t feel the need to tweak. Eventually you will reach a point when you feel there’s nothing more you can do to improve your novel, and that’s when you know you’ve reached the end. (For now). 

Remember that until publication, there really is no final draft, but there is a happy place where you’ve done enough editing, and that is all you really need. 

How do you know when you’ve reached the final draft stage? 

Over-Editing: Does it Exist?

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If you’ve visited this blog before, then chances are you know that I often emphasize the importance of editing. And with good reason—editing is essential to both improving a WIP and refining your skill as a writer.

But while writers often talk about working on their third or fourth (or tenth) draft and most of us are well aware that the editing doesn’t stop after the completion of a second draft or a few beta-read edits, the seemingly endless flow of edits begs the question: is there such a thing as editing too much?

It probably comes as little surprise to many of you to hear that creative individuals tend to share perfectionistic traits—particularly with their work. We truly are our greatest critic, and because of that, many writers often find themselves caught in a loop of endless edits.

Considering the enormous amount of rejection most writers must face, it’s easy to see why so many writers get so caught up in the editing stage that they never really reach completion. Letting our work go—whether to be self-published online or subjected to opinions from professionals in the publishing world—is a scary thing. And naturally, we want out work to be the best it can be before release—as it should be.

But eventually, you have to let your WIP graduate to the title of completed work. Eventually you have to accept that you’ve made your manuscript as good as you possibly can and it’s time to let it speak for itself.

Editing is an essential step to the writing process, but it is possible to overdo it. Because I promise you, your work will never be perfect—even traditionally published works contain grammatical and typographical errors. In your eyes, there will always be something to fix—whether it’s that sentence that still doesn’t sound just right or the possibly misplaced comma on page 193.

But if we never let our work try for the limelight, then we’re crushing its potential before it even had a chance. We’re killing the dream with fears and doubts and a reach for the impossible.

Don’t let a fear of rejection or less than perfection keep you from achieving your dreams. Edit your work until it’s the very best that you can make it, then stop. It’s time to let it go.

Have you ever fallen into the endless editing loop? Share your experiences in the comments below!

NEESA

Welcome to Never-Ending Editing Syndrome Anonymous, also known as The Writing Group that Suffers From WAIT I CAN’T SEND THAT OUT YET IT’S NOT READY YOU CAN’T MAKE ME STOP EDITING *CLING*!

*ehem.* As this is our first meeting, and I understand we’re all feeling a little uncomfortable, I will break the ice. *deep breath.*

Hi. My name is Ava Jae and…and I suffer from Never-Ending Editing Syndrome. There. I said it. Wow, I actually said it.

Now many of you are probably wondering what Never-Ending Editing Syndrome is and how you magically arrived at this meeting, when you have no memory of signing up for such an event. As the latter is not really that important, I’ll just address the former.

There are many symptoms associated with Never-Ending Editing Syndrome. If you suffer from more than one of these, you probably are infected:

·         Telling friends, family and anyone who will listen that you’ve finished your final edits of your WIP only to resume editing a few weeks (or days) later.

·         Asking beta readers if they could look over a few chapters again because the version they read was three or four drafts ago.

·         Moving that deadline over because it’s “just not ready.”

·         Panicking after you send out an excerpt and doing another emergency edit even though it’s already too late and—AW CRAP IS THAT A TYPO?!

·         Inexplicable sobbing.

·         Recurring nightmares of that rejection or scathing review because of a misplaced comma on page fifty-seven.

Now of course, you are probably wondering what the cure is. So am I. Let me know when you find one.

UNTIL THEN! There ARE ways to fight it. It’s difficult, I know, and sometimes it takes a little pushing from someone else. But NEES is NOT a death sentence and it CAN be overcome!

Here are some strategies:

•        Stick to your goals. This means not allowing yourself to push a deadline over. When you hit the deadline, guess what? You’ve met the deadline. Stop editing. Like now. I see you still reading. STOP!
•       Trust your beta readers and critique partners. If you have a critique partner that rips your work to shreds and points out every glaring plot hole, good. Hold on to them. They’re invaluable. After they’ve gone through your manuscript and you’ve made the necessary changes, trust your readers. Chances are, they enjoyed your book, so don’t make any more changes. I know it’s tempting. Really, I do. BUT STOP MAKING CHANGES!
•       Complete this sentence: I will be done editing when ________. Now fill in the blank. Maybe when you get five positive responses from betas. Maybe when you’ve made your cardboard antagonist sympathetic. Maybe when your writing isn’t pretty anymore (more on that later). Regardless of what your overall goal is, fill in the blank and still to it. The only unacceptable answer is “perfect.” DON’T FILL IN THE BLANK WITH “PERFECT” OR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND DROWN YOU IN SPARKLY CONFETTI!

Finally, remember this: your book doesn’t have to be perfect, just enjoyable. No one’s book is perfect. NO ONE’S. No one expects yours to be, either. Make it the best you can, then let it go.

Do you suffer from NEES? What symptoms have I missed? What other strategies do you suggest?