Be Careful Over-working Your Story. You Will Never Finish

We've all heard authors say this time and time again.
"Yeah, my story is finished but before I send it out, I want to tweak it a bit more."

Argh! This is sometimes the most frustrating thing I have heard authors say. At some point, you have to put your story to bed and move on to a new project, or move that story to a new point in its life. In other words, it is time to send it on.

In all honesty, I think a lot of authors use this comment as a way of saying they aren't personally ready to move on with their writing. The story becomes the "fall-guy." To me, I really don't have a problem with that. The writer isn't ready to send it out to other people, so start on a new project. Quit tweaking the current project.

The problem with this constant tweaking is that the story will become something that you likely didn't want it to be. In some cases, you will do things to the story that will actually make it worse. For authors that do this, the odds are they are listening to other authors talk about their stories, sitting in conference workshops, or reading on the loops about a "really cool technique." Their brains think briefly to something in their stories and they go to work fixing.

We have to remember that every story is different. What worked in another story may not work in yours. You have a completely different context and things don't always translate well from one story to the next.

The message here is simple.

If you are finished with your story then keep it as such. If you aren't ready to send it out, go on to something new. It may sit there for a while, but at least you won't damage it.

Scott