I'm sure the topic has been brought up before, but I'm giving a fresh start to it anyway.
Is a story done when you feel it is perfect or do you still change things up until the day you sell it? After that?
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
If you ever feel a story of yours is perfect, don't tell me. I don't like feeling jealous.
As for done, I'm not sure it ever really is. Certainly not when I submit it for publication. I have changed stories after receiving replies. Possibly when it sees print. So far, I haven't changed any of those...
Posted by Robyn_Hood (Member # 2083) on :
A story is as perfect as its going to get when I either sell it or get sick of tweaking it. Posted by Jeraliey (Member # 2147) on :
When I've said everything I wanted to say in as few words as possible.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I always think my stories will be perfect if I just take one more pass at them. But then I take pass after pass at them, and it always seems one more pass away. So in the end they're not so much finished as abandoned.
Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :
Your story will never ever be perfect. Even after it is published. Trust me on this one. "Respite" is already dated to me, and it was written this year.
Posted by TL 601 (Member # 2730) on :
Autumn, by "dated" do you mean that you've already surpassed that level of writing?
Posted by rcorporon (Member # 2879) on :
Da Vinci said that "art is never completed, its abandoned," or something like that.
I tend to agree with him.
Ronnie
Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :
I guess I mean that there are a few word choices that make me cringe now, and some bits that could be smoother. I still think it is a good story, of course. But it is far from perfect.
Posted by JmariC (Member # 2698) on :
A story is never finished, it's allowed to leave (or in some cases kicked out of the house) and find a place in the world in print. If it comes back, it's grounded for a bit and then worked on and begin cycle again. Years later, you run across a print of an old story you did years ago and you think, "Wow, did they pay me for that?". Some authors tidy the old story up and after a good wash and polish, the verification of who has the rights to it now, it will be reprinted with a lovely forward about how the original version was crap, please don't look for it.
Also http://www.livejournal.com/users/elizabethbear/3289.html this is a link to the journal entry or a published author (I found two of her books at my local story and smiled the seven-steps smile). In this entry she discusses what it's like to be going back over something she wrote years ago and that whole 'dated' thing.
Posted by Paul-girtbooks (Member # 2799) on :
A story is finished when you either a) can't be bloody well bothered revising the blasted thing anymore or b) hopefully find something else to write, thus totally forgetting all about the previous one you were working on!
Or, if you like, you're done and dusted when you've managed to satisfy all or most of your fellow Hatrackers who have critiqued your story...
... oh, here, wait a minute - if that's the case then I'm buggered. Damn!
Posted by BuffySquirrel (Member # 2780) on :
Buggered is an ugly word, Paul. Try...
No no no! Don't go there!
A story is never done. Never, I tell ya. Never!
Just recently, I have been ordered to leave my first alt hist novel alone. Strictly alone. Not one dot may I undot.
It's agony .
Posted by Silver3 (Member # 2174) on :
A story is never done; at some point you just decide to leave the poor thing alone, and go on to torment something else.
or b) hopefully find something else to write, thus totally forgetting all about the previous one you were working on! 
