Know When to Stop

One of the hardest parts of writing is knowing when to stop. When to finish the final edits and let it go. To hit “send,” show it to a friend, or post it on the blog.

It takes a certain kind of courage. Even after all these years, my stomach starts sloshing with nerves when it’s time to send a piece out to editors.

We spend hours, days, sometimes months living with the words. We rearrange, trying to pick the right ones and put them in the right places. We change openings, rethink endings, cut words, and add others.

That kind of revision is, for me, not separate from the writing. It’s an important part of creating a finished piece.

But then you’ve got to call it.

And writers can be sticky about this. Heck, I can be sticky about this. In my first book wrote a chapter about a moment I had with my daughter when she was just a few months old. My chronic illness was flaring, and it forced me to adjust as a mother. The chapter was strong after many drafts. And emotional. Definitely for me, and I hoped for the reader, too.

But it was so personal, I had a hard time letting it go. I revised that thing til there were almost no words left on the page. That was my fear talking. My vulnerability. I caught myself. Went back to an early draft, the one before I overworked it, and that’s what went in the book.

It’s important to move on and release it before the endless revisions make the story worse.