Question of the Day: When do you know your story is ready?
Today is the first Wednesday of the month when Bloggers throughout the Blogosphere post their insecurities and encouragements. To learn more, or join the group, visit the Insecure Writers Support Group site, or the founder Alex J. Cavanaugh. The group has started asking a question for each month’s post. I appreciate that.
My short answer to the above question, when the deadline comes up! Now, that I think about it, that’s also my “long” answer. I have to set deadlines for myself. It’s the only way to work on my creative writing. I write plays, so when I get close to needing some input, I set a date for a table reading. That’s a great time to hear the characters come to life through readers and get some feedback.
It’s hard to know when it’s truly ready. I know novelists who have worked on the same novel for years. After you’ve worked and reworked a piece, had beta readers give you feedback, even gone through an editor, it’s time to start looking for a place to have it published and share it with the rest of the world.
Go. Create. Inspire!
Journaling Prompt: When do you know your creative work is ready to be shared?
Excellent post, Mary. Deadlines help me, too.
Deadlines can be a great motivator. Thank you for sharing. Great post. Wish you a super month.
Deadlines definitely help you focus! They keep you from doing too much messing around.
Deadlines really do help. They force us to finish.
I hear you. People get so scared about sharing their work, and understandably. Since getting published, it’s all about the deadlines for me. Before that, it was beta readers. You’ve got a healthy philosophy here.
We need to be brave and share our work.
Haha, Deadline is a good indicator of the end of a story 🙂
Deadlines indeed. From my reading today, that finished story feeling is always based on some arbitrary set of guidelines. Which is just as it should be. A gut feeling, a clean text, a completed story or a real date/deadline- they are all excellent ways of knowing the story is ready.
Yes, Ryan, there is a feeling to being done, as well.
Deadlines are extremely helpful for me too! I worked with a publisher who did not set deadlines–strange! I ended up setting my own.
Here’s my October IWSG post: Top 10 Ways to know if you’re ready to share your writing
Never let me control the deadline. I’ll just change it. *hangs head*
The good news is you can do it. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
I just have this utter feeling of “ugh, I can’t look at it anymore”–and then I know I’m done.
Deadlines will definitely generate creativity. I need to schedule more for myself.
I love deadlines. They keep me focused and force me to let a story go.
Hi Mary, Yep, deadlines – they do tend to keep you on the straight & narrow
The only deadlines I have are the ones I set for myself. They are good motivators.
Yes, they are!
When it’s as good as I can possibly get it, which means I do have the tendency to spend too long on the edits.
Yay for deadlines! Good point. I know meeting with a writers group every Friday motivates me to get a chapter of the story on the page. If I set a deadline for my WIP to be done, it’s too easy to extend it. I need to do better in this area!
JQ Rose
Yes, writer’s groups are great motivators!
Table reads sound like so much fun!
I wonder if that would work for books, minus the naked parts. 🙂
Heather
A looming deadline is a great motivator!
I also think that experienced writers know their stories are ready by trusting the “gut”. They say that gut instinct is when your brain creates a parallel to previous times when you made a similar decition. It tends to be accurate because you survived the last time you made that decision.
So now I need to get experience under my belt to get to that point…which means lots and lots of writing.
Michelle, Thanks for that added insight into what that “gut” instinct really is. That makes sense to me. I, too, need to develop that feeling/instinct.
I think I would work so much better if I had a deadline to meet. It’s so much harder when I only have to answer to myself.