How do you know when to stop revising? I am revising a piece right now for my final MFA submission of the semester, and it just keeps on growing and growing and growing. I am adding scenes, but am not sure if they all work, or if they are making it worse. I've rearranged some of the action. My advisor has been consistent in urging me to think about how to present something for maximum impact. Still kind of groping around in the dark there. Since I can't figure out when to stop revising, I have decided to stop at noon tomorrow. Whatever I have by then, that's what the submission will be. It doesn't need to be perfect, just good enough. I expect to have to revisit this piece several times. I'm quite sure that a whole different perspective is going to come once I've been to South Africa. I also plan to submit at least some of it for the January workshops. I am so excited about the January residency!
I did send something to the CBC Literary Awards on Tuesday. Their word limit was 2500, so I just picked three scenes and arranged them in a new way, re-wrote them for "maximum impact" and sent them in. I'm less concerned about winning than I am about developing the habit of sending stuff out.
I did hear back from a second pubisher who wants to look at the philosophy manuscript, but I haven't heard back from the first yet. So now I don't know what to do since Editor Number Two wants "a clear shot" at it for three months. I take it that means no one else should have it at the same time. Rather than agonize, I am going to take it all as good news and deal with it after the weekend.
Now, back to revising.
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2 comments:
This is definitely a question I've had too. It's something I talked about my advisor with, though I never got a very satisfying answer. I definitely think that setting a time limit and then going back later when you have some perspective is a good thing.
Good luck with your award subs! Good for you!
I am having the same issues with re-writing. I'm getting better and better at reading others' work and figuring out what they are doing (thank you craft annotations!) but lack the same perspective when looking at my own work.
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