How do you know it’s time to pull the trigger?

[Bramblethorn]

Very helpful.
My first impression of your ‘how-to’ is that it’s applicable to more high-end writing. No, I don’t have a definition for ‘high-end’ but I guess I mean longer, more thoughtfully-crafted works as opposed to anything within my abilities. That said, even my 2k-5k wordcount efforts could be better, feel more “real”, more authentic, flow better and on and on.
Feel free to toot your own horn (if you choose to answer this at all): would you say the level of editing in your ‘how-to’ is common?

It's definitely more story-focussed, less technical, than a lot of the editing I've done on stories here. That particular example is with two authors who already have a lot of stories under their belt, and I knew they were going to work on it a bit more after I'd looked at it, so I wasn't looking too much for minor technical stuff (excepting a few things I flagged because they might not get caught later).

 

[ElectricBlue]

I meant publish. But you‘re causing me to reflect. So far, it’s never occurred to me to scrap a story but if I keep at this, I can certainly imagine that could/ought to become a possible outcome.

I reckon you know a story isn't going anywhere within the first five-hundred words.

Most folk here seem to keep all their failed starts. I figure, why bother? If it's dead in the water today, it's hardly going to get legs tomorrow. I'll delete files without too much agony. If the idea was good enough, it'll pop up again later (but with me, they seldom do).

 

[AchtungNight]

My scrapped ideas sometimes come back. When I first decided to write a story about a religious celebrity, my villain was a shamer I had to put in metaphorical Hell. I first handled her by pointing out her hypocrisy and expecting her to stay dead. The story ended up scrapped because I did not appreciate the realism in my vision. Later, I revisited the story and revived the villain. I ultimately handled her in a similar way. See my story Counseling for the result. Yes, before readers ask, the villain did not seemingly get punished that badly at the end of Counseling. But consider this- is any conservative shamer comfortable when forced to confront the liberal diversity of our world? Nay, thee, I say.

 

[Cagivagurl]

I am a terrible tinkerer. I never feel like a story is ready, or finished. I keep going back, rewriting small sections...
Th person who edits my work, who I admire greatly gave me a wonderful piece of advice...
"At some point, you reach a point of diminishing return."
It took me a while to fully grasp.... Yes, I'm a little slow...
each time I returned to the well, it gets harder and harder to find improvements...

When you reach the point, improvements or changes don't stand out.... Publish...

Cagivagurl

 

[tantracuck]

My life experiences which have influenced my style, and writing experience, may differ from others so take my perspective with a big grain of salt. I usually try to publish by the third draft.

Most of my work is preparatory; I rarely if ever write spontaneously. Before I sit to start writing, I'll have my idea and flesh it out in my head. What the theme is, who the characters are, what the major events are going to be, how those events connect to each other and the theme, and how it resolves. I'll mull that over a while, then I'll block the story in my head or in document.

So, by the time I sit down to write the actual story, I'm really just writing prose to fit what I've already envisioned. If I get a flash of inspiration from it, I go with the flow, but generally I stick to the blocking I've already created for myself. From there, I do my proofreading, and if anything stands out to me while proofreading I'll revise. After that, once the work is clear of (unintended) grammatical and spelling errors, off to the pending queue it goes.

 

[alohadave]

My life experiences which have influenced my style, and writing experience, may differ from others so take my perspective with a big grain of salt. I usually try to publish by the third draft.

Most of my work is preparatory; I rarely if ever write spontaneously. Before I sit to start writing, I'll have my idea and flesh it out in my head. What the theme is, who the characters are, what the major events are going to be, how those events connect to each other and the theme, and how it resolves. I'll mull that over a while, then I'll block the story in my head or in document.

So, by the time I sit down to write the actual story, I'm really just writing prose to fit what I've already envisioned. If I get a flash of inspiration from it, I go with the flow, but generally I stick to the blocking I've already created for myself. From there, I do my proofreading, and if anything stands out to me while proofreading I'll revise. After that, once the work is clear of (unintended) grammatical and spelling errors, off to the pending queue it goes.

I write similarly. I usually have the story plotted out and scenes figured out before I start writing the story.

If I don't then I stare at the screen wondering what comes next.

I don't typically write a garbage or vomit draft, most of my editing is line editing or looking for inconsistencies in details. And I will generally do cleanup editing on previous sections when I don't feel motivated to write, but want to get something done. Writing sequentially helps with this.

 

[EmilyMiller]

How do you know it’s time to pull the trigger?​

Employing your metaphor, I think I have a hair trigger.

Maybe that’s why I spend time posting edits to published stories.

I have little patience - I want my stuff out there ASAP.

Em

 

[MillieDynamite]

When you are looking down the barrel of their gun and realize they are pulling their trigger, that's when you know, do it now! Now I should see what this thread is actually about.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Hello, all you vastly more experienced writer-folk…
I write what I suppose y’all would refer to as stroke stories. That said, I obsess over them, taking typically a couple weeks to write and rewrite each.
As I polish a story, I find myself thinking it’s ‘there,’ and mentally flirt with the notion of posting. But then I back off for no clearly-discernible reason and set it aside. This happens - I dunno - five, six times before I actually pull the trigger.
Do you have some better way of knowing? A metric? A firm process?

I’m sitting on one now, itching to post it. Hence the question…

When it's done, my editor returns it to me, I post it. I have no magic formula. When I'm somewhat satisfied, the editor or beta reader doesn't say this sucks, it's ready.

 

[Vintage_DM]

The opposite of how you know when brownies are done...

When they are all gone.

 

[Vintage_DM]

Hello, all you vastly more experienced writer-folk…
I write what I suppose y’all would refer to as stroke stories. That said, I obsess over them, taking typically a couple weeks to write and rewrite each.
As I polish a story, I find myself thinking it’s ‘there,’ and mentally flirt with the notion of posting. But then I back off for no clearly-discernible reason and set it aside. This happens - I dunno - five, six times before I actually pull the trigger.
Do you have some better way of knowing? A metric? A firm process?

I’m sitting on one now, itching to post it. Hence the question…

I believe it was Henry Ford that was supposed to have said --- There comes a time in the life of every project to shoot the engineers and go into production. When is a story ready to post? When you ,,, yes you the author feel satisfied with what you have down.

 

[Zootonius]

The perfect is the enemy of the good. There will always be that nagging feeling that it could be a little bit better, or that you can't possibly have found every typo, but at some point you have to just send it out into the world. There's no formula, no certain process. Every "submit" is a leap of faith.

Or to misuse the duke of Wellington's quote, publish and be damned.