Trying to keep on track...

[ZinJ]

I've been writing my main series 'Blood Song' since July last year and it's gone through so many changes.

I finally sat down one week and finished writing the whole thing and have now posted 13 chapters here. But every time I go back and re-read a chapter that I'm about to post, I keep second guessing myself and thinking "but what if I added this here or there" and I get delayed. Am I overthinking about a story that's pretty much being posted for free? Should I just relax and post whatever?

Anyone else have this kind of obsession with getting everything right? I have to admit that not being able to at least delete chapters myself feeds into that anxiety. Having to ask mods to delete or edit and waiting for weeks is off-putting.

 

[WCSGarland]

I did at first, but I got over it after a while.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I've never begun submitting a story before it was complete, so all of the second guessing angst occurs for me during the editing of the entire story and resolved before publication.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I dunno about posting "whatever," but there's a point where you're agonizing over little things and you just need to let it go.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Anyone else have this kind of obsession with getting everything right? I have to admit that not being able to at least delete chapters myself feeds into that anxiety. Having to ask mods to delete or edit and waiting for weeks is off-putting.

Once its posted, that's it, submitted, done.

I've only ever had stories edited for diabolical technical cock ups - always my own fault with formatting gone wrong, and in one case, some content changes based on advice from someone who really knew the subject matter (a disability story).

If you're agonising after the event as you say, then really, the story wasn't ready to submit in the first place. More patience and rigorous review before the story is submitted, would be my suggestion.

 

[Cagivagurl]

The best piece of advice regarding the fact I am terrible at tinkering with un submitted stories regarded what my friend and editor told me...
The 'law of diminishing return'
You get to a point where the changes are so minor, their value is insignificant...
At some point you have to submit and be done with it...
Personally, I'm terrible. The longer it sits on my desktop... The more likely I am to rewrite the entire thing...
I have a story at the moment with friends who are critiquing it for me...
The urge is building to rip it apart and rewrite... Insecurities... Suck...

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Am I overthinking about a story that's pretty much being posted for free? Should I just relax and post whatever?

Hello, I'm the president of my local Perfectionists Anonymous charter. The answer is yes, and I should do the same.

Anyone else have this kind of obsession with getting everything right?

Yes, it's called perfectionism, and it is the worse.

 

[Voboy]

Once its posted, that's it, submitted, done.

Yes, this.

OP, I'd suggest that this "go back and re-read a section before it posts" thing is a practice you should stop doing. You click that SUBMIT button? That's it. No more. It's final. Done. Move on. If you must re-read it, wait until it posts. You need to get to the cognitive point where you think of submission as final, not as some intermediate stage.

Think of what a better world we'd have if George Lucas had stopped fucking around with the finished Star Wars...