When Is The Story Done?

 This is a question I keep asking myself. Maybe I write too fast, maybe I have a short attention span, maybe I am too dumb to be a writer, but I keep turning things over and over, even after I think the story is done. I have spent years with "Colonel Tom" because I was unsatisfied with its ending, for all that everyone (other than editors) have liked the story. Only recently have I come with a version that does not have my mind throwing out corrections and changes.  

All of that prefacing is to explain why I found the following from Write or Die Magazine's Interview with Suzanne Grove illuminating:

TM: How do you know when you are done with a piece? And when do you feel ready to submit it?

SG: The idea of knowing when you’re done with a piece is something I’ve struggled with a lot. I know a project is right when it’s constantly whispering in my ear. When I can’t stop thinking about it. It follows me around when I’m walking the dog and cooking and showering and driving. It keeps tapping me on the shoulder, even during the revision stage. So, I think when that voice starts to quiet, I know I’m done. At that point, I also feel ready to submit; although, I will try to set the story aside for an extra couple weeks and come back to it one final time. I truly don’t think you ever come to the page as the same person twice, and maybe that’s why it feels impossible to officially label a story as complete sometimes. The short story I’m working on now—about a recent high school graduate who engages in a relationship with a beloved football coach after her father never returns home from a hunting trip in British Columbia, leaving her in a precarious financial and living situation—keeps morphing and shifting because the way I now approach the characters and events feels so different from when I first started taking notes on it over a year ago. I’m still me, but also a different person in a lot of ways. Still, if the story stops talking to me, and I know I’ve created space between creation and revision, then I’ll allow myself to submit it. I also want to say that I really trust the editors, too. I know that if I’m fortunate enough to get an acceptance, the advice from the editorial staff on how to better achieve the vision for my story will be so valuable. When it comes to publication, I’m never alone in the process. 

Which gives me some solace that my way is not so different, just more haphazard! 

You should also check out her comments on creation and writing methods.

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