IWSG: Letting a Story Cool

This post is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Hop. If you'd like to join, please sign up here.

June 2 (optional) question - For how long do you shelve your first draft, before reading it and re-drafting? Is this dependent on your writing experience and the number of stories/books under your belt?

The short answer to both questions is, it depends.

How Long Does it Sit?

For me, it really depends on the story. I try to let short stories and flash sit about a week, if I can.

Novels, on the other hand...those are a beast. And I'm never entirely sure if I've let it sit long enough. I try for a month, but I've also heard three months is best in order to catch all the oddities, plot holes, and really see your novel as it truly is.

But then there's the pressure of publishing rapidly because algorithms.

I don't do that with Echelon, obviously. Looking forward to when I can publish more rapidly.

Second Part: Does Writing Experience Have Anything To Do With It?

I'm not really sure. I have one book under a different name that I barely edited and that turned out to be fairly popular in its niche. Letting it sit wouldn't have helped it, but it might certainly have hurt it. And it was one of the first ones I wrote.

I have noticed that the less I revise, the more emotion comes through and the more people tend to like it. I'm not sure a book or story that requires heavy revision will benefit from being shoved in a virutal drawer. Better to start over and redraft.

So maybe the experience that's changed my approach is learning to trust myself, that the story is done when it feels right.

Kind of like the sound and feel of a bat's sweet spot when you hit a home run.

The rest are just guesses. *shrugs*

What about you? If you write, how do you know a story is "done"? And if you don't, are there are moments in your life or career where you just knew something, and went for it?

Please let me know in the comments below!