I read recently that writers and artists are never satisfied with their work. Is this true? I thought I was just being picky and weird about my work because it never seemed good enough. But if this is true and most creative people feel this way, then I'm in very good company. Why are we like that? What is it that makes us think our work needs to be made even better over and over again?
Thank you Lorraine. This is the thing I have to try and stop. Wondering what others might think of it and editing over and over. It is a really good idea to put it away for a while and then go back to look at it, I'll have to give that a try. I feel sometimes that I do cut away good, solid parts from a story, then regret it later. I expect it's all part of the 'learning curve.' Thank you again.
You will never be completely happy, Elsie. You can only choose a point at which you say, that's as done as I can get it, and then let it go on its merry way. It is (almost) impossible to edit your own work, and you will go on being hypercritical and afraid of getting it wrong until the cows come home.
You have to hear the story in your head and translate that to the page; then you have to make sure that what's on the page is properly formatted, and the grammar is right, and there are no typos, and that when Character A comes out of a shop with a loaf of bread, he didn't start by going into a post office with a letter. You can't have Character B referring to an event that didn't take place unless that's deliberate.
If you find you are going over the same part of the story again and again, skip a bit and move on. Get it down in one complete form, and then go back for another look, with fresh eyes and with the knowledge of what comes next in your mind.
Finally, don't edit thinking of what other eyes might see, because you cannot please every reader who will read your work. Edit it to satisfy your idea of what it's meant to be, and forget everyone else. 'What if someone says that's no good?' isn't helpful - what if they don't? What if they think it's really good, and you go and cut the heart out of it? Trust your own voice and your thoughts.
Lorraine
Thank you Jonathan and Susan. How right you are! I've edited my story so much that sometimes it starts to become a different story all together. And the difficulty in trying to transfer what is in your head onto a page is one of the hardest parts. Is it just the way we are programmed? When do we eventually become happy with what we've done?