Oh, Questioner, give yourself a break! Sounds like you've worked long & hard, maybe too hard to the point of exhaustion & to where your judgement has become clouded. Can you take a bit of a rest, put the thing away for a while? Anyway, exactly how reliable is this judgement?, as George asks in his response. A good & necessary question & …
Oh, Questioner, give yourself a break! Sounds like you've worked long & hard, maybe too hard to the point of exhaustion & to where your judgement has become clouded. Can you take a bit of a rest, put the thing away for a while? Anyway, exactly how reliable is this judgement?, as George asks in his response. A good & necessary question & one that doesn't always yield a reliable answer. Which is why I'm a big believer in just accepting it all, all of the good & bad and the indecisiveness & the frustration because this love-it-one-day and hate-it-the next thing is simply part of the process. It's the nature of making just about anything. So, would it do any harm to put the project away for a bit longer until you're better rested & maybe clearer-headed? Anyway, I don't think a story is ever really done so much as it reaches a point at which it can be released. Which is definitely not the same as done. Your question put me immediately in mind of the great Irish short story writer Frank O'Connor who could not for the life of him keep from tinkering with his stories even after they were published, and in the New Yorker no less. The NYer versions & the stories as they appeared in collections were often not the same. He may be an extreme example but the point is that often stories aren't so much done as they are abandoned. I don't believe this is a bad thing, just a thing as it is.
Tobias Wolff says, in a preface to one of his collections, that he is not the same person he was when he wrote the piece and he will always work on it before it goes into a collection.
I appreciate you pointing out that there is a difference between "done" and the "point at which it can be released". As what would be the criteria of "done"? The reframe is helpful!
If I remember correctly, Peter Shaffer worked and reworked and re-reworked (etc) Amadeus long, long after it had already been hailed as a truly great play.
Oh, Questioner, give yourself a break! Sounds like you've worked long & hard, maybe too hard to the point of exhaustion & to where your judgement has become clouded. Can you take a bit of a rest, put the thing away for a while? Anyway, exactly how reliable is this judgement?, as George asks in his response. A good & necessary question & one that doesn't always yield a reliable answer. Which is why I'm a big believer in just accepting it all, all of the good & bad and the indecisiveness & the frustration because this love-it-one-day and hate-it-the next thing is simply part of the process. It's the nature of making just about anything. So, would it do any harm to put the project away for a bit longer until you're better rested & maybe clearer-headed? Anyway, I don't think a story is ever really done so much as it reaches a point at which it can be released. Which is definitely not the same as done. Your question put me immediately in mind of the great Irish short story writer Frank O'Connor who could not for the life of him keep from tinkering with his stories even after they were published, and in the New Yorker no less. The NYer versions & the stories as they appeared in collections were often not the same. He may be an extreme example but the point is that often stories aren't so much done as they are abandoned. I don't believe this is a bad thing, just a thing as it is.
Tobias Wolff says, in a preface to one of his collections, that he is not the same person he was when he wrote the piece and he will always work on it before it goes into a collection.
Great information about O'Connor. That's a great story right there.
I appreciate you pointing out that there is a difference between "done" and the "point at which it can be released". As what would be the criteria of "done"? The reframe is helpful!
It's "done" when you say it is. Your definition & your terms by which that definition operates.
If I remember correctly, Peter Shaffer worked and reworked and re-reworked (etc) Amadeus long, long after it had already been hailed as a truly great play.
Pierre Boulez reworked his compositions over and over. Many exist in different versions.