Set it Free - Guest Post from Author D. Krauss

Set it Free


I am in the middle of the second re-write of the re-write of the third or fourth revision of my favorite WIP, The Ship to Look for God: a man dies, goes to Heaven, discovers God is not there, and joins a crew of misfits building a rocket to go find Him. It's been quite the hoot to write. And write. And write...

I really should stop and Just. Send. It. Out. But there's always a tweak, isn't there? Maybe dialogue tags are a bit repetitious, so change 'em around. And maybe I should throw in some recent reference, say about a bridge and a traffic jam. Yeah!

No.

At some point, a writer simply has to stop writing the novel. Just stop. Because the story is as good as it's going to be. Oh sure, perimeters can always be adjusted, structures changed here and there, maybe some secondary plots altered, a character or two dropped. Or added. But, if the story is intact, has arc, a beginning, a middle, and an end all tied together, then you're done.

Oh, I don't mean it's ready for prime time. There's still the copy editing and logic bombs to look for, formatting, all that stuff. But, that's mechanics, most of which you should have addressed as you were writing. Your end point is the finished story, not the comma splices needing remedy.

Because re-writing and revision can continue forever, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. You can always make it just a little bit better. That goes for finished projects, as well. Why, I would love nothing more than to pull my novel, Partholon, off the shelf and completely re-do it, top to bottom. Every time I look at it, sitting over there all fat, dumb, and happy, I just want to yank its smug little butt right back here and scrub it and twist it and wring it out.

All you parents know what I mean. You want to grab your 25-year-old by the ear and yell, "Straighten up! In the exact manner I now want you to!" But you don't because, well, that time has come and gone and the child is now a man, and must go his way with what you already gave.

And, yes, there is a vast difference between the 1000% responsibility you have for everything you write, and a child released to the wild. But, there's at least one correlation: just like that first child, you have to let that first novel, that first story or poem, find its way. Your second will be better for it.

So, when the story you're writing now is ready, complete (and edited), and you can do nothing more to mature it, let it go.

It's going to be all right.


Meet D. Krauss



D. Krauss is a former USAF officer residing in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. He has been, at various times: a cottonpicker, a sodbuster, a librarian, a surgical orderly, the guy who paints the little white line down the middle of the road, a weatherman, a door-kickin' shove-gun-in-face lawman, a hunter of terrorists, and a school bus driver. He's been married for over 38 years, and has a wildman bass guitarist for a son.


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Set it Free - Guest Post from Author D. Krauss Set it Free - Guest Post from Author D. Krauss Reviewed by Duh on 10:30 AM Rating: 5

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