When is a writing draft finished? You might be writing an article, a blog post, a short story, or even a novel.
Your first draft was rough around the edges, but after revisions, rewrites, corrections, edits, and proofreading, it’s now in much better shape.
Is it finished now?
That’s a question every writer asks. The answer is rarely a simple yes. It’s more often, not quite, maybe one more check, or perhaps I missed something.
When is a writing draft truly finished?
The problem most writers face is that you can improve any piece of writing.
You can always tweak a sentence, replace a word, unsplit an infinitive, rearrange a paragraph, or fiddle with a few commas.
At some point, though, you have to decide whether you’re making the draft better or simply delaying the moment when you need to let it go.
The answer usually depends on what happens next.
If you’re publishing your own work, you’re responsible for making the final decision.
However, if you’re sending the draft to an editor, your plan is usually to deliver the best possible version you can and let the editing process continue from there.
In either case, you’re often left wondering if you’ve caught every mistake, found the little typos, and that your story or article is ready for readers.
As you get closer to making your decision, you might think it’s worth sleeping on it, or coming back to it in a few days when your mind is clearer.
A little time between editing, revising, and your final proofread is often a wise decision.
However, if it’s simply procrastination, you’re wasting precious time you could use to write your next piece.
Writing and preparing a draft is a process
Very often, the vacillation about whether a writing draft is ready or not comes from the lack of a clear process.
When you mix up editing with writing, grammar correction with proofreading, or section rewrites with error checking, you can get lost in a maze of competing issues.
Like any other type of problem-solving, you need to have a logical process you can use to work through the issues.
The first step for me is always writing a new draft without even thinking about grammar, punctuation, spelling, typos, or formatting.
The biggest benefit is that it takes me far less time to write a draft because I’m not concerned about anything except getting my words down on the page.
And that’s the only goal of a first draft.
You might go backward and forward, getting the pieces to fit together in the right order, or to fix plot errors, or factual mistakes.
But your primary concern is that your ideas, thoughts, advice, or story are logical, coherent, and fully developed.
When you can say that the structure, ideas, and content are complete, only then can you move on to the next step.
The process might not be in the same order for every writer, but the next stage is often a revision.
This is when you might fine-tune and improve readability or strengthen your arguments.
Then it’s time for error correction. With so many grammar and checking tools available now, it’s up to you to choose what you use.
The final step is to do a meticulous proofread. You want to find the last little errors, typos, or glitches in your draft.
Now your draft should be ready. But for most writers, it is rarely the finishing line.
The difference between editing and tinkering
All writers strive for perfection, and that means making changes to any draft.
The critical issues are almost always that you’ve fixed spelling mistakes, grammar errors, typos, and logic problems.
You might be fussy about style or voice consistency, which can often improve any piece of writing.
A few sentences might seem heavy, out of place, or simply difficult to read. These are always worth attention.
But from there, it’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to change even more.
You can change any word or sentence in writing, and it’s the temptation that can have you running around in circles.
Are your edits improving your draft, or simply changing the word order? Are you finding new issues, or only revisiting decisions you made earlier?
Would the changes you are considering now make any difference to a reader?
A question you need to ask yourself is: Are you editing because your draft needs it?
Or, are you tinkering because you’re reluctant to let go, or hesitant about publishing?
Your answer to the last question will tell you whether your writing draft is finished or not.
Nothing is ever perfect, but you have to let go
Rarely is any piece of writing perfect. Even the published works of writers such as Ernest Hemingway contain errors and typos.
Famous authors aren’t immune to mistakes, and neither are the rest of us.
I’m always careful, methodical, and fussy about my writing. But with well over one million words on my site, I’m sure you could find errors if you’re keen to do so.
As for books, I vividly recall one embarrassing error. I self-published a book that, by good fortune, sold well and received a lot of positive reviews.
However, three years after I published it, I was researching a new idea and flicked through the first few pages of the story. I couldn’t believe what I saw. There was a “you” and “your” error on the first page of the book.
If you’re a perfectionist, that would send a chill down your spine.
It astounded me that no one had noticed. But I quickly made the correction and re-published the ebook and print book.
To cut to the chase, every draft can be improved, but can also contain errors, no matter how carefully you check a text.
But very often, readers won’t even notice, or will read over small typos and errors.
Being a perfectionist can slow you down and even give you plenty of excuses to put off publishing.
But you have to let go sooner or later. Otherwise, you’ll waste a lot of time tinkering, tweaking, checking, re-checking, and perhaps even unwittingly weakening your draft.
Summary
Your next writing project is waiting for you, and endlessly fussing over your current draft is time wasted.
You have to stop the process before you can move on. That point will be different for every writer, but like any story, there has to be an end.
When you reach the point that further changes no longer make a meaningful improvement, that’s when your writing draft is finished.
Maybe you could end your draft with E&OE (Errors and Omissions Excepted), because no matter how careful you are, a few typos or minor errors can remain. Ask Hemingway.
Related Reading: A First Draft Is For Discovering Your Story
