Draft 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
How many drafts and proof reads are acceptable?
I find myself asking this question every time I do a piece of writing/essay/letter etc.
Everytime i proof read I end up redrafting and editing, how do you know when to stop.
With just over a week to go before submission I find myself doing this most days and when not doing it in thinking about it or reading about it, there has to come a time when you accept you've done enough (or all you can do and your best), does anyone else feel like this, currently I'm on version 10, I find it helps looking back at the 1st draft and comparing to see the progress and development.
As for word count I'm still about 500 over the limit so guessing there is going to be another few redrafts over the next few days.
I rework things until I'm done with them--either because I feel satisfied or because I start looking at it and going, "Oh for heaven's sake, not this sentence again." Then I use the rubric of good enough. Is it good enough? Is anyone going to read it and gasp in horror at how terrible the sentence is? Okay, then that's good enough, and then I close my eyes and hit the submit button. That's been enough to net me perfectly satisfactory results thus far. As someone who's struggled with perfectionism, I find the good enough rule to be a lifesaver.
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah thanks for commenting! Yes I'm at the not that sentence again phase now.
DeleteSomeone once said to me good is good enough which I completely understand but always wonder what is it that makes us creative's (I know im massively generalizing here) perfectionists? Is it the culture, society we are immersed within? Or is everyone a perfectionist in their own way?
I've been like you Garry throughout this course. I went back again and again to "improve" it, but I usually came back to the first thing I wrote anyway. I have just finished editing my written work for Module Three and I'm determined to leave it. I have a presentation and artefact to do now, so I really have no choice. Get someone to read it and then try and not change it after you've done your revisions. Yes, the perfectionists in us wear us out at this point I feel!
ReplyDeleteIt's now the stage of editing and getting the word count done :( am currently 500 over the maximum it can be. I'm going to leave it for a day or two then look over it again.
DeleteGood luck with the artefact and presentation!!
I treat the writing like bits of choreography for class or performance. There never seems to be one final version. Sometimes this is because my thoughts continue to evolve as does choreography based on the available people to do a work. At some point, "is it good enough?" works. Sometimes I just accept that I will come back to it later. This is harder to do with deadlines for submitting work but I have actually gone back to short stories/essays written in undergraduate school and tweaked them because I plan on developing them into something more. Enough is enough when you decide enough is enough. I have been told this is about the process and that is why I keep relating the writing to developing phrases for class or a dance piece.
ReplyDeleteYour correct sometimes enough is enough and you need to take ownership of work.
DeleteI definitley find leaving things and going back to them can help, going over and over does not work as I for sure end up missing obvious things