Don’t Hold on so Tight, that You Can’t Move Forward

There’s a beautifully balanced point between getting the work done that needs to be done before moving on to the next stage, and then beginning to move into that next stage that is sometimes hard to find. It takes a lot of awareness that can be hard to have when you’re knee deep in the work. I think it’s a feeling- it’s that feeling when you’re being pulled forward by opportunities that peak your interest and you can’t ignore because you know you’ve got the work ready to go to take on those opportunities, but you want to go back for one more read through or bring it to one more critique or put it through one more revision. The work doesn’t NEED it, but you know if you go back there’s always something to find. So it’s deciding when that tipping point has been reached, where the best thing you can do for the work is leave it be in order to let it fly. It’s kind of the yin to Letting a Story Go’s yang.

This is something I was thinking about as I was ordering my new business cards (hooray!) and contemplating what else I needed to do to prepare for the New England SCBWI conference at the beginning of May. It’ll be right around this time that I’ll be creating my next years worth of writing goals and those writing goals will be HEAVY in submission goals. I wanted to this year, but didn’t. I’m going to revise SB this month and next month and then June will be the month I commit to starting that process. I’ve got to let go so I can move forward.

Have you ever grappled with that point of letting a story go and keeping yourself from one more revision? What helps you make that decision?

Happy Writing!

Also, happy return of Game of Thrones!!! 😬