Sending revised file if accepted

If you're still revising the story, it isn't ready for submission. If you're just tweaking, you must resist.

As writers, many of us are perfectionists, and we will revise and tweak a story until our eyes bleed. But once it has reached its best possible form, put on a stamp on it, submit it, and then put away the file. You shouldn't have to revise a finished product, and you shouldn't submit anything that isn't a finished product.

billyf027 said:

I can't resist the tweaking. I am trying to save the tweaked version in a seperate file. I revise lots before sending out but I become a perfectionist and keep tweaking.

Click to expand...

Learning to resist is a good idea, honestly. Pick the version that you've sent into submission to someone as The Finished Version, and leave it at that. The time you're spending tweaking, you could be spending writing another story.

...but, in answer to the original question, I've sent things to a couple publishers and when they've accepted, I've sent them "tidied" up versions. It's a rarity, though, and I do my best not to make a habit out of it.

Get organised!

Billy, I can always improve a story too. If I can't then I think I must have stopped learning and developing as a writer.

I also have several different length versions and names and setting versions of the same story for different markets in the UK, Oz, NZ etc.
I have to be organised.

Have a file for each year's stories, e.g. Short Stories 2006.

Give each story in the file a letter and number, e.g. A01 Title Month Year.

Now when you rewrite it in the same year make it A02 Title Month Year. Every time you tweak that story in that year change its number. A03, A04 etc.

When you write a new story it becomes B01 with all its B02,03,04,05 variations and the next story you put in the file becomes C01

As will happen in 2007 you will start marketing a 2006 story so please make sure you save the newest version in the Short Stories 2007 file BUT don't change its letter. For example story A01 2006 goes into the 2007 file as A01 2007. If you already have an A01 for 2007 then add an extra 0 or an A!

This way you have a record of all the changes.

On your marketing spread sheet you always fill in the story title as it appears in the file, e.g. A04 Title 2006 and then name of the markets you submitted to.

The stories will never be finished. We write from our emotions and emotions change, hence so would the story if you reviewed it for tweaking.

There are always errors. If you are just correcting punctuation, etc. then I wouldn't worry much about sending a revision, but you shouldn't OVER write the story. You'll never stop.

As for past versions, I never delete. I archive. Copy it to CD with a date on the label. I've also gone to version numbers on my file names because of a mixup. Word crashed and offered two files to restore from. I chose the top not knowing which was the latter. I chose wrong. I lost days of edited story. I lost things that didn't come back.

Hey, if they call send what you got. It will work out. But I don't know if they would look favorably on a drastically changed story. When possible they should get what they are expecting. I don't think any of them appreciate surprises.

I can empathize. I sat down with a hardcopy of my published book and went through it with a blue pencil. (Okay, actually it was red...)

In the systems analysis business--as with others, I suppose--we have a saying that there comes a point where you have to shoot the engineer and go to production. Sounds like you've done that, but you only wounded the engineer.

Long live perfectionisticism!

If it gets accepted, and you don't have the old file, leave it at that -- the editor likes it! But your revisions weren't in vain; it's an important part of improving your craft, and will serve the many stories you've yet to write.

However, if for some reason the editor is responding to a query and not the entire, original piece, send the revision. No time wasted on the editor's side, if s/he hasn't read the original yet.

Don't revise until you know it's being rejected. Even if you KNOW you can write it better. And IF you decide to revise, save the copy you've sent. You can fall back on it if you need it and there's no harm in revising while waiting.

For me, I have three versions of a story. The first draft, the working draft, and the final draft. Something only gets to the final draft when I submit something, it's accepted, or I'm tired of working on it. And I don't ever touch it again. First drafts I like to keep so I can learn from it. Working drafts...are, well...my Tweaker Stories...my never ending pool of Tweaker Stories.

Anyway, hope this helps!