Is it possible to be completely satisfied before publishing?

Never

msd said:

After rewriting, editing and more editing, friends review, more editing, new ideas, more editing, forgot something, more editing. How do you know when your book is ready for publishing?

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Depends on what you mean by "ready for publishing." Ready to start submitting to agents or publishers? Or after the sale, when you've gone over the possibly final version until your eyes cross and are still sure a few things have snuck by you and your editor and everyone you've asked to check it?

If the former: when you get to the point where you're just tinkering--moving a word here and there. If the latter: when you cannot possibly look at the text again without throwing up.

Is it even possible to be completely satisfied?

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No.

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Not if you have editors that mess with the text without letting you edit their editing. (Says someone who knows.)

In general: How big a perfectionist are you? If you're hard to please, then no. Otherwise, maybe. But probably not.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

No.

Part of the writing process is knowing when it's time to let go. Finding out when that time occurs is the hard part.

This is one of the biggest things I struggle with as well. My answer is also no. Marlys cracked me up about not possibly being able to look at the text again without throwing up! I can SO relate to that! Been there too many times!

When it's so long since you wrote it that you have to start reading it before you remember that you wrote it.

I'm not been completely satisfied with anything--I am a perfectionist who can never be satisfied--so the idea of being so for my writing never occurred to me. I submit when any edits seem like they're moving the manuscript sideways rather than forward. For me, this is usually 3-5 drafts.

Marlys said:

Depends on what you mean by "ready for publishing." Ready to start submitting to agents or publishers? Or after the sale, when you've gone over the possibly final version until your eyes cross and are still sure a few things have snuck by you and your editor and everyone you've asked to check it.

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I do not comprehend the bolded phrase.

caw

Due to the nature of my day job as a designer I found seeking perfection to be an often debilitating thing. I don't think anyone who has ever created anything has never been 100% happy with what they've done.

Certainly where games are concerned - no piece of software has ever been released without having bugs... ever. Fact.

I'm sure every director wanted to fix those last few shots. I'll bet that even a wooden table maker isn't 100% happy wishing they could have just smoothed down that last little bit.

With this in mind I created what I call my 85% rule. To stop me being a fusspot and demanding too high a quality, when I am 85% happy with the work, it's done. I've tried to bring that to my writing. I'm currently proofreading my MS and finding that for most things, I'm 85% happy. The odd word or sentence I'm coming in at 80%. I'll change those and raise it to 85. Done. (Or at least I will be soon. LOL).

The great playwright Tennessee Williams was asked once when he feels he's finished with a work. His answer was "when someone takes it away from me." That's always resounded with me.

Depends on what you mean by "completely satisfied". To me, this means I can't find anything else that needs changed, that the story is as good as I can ever make it, and that I've done my best. With this criteria, then, yes, I can be completely satisfied.

On a few occasions, I've been completely, one hundred percent satisfied with a first draft. This hasn't happened often, three or four times in thirty years, but it has happened.

Now I edit, rewrite, and revise each page as I go, and unless I'm one hundred percent sissified with the page I'm writing, I don't move on to the next page.

There always comes a point when changes do not improve something, but merely make it different. Recognizing this point is critical. I can always make changes. Always. I can't always make improvements.

No. Even after 'they take it away from me' I'd find things to fiddle over and obsess about. If I'm ever completely satisfied with a project, that's the moment I'll know I'm sliding down to cognitive malfunction.

I just have to get the piece 98 percent of the way toward my idea of perfection.

I've never actually finished a story, so I think that answers the question...

Jamesaritchie said:

There always comes a point when changes do not improve something, but merely make it different. Recognizing this point is critical. I can always make changes. Always. I can't always make improvements.

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Good point.

I'd say at present I'm 100% satisfied with most of what I write. I count that as "can re-read it without my internal editor firing up".

Don't bang on something til you're bored with it and then try to change it solely because you're bored with the repetition... at that point your boredom is a poor reflection of whether it needs editing or not.