Just sent out the poker story to the anthology editor – while crossing my fingers, of course.

There comes a time in every story where the author must let it go and send it out. It’s a hard step, turning loose of something we’ve been pouring our sweat and blood into for the last few weeks, months, or even years. The story has been loved and nurtured while at home – now you must expose it to criticism and judgement. Now you must face the opinions of others.

Some writers never reach this stage in their work. They fiddle and tweak, editing and rewriting and never quite finishing the story. They fear rejection too much to face it. While this is understandable, it’s no way to write. If you’re going to spend the time and effort on a piece, you’ve got to finish it off, otherwise you’re just wasting all that hard work. It’s like creating a painting and shoving it into a closet, or sewing an outfit and never wearing it.

So how do you know when a piece is ready to send out? How can you be certain it’s the best you’re going to do? How can you be confident that your “baby” is ready to go out into the big world of editors and publishers?

Here are a few tips:

• Keep the “track changes” function on when you edit – when you get to the point where you’re changing less than 10% during an edit, it’s finished
• If all you’re doing is swapping synonyms or changing punctuation, it’s finished
• Pass it to your beta readers – they’ll tell you if you need more work
• Read the entire work as a whole (not for editing) – you’re the best judge of whether it tells the story you want to tell

And, of course, if you have a deadline, it’s finished by the deadline!

What are some tips you’ve learned about finishing a story?