When Is It Good Enough?
I’m working on the second rewrite of the first two chapters of a new book for a client. The first pass, which was only a page or two, did not go over well. I’m deliberately making this one much longer… about 8 pages so far (double spaced)… because I think that’s what it will take to demonstrate what it is I think we’re trying to do. It won’t be final copy. I know there are misunderstandings on my part that will require rewriting, but my gut tells me I’m on the right track.
So, when is a draft good enough to send? When is a manuscript final? How long is a piece of string? How high is the sky?
Yep, there’s no single right answer to any of these questions. It’s enough to make a freelancer crazy!
On the other hand, I love what I do and assume you do too. Living with the tension of is it good enough is a small price to pay.
How do you decide when a manuscript is good enough?
Write well and often,
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4 opinions for When Is It Good Enough?
Graham Strong
Mar 6, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I usually don’t like sending anything until I feel it is “perfect”. Yes, there will always be rewrites, but I need to be confident that I’ve done my best to this point, sending my client a polished piece to work with.
However, there are times when I’ll send a “rough draft” to ensure I am going in the right direction. This is usually only with clients I’ve worked with for a while, and even then I’ll polish it somewhat. Some people just don’t understand how ugly the first drafts can be! (Which is why, I suppose, so many writers “hide” their work from the world until it is “ready”…)
~Graham
John Clausen
Mar 7, 2008 at 5:42 am
A long time ago, I had a freelancer working with me on a series of articles. He was a brilliant writer, but he had that “is it good enough” problem. One evening, I left him at my office to work on a piece that was due the next morning. When I left he had three paragraphs completed…and they were excellent. When I returned in the morning, he was still there. The place was littered with empty espresso cups, a pall of cigarette smoke hung over his desk, and I saw that he now had only two paragraphs done. He had suffered and toiled all night to achieve an aggragrate loss of one paragraph. Nowadays he’s still a brilliant writer, but he drives a truck for a living…and he’s a much happier guy.
My point is that if we’re going to make any money in the freelance profession, we’re going to have to settle sometimes for “good enough” even if we know it isn’t as good as it could be. Freelancing is a business and a business can’t afford to sacrifice production in the pursuit of perfection.
So, when is it good enough? Maybe it’s good enough when it’s acceptable to the client. That’s an individual call.
One way to avoid the pitfall is to write the piece all of the way through before you get into any serious editing. Produce the manuscript and then go back over it. Limit your rewrite to one or two trips back through the writing. Often what you first wrote will be the best. Don’t even correct spelling and grammar errors until you have the whole piece produced as a first draft. Anyway, this has always helped me…and I’m not driving a truck yet.
Lori
Mar 7, 2008 at 8:38 am
Anne, it’s the age-old problem of communication interpretation. Do we really know what they want? Have they communicated it well enough? Have we asked enough questions to draw out their main goal? Did we hear them, or are we writing to please ourselves? There’s another question - where’s the line between giving them what they want and knowing that what we envision will be a better fit?
When is a draft good enough to send? Whenever we feel we’ve exhausted their ideas and ours on paper. Mind you, I’m prone to stressing heavily the first-draft status of the work so there are no “Oh my gawd, this isn’t finished and you suck!” reactions.
In my opinion, the manuscript is final when the client says “I guess it’s okay” and the writer’s lying in a heap of perspiration and exhaustion in the corner, repeatedly clicking his or her pen… ;))
Anne Wayman
Mar 7, 2008 at 10:55 am
John, great story, and we agree… and Lori, you’re absolutely right, as usual ;)
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