More done

[annavere]

How come it is when a story is "finished" and about to be seen by a second pair of eyes, suddenly you're seeing it as if for the first time yourself and you need to embark on a panicked last minute rewrite to make it yet more finished?

I have noticed the same effect from putting it in the AO3 text box and hitting preview. Suddenly it looks different. Suddenly that sentence I said was fine as is actually belongs in a completely different paragraph. Suddenly there's a much more cogent way to state my theme. And suddenly there's a typo I never saw before.

Anyway, the story in question is now More Done.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I wonder if part of it has to do with changed context? You have to look at it in a new way.

[annavere]

Probably so! It's actually a really useful part of the process, such that I'm quite glad AO3 doesn't encourage using their draft box for anything more than the last minute stuff. It helps my writing when I import it.