When to Make Changes to a "Finished" Manuscript

 

As I’ve mentioned before, perfection can’t be achieved, so I don’t wait for it before sending out a manuscript. I try to write the best book I can at the time, get it edited, and make a few final changes before moving from the production to the submission stage. But once I start submitting, my practice had been to keep my hands off the text and concentrate my writing skills on the next book. If a publisher or agent accepts the manuscript and wants changes, I’ll do that, but the initial writing process is done. At that point, second-guessing myself takes up valuable time without making the manuscript noticeably better.

But there are rare occasions when I have revised a manuscript after sending it out. The most recent came a few days ago. My latest story takes place during the Pullman Strike of 1894, and one of my protagonists and his friends watch the Labor Day parade in Chicago. As I was looking for a good photo to go with my Labor Day post for next week, I came across a historical article stating that it was raining in Chicago that year. My description hadn’t mentioned the weather so it wasn’t wrong, but it was incomplete. Since I like to be as historically accurate as is possible without losing my reader, I revised that chapter to include rain. A few small changes were all I needed.

My changes to Desert Jewels were more extensive. My first middle-grade historical novel was about a Japanese-American girl interred during World War II. Wonder of wonders, I got one of those rare rejection letters that was actually personalized. Although the publisher passed, the letter stated, “we felt that the delivery of historical information was a little too didactic, and that the story itself was a little too spare.” The letter confirmed my own unease about the story, and I ended up making significant changes. That was the first of only two times I broke my rule and revised a story after submitting it.

I needed some photos for the top of this post, so I decided to use photo-editing to show the difference between good and (maybe) better, although that characterization depends on the observer. If you look closely at the first phot, you will see some natural imperfections—a metal appendage on each side of the tower and a few thin branches (primarily in the upper right-hand corner) that appear to be scratches but aren’t. I could leave it natural or I could clone those “imperfections” out, as I did in the second photo. I’ll let you decide which is better.

The point is that some changes improve the manuscript or the photo but others don’t. The writer or photographer has to make that call. But even when changes are made, the result will never be perfect.

So don’t overdo it.

__________

I took the photo of Sabylund Lutheran Church during a trip to Wisconsin in 2010.

Chasing Perfection

One of the hardest parts of writing a book is knowing when to stop. Not where to end the story—which I covered in last week’s post—but when to stop working on it.

No writer has ever achieved perfection, and no writer ever will. If that was my goal, I would never finish a book. So when is it time to stop working on one manuscript and move on to the next?

I try to write the best book I can at the time, then get it edited and make a few final changes before moving from the production to the submission stage. But once I start submitting, my practice has been to keep my hands off the text and concentrate my writing skills on the next book. If a publisher accepts the manuscript and wants changes, I would do that, but the initial writing process is done.

Years ago, a publisher rejected a children’s chapter book but gave me a great critique and suggestions for improvement. I agreed with everything she said and decided that the manuscript needed major revisions before being submitted elsewhere. But it wasn’t my priority at the time, so I set it aside for later. It is still waiting.

That is the only book I have considered revising based on rejections or my knowledge that the book isn’t perfect. Sometimes you just have to accept what you have done and either keep submitting or move on to the next story. If I didn’t follow that rule, I would be stuck in an unending loop searching for an unattainable perfection.

But most rules have an exception.

I recently received this rejection letter for Desert Jewels:

You have written a sensitive novel that combines an important and difficult topic with a warm family story.

However, I’m afraid that [publisher] will be passing. Ultimately, we felt that the delivery of historical information was slightly too didactic, and that the story itself was a little too spare. For these reasons, we are declining the manuscript.

The letter confirmed my own unease about the adequacy of the plot, but I didn’t know how to fix it. Even though I still think it’s a good book as it is, I also know it could be better. But should I make revisions at this point?

I’m going to try. A week or two after receiving the rejection letter, I was in the shower when inspiration struck and I thought of some ways to improve the plot. So I’m going back to work on Desert Jewels before making any further submissions.

But I’m still not seeking perfection.

__________

The photograph at the head of this post shows a Japanese-American grocery store in Oakland, California. Dorthea Lange took the picture in March 1942 as part of her official duties as an employee of the United States Government. Because it is a government document, the photo is in the public domain.