Why There Are No Final Drafts

I completed the first draft of a story called “Millie Floating” in the fall of 2004. In those days, my goal was to edit a project until I had a final draft, at which time I could send it out to publications until someone accepted it. That was naive and wrong.

Fast forward nearly two decades. “Millie Floating,” a weird little story about a guy who wonders if his wife has murdered the family dog, was published in the Toho Literary print collection, The Best Short Stories of Philadelphia 2021. It would never have been published if I’d stuck with that final draft theory.

After three or four edits way back then, “Millie Floating” seemed perfected. I submitted it to at least two dozen literary magazines and journals over the course of the next six or seven years. It was declined wherever it went. I would go through a day or two of feeling like a piece of dog poop, then I’d spend a few months mustering up my inner Stuart Smalley and eventually send it out again––occasionally with modest changes to the original “final draft.”

I finally moved on in 2011.

Unconscious lifelong learning

But here’s a secret: Even if you aren’t aware of it, writers are constantly learning and picking up new ideas and philosophies about the written word and storytelling. Every time they do anything from scan a headline in the the local newspaper to curl up with a tome by the likes of Doris Kearns Goodwin or Elena Ferrante, they are becoming a better, more seasoned writer.

Even people who don’t take writing seriously are continually learning and becoming more adept at communication. I’m not sure we can say this process is in anyone’s DNA, but it’s very clear that human culture thrives in part because people ()well, at least some people) doggedly work on more effective ways to express themselves.

Basic Advice, No Charge

So, if you get a story or article ready to publish and then send it off to, say, four different online outlets and two print magazines, you will often need to wait three to six months before you hear back on whether your efforts have been accepted for publication. It can even be just a week. The point is that you are a different writer once your piece comes back to you. (This is true, of course, even if your piece gets accepted).

No matter what, it’s not time to be bummed out when a rejection comes your way. Take advantage of the situation! You’ve been educating yourself every time you sit down to write or read. You always have a new perspective on anything you’ve sent out once it comes back. Time to get to work!

As long as you aren’t being silly taking a returned manuscript personally or thinking it’s the end of the world, it’s time to put that now wiser, more skilled author to use. Read through your work and make it better. If you think there’s nothing to change, read through it again, only out loud this time (sometimes I have my computer read to me). There are always ways to make your work more effective.

Upside down and curing forever

Near the beginning of the good old Coronavirus Pandemic, I pulled “Millie Floating” and a number of other endlessly declined stories back out onto my desk. I felt somehow like I had been under water for a long time with those pieces. “Millie” got revised significantly. I went bright red,“Uni-ball Vision Elite,” cutting 1200 words and working over the final scene too many times to count.

The lesson is simple enough: Success comes for most of us if we’re humble and understand how hard it is to write something that’s “good.” Editors and publishers know this better than anyone. Editors want writers who understand they will never perfect anything. In fact, editors are the ones who decide enough is enough and that it’s time to rise above imperfection. They’re the only ones who come up with final drafts.

So, it’s best not to think final anything if you are writing for publication. Think current working draft. Trust that you can make it better and better no matter how many times it gets rejected. Eventually it will get published.

This essay was first published in The Writer’s Cooperative publication on Medium.com (June 2021) You can read all my work published on Medium.com by clicking here.