The writing process can sometimes seem never-ending. You write draft after draft, revision after revision. When will you know you’re ready to birth your creation? Or at least, to show it to that all-important fresh set of eyes?

1. You’re no longer waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about subplots to add, characters to refine or dialogue to excise.
2. You’re fiddling with commas or individual words. Don’t get lost in editing purgatory. Let it go.
3. From the broad brushstrokes of plot to fine details of character, from dabs of dialogue to … Uh oh, is that making things better or worse? Stop now.
4. Finally, it comes down to intuition. Your work is your creation, after all, and if you don’t think you can improve on it, you’ve finished.