Slow and steady wins the race is the moral of Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.”
It’s true. You can’t rush good writing. You don’t want to type “the end” when you finish your first draft. You’ve only just begun.
Hares might rush to submit a manuscript before it is finished, i.e., before it is critiqued, rewritten, edited. But a tortoise will rewrite, ruminate, rewrite, get critiques, ruminate, rewrite, edit, ruminate … ruminate … ruminate …
Yes, slow and steady may eventually win the race, but at some point—Giddy-up, already! Pssst a little secret here: It’s never going to be perfect. Even after it’s accepted for publication, it’s likely to go through more changes.
So, yes, polish your story, but keep the process moving forward toward that finish line! You can’t tinker forever.
Fear of rejection keeps many ruminating over their stories. But rejection is inevitable. An author revealed on social media that two hours after an editor offered her a book contract, she received a rejection from another editor on that same story. She was rejected for the very reasons the other editor loved it! Go figure.
Be brave. Let go. Put your story out there.
Mary Raebel 