Once you have a complete draft of your novel or memoir, you might think the hard part is behind you. But often, the most important decisions you’ll make about your manuscript are still ahead—leading up to the moment you hit Send on your first query. Submit before your story is ready, and you could shoot your shot with your dream agent or editor prematurely. Obsess too long, and you risk falling into an endless revision loop where you’ve lost sight of the way out.
Prolific writers and methodical perfectionists alike can find it equally challenging to know when to say, well, when. Sometimes the closer you get to the finish line, the more uncertain you feel. After working on a book for months or years, how do savvy writers know when they’re done, or close enough to done—and is “good enough” ever really good enough? If writing your pitch feels like a huge struggle, is it supposed to be this hard, or is that a sign that the manuscript is missing something? And is it normal to have that uneasy feeling that if you keep tinkering with it, you might make it worse instead of better?
This live webinar will help you assess your revision-in-progress and plan ahead to take your draft from rough to ready
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Meet the instructor
Jessica Strawser
Jessica Strawser is editor-at-large & columnist for Writer’s Digest, where she previously served as editorial director. She is the USA Today bestselling author of seven popular book club novels, including Almost Missed You, Not That I Could Tell (a Book of the Month bestseller), Forget You Know Me, A Million Reasons Why, The Next Thing You Know (a People Magazine Pick), The Last Caretaker, an Amazon Editors’ First Reads selection, and Catch You Later, brand new in October 2024. She has written for The New York Times Modern Love, Publishers Weekly, and others, and is a popular speaker at writing conferences. She lives with her husband and two children in Cincinnati, where she received a 2024 Individual Excellence Award for her fiction from the Ohio Arts Council. Find her on Facebook and Instagram @jessicastrawserauthor.
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