My last TMA (Teacher Marked Assessment) is due on Friday of this week, then my ECA (End of Course Assessment) is due on the 5th June. Or it would be due on the 5th June if I didn’t have to post it at least two weeks early to make sure it makes it from here in Germany to the Open University marking centre on time. And I hadn’t booked a family holiday to Denmark for the 23rd May. And the kids weren’t breaking up from school two days early on the 20th May. So instead of having nearly four weeks to complete my course, I have ten days. So begins the manic redraft. 

Good thing I have both assignments completed in third or fourth draft form and nearly ready to go. Problem is I have trouble letting go with the whole editing and drafting process. I know it is time to step away from the manuscript when I change lines back and forth from one improved version to another, invariably ending up back where I started, the line as it was before the ten minute deliberation over word order or choice of synonym.

Writing this is a well deserved break from scanning my work for errors, reading the text out loud and backwards to try and avoid skipping errors unconciously and generally chipping and chopping away until the full and proper shape of the two short stories comes into focus. Hopefully I will have trimmed all the necessaries without amputating a living limb.

Anyone have any tips on when they know enough is enough with redrafting?