Dear Geist,

How important is it to set aside a completed draft, and for how long?

Recently I finished the first draft of a memoir. It took about a year and eight months, and I’ve spent minimal time looking back on it during the process. As one might imagine, I’m incredibly anxious to read it (at which point I’ll note typos/issues, but really just intend to get a feeling for the work as a whole). Following that, I intend to comprehensively edit it. I remain energized and excited about the project. Should I take a break before reading it? If so, why? And for how long? Or should I take a break prior to my major edit?

Dear Erin,

First, congratulations on finishing the draft! No mean feat, as any writer will attest.

In fact we encourage you to follow this routine with each completed draft.

Why two weeks? Because that’s about how long it takes for a piece of writing to leave one’s head (or perhaps it’s the other way around!). Your objective is to revisit the manuscript as impartially as you can: only in a somewhat removed state, when the excitement of writing the memoir is no longer coursing through your veins, will your inner writer be willing to consider questions and notes offered by the inner editor.

Why two months? Because if you let it wait longer, you may be a different person, who wants to write a different book. (Though that experience can be gratifying too, according to writers we know who have waited or had to wait months or years.)

We applaud you for your plan on revisiting the draft when the time comes: read it right through to get an overall sense of voice, tone, authority, emotional impact, etc., then go back and scrutinize passages that need attention. That is exactly how a good editor would proceed.