I'm at the editing stage and I get this weird thing when I'm not working on my novel where I start to worry about my plot not being developed enough. But when I am working on it I always make little tweaks to the plot that improves it. Just wondered if anyone else has these sorts of irrational anxieties?
Who says that the anxieties are not rational??? ;-)
It sounds to me as though a possibly good course of action would be to leave the whole thing alone for a few days - give it and your brain a rest. Let the whole thing settle.
Do you really mean "tweaking the plot"? Tweaking the text, from individual words to whole paragraphs, is fine - but how far do numbers of tweaks risk taking the plot off course?
It would seem to me that there is also a risk of disrupting (or completely losing) continuity. I know from experience that a simple thing changed (especially early in the text) can require a massive amount of adjustment through all of the following text.
There is a certain amount of necessary self discipline involved. Yes adding in or changing to a new element might look interesting - but - if the work is essentially complete - should the new idea be put aside (as notes) for a possible future work?
Apart from the dangers already mentioned changes just make for extra work and more time.
This activity can facilitate procrastination... Maybe an anxiety is not so much about the finished work - but about the next step... All the time there is something to be adjusted and improved we are safe from moving on... All that horrible stuff about submissions, agents and publishers can be put off...
Someone said that a book/story is not about perfection but about getting it done/told. (Something like that anyway). Looking at many published works this is clearly correct - many books are awful! So - why do we put so much time and effort into seeking perfection? or are we avoiding the next stage?
Hope this is helpful
:-)