How do you know when a piece of work is finished?

Originally asked

The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series

A repeated process question in The Creative Independent, asked across visual art, music, writing, performance, and mixed media.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Georgia Harmer said elsewhere, not written here
I don’t know. A good friend of mine is sending her album to mastering now and she’s been reaching out to me being like, “Let me know if you need to talk about this because this is the really hard part.” I’ve been very grateful for my community right now, but still, I don’t know. I do think it will get to the point where I just start enjoying listening to the sessions and listening to the songs, and I’m not thinking about what it needs or what it doesn’t. I do think I’m close with a lot of them.

Hannah Harlacher, The Creative Independent interview source ↗

Others on this question

View all 69 →
Koho Yamamoto Sumi-e painter, calligrapher and teacher
Well, I feel it. If I don’t feel it just the way I want it, then I’d rather destroy it than to keep it.
Recorded Amanda Millet-Sorsa, Koho Yamamoto with Amanda Millet-Sorsa, The Brooklyn Rail, 1 April 2022 source ↗
Ellen Arkbro Composer and sound artist
I think I’m more attuned to a popular… I grew up watching MTV and listening to three-minute songs, and I also don’t like concerts that are too long. A concert can be seven hours and not be too long, but sometimes a concert is forty-five minutes and it’s too long, and you’re uncomfortable, like, “It ended fifteen minutes ago, why do you keep making sound?” Or those situations where someone is playing and they’re fading out and you have this feeling of, “Yeah, it’s ending, yes, now, definitely,” and then they start again and you say, “No!” [ Laughs ] For me, moving over an hour or so, it goes into a different territory where I lose my sense of form. And then it becomes more like the chord in space. Installation format is where I would go after an hour.
Recorded Ben Gambuzza, ELLEN ARKBRO with Ben Gambuzza, The Brooklyn Rail, 1 July 2025 source ↗
Neel Patel Short-story writer and novelist
For me a story is done when I can read it and not cringe. When I’m revising a story, I focus on what’s not working. I usually set something aside for a little bit, and if I come back to it and feel that it’s complete, I trust that sense. You kind of know.
Recorded Alec Niedenthal, New Routes in Fiction: NEEL PATEL with Alec Niedenthal, The Brooklyn Rail, 1 March 2019 source ↗
Sam Amidon American musician
Right, right, totally. It’s the advantage.
Recorded Ty Maxwell, The Creative Independent interview source ↗

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