Done and Dusted? by Joan Lennon

It's an odd time of year.  Endings, beginnings.  Summer is finishing, and there are already hints of colour change in the leaves.  Here in Scotland, primary and secondary terms started this week.  Exam results have been causing the nation's tension levels to spike. And I'm going on a journey.

I call it a journey instead of just a trip, because it is, for me, HUGE.  I'm going to Jakarta to visit my son, in his New World.  When I get back I'm starting a new job, as an RLF Fellow at Dundee University.  This is also, for me, HUGE and quite a bit New Worldish. But before I leave, I have this pressing, oppressive desire to finish absolutely every piece of writing I've got on the go - down to the last dotted i and crossed t - all of it, done and dusted.   

Chelsea porcelain inkstand, 

including a pounce box for sprinkling sand or pounce, a powdered gum, 

used to dry the ink on the page (Wikipedia)

- the "dusted" of "done and dusted"

It ain't gonna happen.  But the importunity of the desire made me think about some of the things I've learned over the years about different authors' writing styles - how some writers positively embrace the concept of leaving things unfinished to come back to.  So I thought I'd ask around.  

Dear Writers, 

At the end of a working day or week or time unit of choice, do you

a) like to have written everything you have in your mind?

or

b) like to stop partway through a scene, thought, or even sentence?

I'm an a) - no surprise - but I can see the wisdom in b).  Please pop an a) or a b) in the comments below, in the interests of, well, interest.  Cheers. 

Leonid Pasternak The Passion of Creation (Wikipedia)

painful pausing ...

Woman with wax tables and stylus (Wikipedia)

thoughtful pausing ...

Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Silver Skin.