Getting Le Carré'd away*

For a writer of romantic(ish) fiction, I have a deep and possibly incongrous passion for Cold War spy thrillers.  Before I start rhapsodising about Adam Hall's Quiller series and the delights of early Alistair MacLean, let me explain how this relates to the writing process.

In 1974, John le Carré launched the first part of his Karla trilogy, pitting the British spymaster George Smiley against his enigmatic Soviet opposite number.  The book was, of course, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  Hence my modus operandi for getting my book up to scratch:

Tinker... until everthing's just right.

Tailor... the work to your audience.

Soldier... on until you get published.

Spy... go and celebrate publication by reading The Scorpion Signal with a nice cup of tea and a packet of Fruit Gums.

While step four is somewhat personal to a thirty-something aspiring writer with a crush on a fictional secret agent and a weakness for PG Tips and Fruit Gums, I think the first three are good tenets to write by (or by which to write, if I'm going to have a crack at not battering the English language around the ankles with my prose).

The problem I'm having at the moment is Tinkering.  Looking For Buttons has been coming together for a few years now and has gone through seven drafts.  I give it a read through before I approach a new agent and sometimes I change things before it goes out.  I need to know when to stop.

But how?


* é appears courtesy of Lexi Revellian, who told me which keys to press (thank you!).