Everything is a draft

It may seem counter-intuitive but no creative work is ever finished. It starts as a shitty first draft, followed by umpteen iterations. Then it is abandoned. It is a state inevitably imposed upon the work due to an imminent deadline or sheer disappointment.

Creative work is a projected form of our ideas onto a chosen medium - art, literature, music, code. Idea is a beast that keeps evolving with time. Usually it evolves faster than we can create.

So the form of work is always lagging behind the idea. Like the dog chasing a cab, the creator is constantly trying to close this gap with successive drafts. This constant chase is tiresome. Which explains why some of the most prolific creators are also guilty of leaving behind a large body of unfinished work.

So effectively there is no finished state. What we perceive as new piece work is merely a draft which the creator chose to abandon.