There is no hard and fast answer to the above question, of course, but what I have found to be true is that a story is ready for submitting when:-

1.  You really cannot edit another word of it without spoiling it in some way.

2.  The story haunts you - and you wrote it!  (Good chance readers will be haunted by it too).

3.  Having deadlines to submit (for reputable competitions say) can be really useful as it makes you work to a date and encourages you to let a story "go".  It can be easy to keep editing and polishing.  At some point you need to pluck up courage and test the market with your stories.

4.  When you can genuinely envisage your piece as suiting Publication X, say, because you have read several of their editions, have a feel for their style and your story or article fits in beautifully.  If you are right go on and send it in but be sure to follow their submission guidelines.

5.  You come across other published stories which you have cause to feel are not as good as yours.  Only one way to find out if you're right or not:  send your one in!

The Light Fantastic is my latest Chandler's Ford Today post and looks at light and dark from the perspectives of vision (including photography), mood and fiction.  Light and dark are crucial to fiction.  If there is no dark in a story, there is no conflict, there is no drama, nothing happens for better or worse, and any potential tale here collapses.

Fairytales are full of the contrasts between light and dark in the way they portray their characters.  Fairytales are often grim and perhaps the antidote here has been what has become the "happy ever after" ending.  Light and dark have to be in the right proportions.  All darkness is just oppressive.  All light would be blinding. 

Look at the light and dark qualities of your characters.  Are they in balance?  What weakness in your character really lets them down?  What virtue really makes them?  How did they develop these things?  Do they actively try to fight the weakness?

It isn't always appropriate for a story to end happily of course but the finish must be appropriate.  I like to see stories end on a note of hope even if the finish is a sadder one. 

What are your characters' favourite times?  Curling up with a good book?  Lazing in the bath?  Going for a good walk with the dog?

Use questions like this to help you establish your character.  The answers may not appear in your story but knowing something about the character before you start writing about them will be enormously helpful.  You don't need to know each and every little detail.  What you want is enough information that you can write clearly for them, knowing how they would react to a situation and why.  The reader will pick up on the fact you really do know your character (even if they do this subconciously, in many ways it is better if they do pick up on this that way) and the writing will flow better as a result.

Of course, working out what your characters' favourite times will tell you so much about them.  Do they curl up with a good book because they can't face what is their real life?  Why can't they face it?  Dig deep. Maybe you will surprise yourself with what your characters show you about themselves.  Use that. 

I write about The Importance of Memories in my Chandler's Ford Today post this week.  I touch on the subject of memories and fiction writing here too but below are some specific reasons why memories should come into your stories (even if they are just implied.  They often are just implied in flash fiction due to the limited word count but to my mind that makes the impact more hard hitting).

1.  Characters need to seem real to be believable.  Real people have memories.  So do real characters.

2.  Our behaviour is affected by memory - memory of what we did wrong, memory of what we did right and the difference between the two!  Our characters should reflect this too.  They're not going to get it right all the time (good thing too - no story there!) but do need to show they've learned from their mistakes.  That is where memory comes in of course.

3.  Your world setting will have rules and values it expects its citizens to live by.  Your characters will know what these are, will know what special days and ceremonies there are, and will live their lives i obedience to all of that or be rebelling against it, but again your characters need to know and remember what these are!

4.  We are shaped by our memories in terms of who we are and why we are the way we are.  Our characters should be too.

5.  We can be haunted by memories, especially of those we've loved and lost.  Our characters should be too.

Character dialogue has to sound natural when a reader comes to it, whether they read it aloud or not and whether they read a print or ebook or listen to the story on audio first.  Often character dialogue is a "tidied up" version of what we say in life with few hesitations (best used sparingly in writing.  It looks gimmicky and is "tiring" to read.).

I've found reading work out loud (sometimes recording it and playing it back) is a great way of checking to see if my dialogue is up to scratch.  If I stumble over my words, a reader will too as out with the old editing pen again!  It is wise to use accented speech sparingly.  You want to give a sense of what a character's accent is.  You don't need to use an accent for each and every word they say.  Again, that is tiring to read, especially in a longer work.

You need your characters to speak in different styles so readers can easily tell them apart during "conversational pieces".  Sometimes this can be done by the choice of words a character uses.  Sometimes it can be that Character A always speaks in short, sharp sentences, while Character B takes their time in getting to the point!

I love getting my characters to "chat" even if sometimes it is to themselves via their own internal thoughts.  This is where you and, later, a reader can find out so  much about them.