The Editing Never Ends, or, It Will Never be Perfect

I love to write. But writing is rewriting and I don’t love that as much. Others take great joy in rewriting, but not me. I take great joy in the creating. To me nothing is better than getting an idea and typing away in the heat of passionate creation. That’s where I find my joy.

I’m working at rewrites and edits for the first story I plan on publishing. Except, my other failing is I’m a perfectionist, at least with my writing. I never thought I was. I mean, I’m often untidy in my surroundings and with many other things in life. I often say “good enough” and move on. It’s not like that with my writing, and it was only recently that I discovered this.

I had a friend that retired from being an Art Director at a big New York City advertising firm. I remember him saying, “Isn’t it amazing how many people go over the same piece of writing and still errors get through.” He’s right. This happens.

Just look at books published by major publishers. Often I see reader reviews complaining about errors. Yet, in big publishing, it’s not only the author that has to go back over it (who by this point is often sick of looking at the manuscript), but the content editor, line editor, a proofreader, etc. Yes, that’s how many people look at a manuscript before it goes to press, and still errors sneak past them.

I’m a one woman show at the moment. All I can afford right now is an online grammar checker. This story won’t be perfect. But, I’m giving it my all and doing the best I can do with where I’m at in my writing skills right now. Grammar and style guides litter my desktop.

Maybe one day I will enjoy this part process more. For now, I’ll keep going till I’m sick of looking at this story and label it ‘good enough’ and push it out in the world. People will either like it or they won’t. It’s all subjective anyway.

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