So I sit here, in late April, knowing full well that the Editor that’s looking at my manuscript probably hasn’t even received the copy yet. Still I agonize over what, for me is unfinished work. I know that it will never be finished I will just stop working on it and see if it can be published. My first manuscript sat for years waiting for me to submit it some where as I read on how to get published and avoided reading it.
They may somewhere be an Author that writes and edits their own work happily, it’s not m, I reread a story and still miss the dumbest mistakes. My biggest problem is that I know what is supposed to be there on the page, and my brain fills that in when it isn’t. I have taken breaks from a work and still I can miss glaring issues. The biggest success I have had is converting the manuscript from text to speech, if I can stand to listen to the synth speak at me. It is just slowly listen, pause and correct, then listen more.
When I got my first proof copies back i happily read it and wondered how so many small errors could possibly be in one book. At one point I introduced a minor character and must have said “the man” first, because I found “the Boris.” This was bad, but with some help, my father went through a copy and we beat some of the worst out of it. The book that went to print still have errors that caused a family friend to tell me to fire my editor, can’t they were unpaid, but I have appreciated all the help I have gotten.
My publisher’s editor mostly checked for general error. I believe, the responsibility for the majority of the work was mine. My father has stated that a good editor is a writer’s best friend, and I believe that. Let others you trust read your work, take critique gracefully, I know it hurts, and don’t get defensive. The writer’s eyes see what they know is there. This is why we need others to tell us what is needed to make the story clearer.
Follow the Antares 