It’s simultaneously satisfying and saddening to write those two words at the end of a sheaf of papers, and the culmination of three months’ hard work ( there was another three months when I was sorting stuff out in my mind. Funny how that often resembles futzing around and watching entirely too many movies.)
This morning I printed off a copy of the manuscript for one of my beta readers. She is an important one because she works as an editor and is also a successful published writer herself and her insight and criticisms are valuable to me. I probably would never have the nerve to send a manuscript out at all if it wasn’t for her giving it a thorough going over first. I’m getting feedback from a variety of sources this time. From the mother of a fifteen-year old girl (Lucky is 16), from a grammarian, from a very harsh critic, from someone who loves me very much and thinks everything I do is wonderful. I’m hoping my writing teacher will also have time to take a look. Of course as soon as I had finished printing all 199 pages, I thought of some sentences I wanted to tweak or clarify and I decided to build up the ending a little more. I have done these things now and I am going to be firm about the leaving it alone until I hear back from my readers.
This is harder than it seems, and begs the question, how do you know when you are truly finished with a book?
I will say that although my book, The Curious Misadventures Of Feltus Ovalton, has been out for over two years, there are still things about it that I’d like to change. Perhaps there’ll be a twentieth anniversary edition some day and I can re-edit it then?
I’ve heard that most authors feel this way. The only way to deal with it, is to put it out of your mind and start work on something new.
That being said, I’m beginning to outline my next project today.
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