Making it Better

“I was fascinated by the effects that could be achieved by editing. The cutting room became a magic workshop for me.” - Leni Riefenstahl

Yesterday, I decided to go ahead and enter the contest I'd been thinking about. I printed off the entry for one last go through, sat down at the breakfast bar, red pen in hand. I figured that it was pretty polished (after all, I'd been through it half a dozen times and THREE of my writing friends had), but it might need a few tweaks.



Huh. Guess it needs more than a few...

My daughter (a budding writer, herself) was watching, and we had this conversation:

DD: "Is that your writing?"

Me: "Yes."

DD: "Why do you change it after you write it?"

Me: "Because it can always be better."

DD: Looks at all the red marks. "Gee, you sure made a lot of mistakes."

Me: Defensive. "They aren't mistakes, I'm just making it better!"

I got the final galleys for my latest Wild Rose Press story, "Tickle Fights and Barbecues" yesterday morning. I checked it over and fought the urge to made a dozen changes. I did request two because of multiple word use (I used "because" THREE times in two paragraphs -- how did I or my editor not catch this?)

I'm half dreading the day when I have my first novel published, hold it in my hand, open in and think: OMG!!! Look at that gerund! I used "because" three times on that page! What a lame metaphor! That could have been written much tighter! What was I thinking????