Avi

word craft

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One more time?

My edi­tor writes to me, “I think the man­u­script is in fan­tas­tic shape. I’m so pleased with the changes you’ve made, and at this point, I have very few com­ments left…. [It’s] near­ly there, with very lit­tle left to address.”

red pencil

That’s my cue. So, after some­thing like two years, I work through this man­u­script yet again for the—what?—two thou­sandth (or more) time. With a com­plex mix­ture of relief, ela­tion, and despair, I find many things that I can make, need to make, bet­ter. There is relief that I find these things and can make adjust­ments. Ela­tion that I can do some­thing that will makes things bet­ter. Despair that I find these things at all.

I go through all my tricks: change of font, change of mar­gins, changes in font size, change in back­ground col­or, read­ing on the screen, read­ing on paper, read­ing out loud, read­ing to some­one, but I still find these things. They are like lumps of coal work­ing their way to the surface.

And always, always, the nag­ging wor­ry: have I caught every­thing? Do I need to go through it one more time?

Have I caught every­thing? Of course I have not. Do I have to go through it one more time?

Of course I do.

6 thoughts on “One more time?”

  1. Thank you for shar­ing the craft of a mas­ter. Your sto­ries all go through thou­sandth time of pol­ish­ing, no won­der they all sparkle like dia­monds. THANK YOU for great sto­ries and great read, Avi! =)

    Reply
  2. Yes. The book I am attempt­ing to write is final­ly in sec­ond draft form. But now, as I go through it, I find many, many little,(and big) ele­ments that need edit­ing. It can be annoy­ing when I print out a fin­ished page, only to find it has anoth­er lit­tle some­thing wrong in it!

    Reply

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