Many years ago, when I was just starting out as a writer, someone gave me this advice: “If you want to live as a writer, you need to be able to do two things. When you go to sleep at night, you need to think that what you wrote that day was wonderful, as long as when you get up the next morning, you realize it’s awful.”
I was reminded of that advice the other day when I picked up — for the one thousand seven hundred and twenty-second time — more or less — the manuscript of a new book on which I’ve been working. The experience was the same as always. When I came upon poor phrasing, a misplaced comma, a repetitious word, a useless paragraph, a misspelling, weak plotting, and so forth and so on, I felt discouraged that it was there but relieved that I found it and could make changes for the better.
The truth is if I go through a manuscript and make lots of revisions and corrections, I probably could and should do it once again. And what is the best editor? Time. Put aside your work for a month or two. When you come back to it you’ll discover lots of places for improvement. The difficulty? Sometimes it’s harder not to write than it is to write when you have the habit.
And what if you do think you have written something well?
In that regard, I’ve always loved the Boswell/Johnson story: “Mr. Johnson, my friend, has written a wonderful book with brilliant passages, but he cannot find a publisher. What shall he do?”
Johnson: “Tell your friend to remove his brilliant passages, and he will find a publisher.”
I will never write a perfect book. Indeed, I don’t like to read my published books because I know I will find bits and pieces (I’ve had the experience) that I feel I could have made better. But it’s published, so it’s too late.
I will never write a perfect book. Indeed, I don’t like to read my published books because I know I will find bits and pieces (I’ve had the experience) that I feel I could have made better. But it’s published, so it’s too late. Actually, there have been a few times when I was given the opportunity to rewrite what was originally published. It occurred when the original book went out of print, and a new editor brought it back in a new edition with better writing. My very first book, Things That Sometimes Happen, enjoyed that happy fate. It’s still in print after fifty-five years.
Mind, under normal circumstances, it is the editor who decides when a book is done. That said, a few times I have even had disagreements with editors when I felt the book needed more work, and they believed otherwise. The very first book I did with editor Richard Jackson (S.O.R. Losers) that happened. When he told me — upon receipt of the manuscript — that he thought the book was done, I had the temerity to suggest otherwise “Go ahead,” he said. And I did.
In all the years and books I worked on with him, that never happened again. Indeed, it was he who, more than once, after we agreed a book was done, came up with some fine-tuning, which is why he was such a great editor.
I recall reading a memoir by a writer (I forget who) who claimed that all he wished to achieve was one truly memorable sentence.
My ambitions go beyond that, but I can sympathize with the wish. Which is why when I’m with my readers, and they ask (as they often do), “Which is your own favorite book?” I know the answer. “The one I’m working on.”
“Why?”
I still have time to make it a perfect book.
(Even though it won’t happen.)
1 thought on “In Quest of the Perfect Book”
You made me smile today. My WIP is sitting, lonely, waiting for the next revision after 5 great BETA readers made suggestions…