I had the pleasure of reading my book proof one last time last week. It was a liberating and proud moment.
I began reading the book proof and smiling at the beautiful lay out work. I must have read this about a million times between first writing and now and I am honestly sick to death of reading this….lol. However, it is my responsibility as the Author to make sure each and every line and punction and grammar and text is just like it should be. Nothing annoys me more than struggling through a story with mistakes. In fact, I have a system of three strikes and you’re out! I mean the big ones, y’all. The ones that are so obvious and interrupt the flow of the sentence and you keep stumbling in your mind trying to rearrange words, etc. (Whew-gee whiz). Ok, now, I know there will be some slight imperfections, but I have read many a book with one or two and that’s the limit. Halleluia-er!
Now, the challenge is to try to be like those Authors who pay close attention to detail and not be picky in the process. So, I got through the first part of my collection with just a simple comma here or there, or spacing here or there being out of place. At last, the first section is perfect and ready to go….
Now, the second part had me crawling the wall in frustration and near tears. I stumbled into a sentence that annoyed me for the last time. It simply needed to be edited so I did. Then I had to edit a few more to make that first edit good. Then I felt like the paragraph was now shot to kingdom come so I changed that. Then before you knew it, I was re-writing the whole daggon’ section before I just put my head between my hands and SCREEEEAMED!!!! I’m “sick of YOU!!!!” Then I abandoned my pc for about ten minutes to call my sister. “I’m sick of this! I cannot do this anymore!”
Well, she laughed me into calmness when I explained to her my frustrations. My sister is younger than I so I expect her to “listen” to me and shut up sometimes. Of course, she was at a distance so she let me have it real good….”You go back and change it back the way it was! Remember when I wrote my dissertation and you told me that every time I read it, I will always find something to change because you are constantly exposed to new information and experiences?”
“Yes.” I replied and I’m thinking I would like to get my hands around her about right now. How dare she throw my words back at me! “But it just does not seem like it is saying what I want it to say.” I explained.
“Then say what you mean and move on!” She sarcastically replied and then threw in one of those little teasing laughs. She was lucky to be across town…
Anyway, I thought about it over some time and returned to the pc. I looked that section dead in the eye and said what I meant! Then I wrote it. I spent another three hours going through the rest of the book and book cover and then sent it immediately back to the layout team.
It is funny how your own words will try to trip you up forever. As an Author, you have to learn to let it go at some point and accept what you have written. You have to trust that the words that were powerful the first time you released them on paper will remain powerfully in tact. If you cannot ever trust your own words, neither will the reader. It's going to cost a pretty penny to keep changing words, too. Especially after the book arrives at the printer...! (Let it go, let it go, let it go....smile)
Count down to the printer begins at Noon tomorrow…10, 9, 8, 7…Lord, why do I have to choose just one back-cover photo???? (uugh!)
Agnes B. Levine
Author of: "Cooling Well Water: A Collection of Work By An African-American Bipolar Woman" ISBN 0975461206 Winter 2009 Release Pending
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Posted By: agnes levine
Wednesday, January 28th 2009 at 7:58PM
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