Perfection

I've come to the conclusion (as probably every authors have) that a book is never perfect. There are always tweaks and choices to be made, actions or descriptive to be added, and character development to fiddle with. But at some point we all say enough is enough and publish the darn thing foregoing the one last re-write. I have done this and regretted it a bit as I've re-read parts and pieces from each of the stories I've put into print and made tiny adjustments or massive changes based on feed back I've received or just my mindset at that moment in time. Though never fear, the core story remains the same and putting out another version with the minor fixes is easy. Now back to my point; finding perfection or lack there of. Today just happened to be a prime example of this. 

With a bit of free time, I looked over the current book I'm writing, Child of Need. It's good and I'm being a bit more thoughtful, a bit more descriptive, and looking for just the right turn of phrase instead of just getting words onto paper. Even then, as I read a paragraph I'd written just a week ago, I found a half dozen things I needed to change, add, or delete. Frustrated with finding so many errors (at least in my opinion), I decided to look into another book I've had an odd feeling about, Azazel. Granted, Azazel is already published (which brings me back to a few regrets), but what's done is done. However, there's a part at the end of the book I've been thinking about for a while which doesn't seem to make sense, so I took a peek. A bit of re-writing and a paragraph later, it sound and reads better, but it's still not done. The one change has cascaded into a few more changes which are needed as I ponder the ending even further. But having cleaned up some of it, I decided to move on to another story I've been working on, a novel concerning Limbus. Again, changes ensued, though not a new word written.

In all three cases, what was perfectly fine once was changed, tweaked, or altered in order to make it read smoother, better, or just make more sense. Yet, in a week, I'll go back and look over those changes again and may undo what I changed. In a way it sucks, but for the most part its a necessary process we all go through. Now if we only had an editor who could read our minds and adjust the story accordingly, we'd all be good. Unfortunately, I can barely read my own mind at times, so that's just not happening for me. For now and the near future, I'll just have to deal with my imperfections.

And let the editing continue.....