Elusive Perfection

Sometimes being a perfectionist is infuriating. I’ve gotten so many accolades through the years for my excellent work product that it was easy for my chest to puff up.

So true to form, I set out to write ‘perfect’ books. —Cough Cough—

Little did I know what a humbling experience that would be. The first novel I wrote, The Blood, was a bumpy ride. Instead of flowing with the process, I tried to force the story.

 Humility finds us all

When It didn’t turn out right, I prayed about what to do. I immediately felt led to remove certain sections, move sections around, rephrase other things, and so forth.

It was much better. For many people who have read all of my books, they say it is their favorite. But honestly, everyone has a different favorite book of mine.

Once written to the point I thought I had done all I knew to do, I hired an editor. Not knowing anything about the editor process, I expected my novel would come back ‘perfect’.

High Expectations

In fact, I was confident that it would be. When I received back the edit suggestions, I made them and immediately published the book.

__Insert head slap here__

Once published, I had a few friends mention tenderly to me that there were several errors in the book. I was literally shocked. But they were right.

Back to the drawing board

I reread and changed as much as I could ‘see’ myself. Keep in mind that an author CANNOT ‘see’ most of their errors. Then, I gave the manuscript out to several people to scan for more errors.

When they were all convinced that there were no more errors, I republished the book. I posted great apologies on my Facebook page. I was indeed humbled.

I worked so hard with each subsequent novel to achieve that ‘perfect’ novel. And each time, after a relentless review/edit process, they still had at least a few typos.

—Grrrrrr—

For someone who works hard to achieve this ideal, and wants to do the best job that they can, this brought me to utter disappointment and frustration.

 And Then there was Choices Like Rivers

When I wrote and published my fourth novel, Choices Like Rivers, I worked even harder to have more people review/edit, rinse and repeat. Now, these were not normal people. MOST were former school teachers, English teachers, and university professors.

One day, a dear friend of mine sat holding the latest hard copy of that novel. She told me she had found many mistakes.

__Picture Wile E. Coyote with steam blowing out the top of his head__

I knew that everyone who had read the manuscript had worked very hard. I know they had found many edits.

 Why oh Why?

WHY then did there still seem to be even more?

So I asked my dear friend, a former teacher herself, to go through all my novels and see if she could find errors.

She lovingly did. She only found 1 in The Blood. By that time it had been sifted through multiple times. The Water revealed a couple more to her, and then The Fire a few more.

And yes, she found several in Choices Like Rivers. So, I promptly went back to my computer and carefully corrected all edits and re-uploaded the manuscripts to the printer and my ebook distributor.

I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief.

 And yet... 4 years later

Fast forward 4 years later when another dear friend of mine would read Choices Like Rivers for the first time. She gingerly told me there were many mistakes.

A phantom truck hit my chest and my mouth fell open. I felt like I was caught in a dystopian vortex. WHAT ON EARTH HAD HAPPENED????

 Humiliation had found me again 

I know I had sat and carefully, diligently made each correction. But okay, I read the manuscript again with fresh four-year-old eyes. And guess what? I saw those mistakes.

So, I once again corrected them and saved the manuscript in the formatting program where I had done the final creation of the book. It was the same place I had made the final edits on this book and on the others too.

Instead of going back to Scrivener where I wrote the book, it was just easier to make the edits in Vellum the formatting program I use.

 The aha moment

As I was about to hit ‘save’, it hit me. Had I saved the previous manuscript for Choices Like Rivers before generating the books? I assumed I had, but didn’t know for sure.

You see, in some of my professional writing programs, you have to hit save and I don’t know if I did or not.

That is the only explanation that I can come up with why that book still had so many errors after all the hard work by so many people. And, had I failed to hit save on both of the last two edits? That would explain why so many errors kept showing up. Were they the same errors both times?

 Deepest apologies

So, if you bought a copy of Choices Like Rivers and wondered ‘what the ….’, well, I apologize. I truly do. Please know that despite all my best efforts, and others, stuff just happens.

It has been a very humbling experience for this life long perfectionist. I no longer let it humiliate me because I know that kind of negative emotion steals my creativity. So, I just resolve to do better.

NOW, I have re-done Choices Like Rivers and re-uploaded it. Also, while I was going through the manuscript again, I made a few small revisions.

There had always been some places that I wished I had fleshed it out a bit more. So, I took the opportunity to do that this time.

You might never even have realized it unless I told you.

 YAY for you! A coupon!

So, if you want to buy a new copy of Choices Like Rivers in any format, I will give you a ‘newsletter only’ coupon to order the revised book at 30% off. Free shipping author signed copies. You can also get it in ebook too.

 Coupon for 30% off of Choices Like Rivers: CLR30OFF

If you read the book and loved it, despite all the errors, please consider giving me a review. In the author world, we need to get reviews to help other potential buyers know if they should take a chance on the book. The more reviews - the greater odds that they will move forward and buy the book.

I want to thank each and everyone of you for being such loyal fans. Honestly, I do.

If you haven’t ordered my new book, The Box, then do that as soon as possible! I know you will love it.

 I want to encourage you to leave me any comments below. They are so encouraging and motivating to me. 

Nancy

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