19th McKenna Progress Report

For me, February through April is editing season. My new book is off at my 4th editor. In case you don't know, for most writers, editing and the subsequent rewrites are the most important part turning a rough draft into a competent novel. 

Many writers think they can do the editing themselves. Most regret that impulse, for it leads to endless embarrassment in addition to nasty comments in reviews and the resulting poor sales. The reason you can't edit your own work is that you only see what you think you wrote. Whereas an editor sees what you actually wrote.

Because my new book has already been edited multiple times, and because I've rewritten the book after each previous edit, I sometimes suffer the delusion that I've sent my 4th editor a book with very few problems. Ha! It is a joke among us, me and the editors. One small reason is that different editors catch different problems. One big reason is that, when I rewrite to fix past mistakes, I create numerous new mistakes. It never ends.

When I rewrite my final time, I'll send it off into the publication pipeline. And when the finished, printed book comes out, it will, alas, have more mistakes. But, hopefully, they will be few.

I've said before that done is better than perfect. Meaning that you can continue to fix a book forever. If you don't finally decide it's done, you will never have a published book. 

Winston Churchill's comment on the subject was (in so many words), "Your book begins as dream, morphs to an infatuation, and possibly moves into the category of mistress. But eventually, it becomes a tyrant. When that happens, you have to open the door and fling it out into the storm."

Good advice. Done is better than perfect. But don't be "done" with it until it's had multiple edits and rewrites.