I’ve been crazy proofreading the new manuscript, translations of surrealist poet Benjamin Péret. The translations themselves are very goo d, they’re poems, yes, if I do say so. My God, they should be. They’ve been reworked endlessly and they sing. But then there’s the intro, the opening of Americ an doors to this French squirrel of a poet. Trying to get it right. And keep it lively and engaging. And then there are footnotes, God help me. I have just emailed the “second pass” on proofs to my fabulous publisher, Black Widow Press. They are already advertising the book, The Big Game, on Amazon. So I damned well better decide where the commas go. One more pass. But I could work on this for another year! Each day I’d change a syllable. Or not. When do you let a book manuscript go out into the world ?
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Some authors avoid this problem by only publishing posthumously.
But I had a writing teacher at Arizona long ago who said you know something’s done when it makes you sick to look at it. (These are not very satisfying replies, I know).
I think it’s when you realize that you’re changing things you’ve already changed, over and over again, until even you aren’t sure what works best.
As Andy Warhol once supposedly said: “I can’t even tell what’s good anymore.”
Or you could just adhere to the deadline, assuming there is one. If not, there should be, just to avoid such torture as this.
Deadlines are the only reason anything gets done. I could work on this manuscript every day for another year…
But no! According to Amazon, it’s ready to roll! I’m so lucky to have a great book designer who has a good eye for inconsistencies–and I get three “passes” at revision and fixing typos. Three. Not 365!
Thanks for the sage advice, everyone! You all rock–Marilyn