Another song title. Well unfortunately it rings true.
While reading through my proof copy of my paperback, I found a couple of typos. So I fixed them, and that led to me changing a few other things, mostly detailing with my main female character’s clothing. You have no idea how many times I’ve changed what this girl has been wearing over the years. Her shoes. Her skirt. Her blouse, or top, or jacket. Her hat. Some of them were simply because fashions changed. The way she was dressed in the original 1990 version would be far from what my wife would say is in vogue today. Then there are the myriad of other things that changed over the years. Scenes. Sequences of events. Reworking bad writing. Etc.
If anyone out there is a model railroader, you’ll understand my next point. When you build a model railroad, it is said it is never finished. There is always something that needs to be changed. A certain track arrangement. A part of scenery. Structures. Electronic control systems. Etc. I found the similarity between that and the writing of this novel to be uncanny. It seems the novel just is never finished, despite me saying it was. (See my earlier post, The Long And Winding Road.) There’s always some part that I find I could have written better.
I hope I did make my last changes, but I’m sure there will be others. As I go through my proof, who knows what I’ll find. So this begs the question: When is it enough? When do I finally call it quits? Right now, I can’t seem to find the brakes on this thing. Until then, to those of you who have bought my novel on Kindle Direct, keep it. You have a collector’s item. With the typos and the changes to Laura’s outfit in the story, you might have what amounts to being one of those misprinted postage stamps. Who knows what that might be worth some day? (Ha!)
