The Dreaded "Final Edit"

As I stated in an earlier post, I am doing a Final Edit on my debut novel.  Being a workaholic and a perfectionist, I want my book to be the best it can be.  In light of the current changes in publishing, I want my book to be the best it can be--especially since I will be releasing it as an Indie-published e-book.  As an author, I want my book to be the best it can be because it carries not only my name but also my words, my thoughts, my philosophy on life.

But I was having no fun editing with all this pressure.

I had to remind myself of a very famous writer with her seven-book series whose later books show her growth as an author.

We should all show our growth as authors.

Yet, her books were published and enjoyed by millions before she reached increased levels of perfection.

Kind of like a physician's practice (emphasis on the word "practice") connotes a lifetime of learning his art, so does it with us creators using our imagination and words to tell a tale with the art of written communication.

Plus, isn't this daily road trip on my way to my goals supposed to be fun?

Here's the distillation of these random musings.  I am not perfect (Gasp!) and should relax a little--hard for us workaholics to do.  Instead of waiting to publish when I have studied and learned all that is out there, not to mention implementing the entirety of that knowledge, I have realized that I would never be published in my lifetime.  No one would with that criteria.  Obviously, this does not mean putting up slop to sell.  I take great pride in my work. 

Besides there are those brilliant authors who break the rules and win over the readers and critics alike, all the while presenting their storytelling in such a way so as to effectively share it with us all.

So why take decades to study these "rules" if you can be persuasive with the written word without them?  I'm reminded of that oft repeated axiom to stop the research, stop the studying, and just act.  Good advice.

I'm taking it.

Again, I'm not advocating to ignore the Web11 spellings and definitions of words, nor the standard English grammar usages that encourage the art of successful communication.  I am saying there is no "perfect" time and I will yet to be perfect myself, so we should take the sum of our knowledge AT THIS POINT and use it wisely.  Go for it!
 
And for those who are interested, I'm enjoying my process so much more now.  With my new improved mind-set (yes, this is the Webster's 11th Edition way to spell it), I have worked through the first fifty-four pages of my two-hundred-twenty-page novel.  I'm not sure how many rounds I will need to polish my work, but I'm feeling my way to finding out.  For this book.  I'm sure each one poses its own set of guidelines and needs.

After all, I am a work in progress myself, just like my books. 

Those "What I Did Over the Summer" School Essays

I always dreaded those first-day-back-at-school assignments to write what I did over the summer.  It was the same.  We spent two weeks visiting both sets of grandparents in Kansas.  It was wonderful and I have great memories.  We also went to the pool to swim at home.  I visited nearby friends within walking distance.  When I got a little older, I babysat.  But all that paled to my schoolmates' tales of spending a month in France or camping in ten different states or sailing along the coast.

I'm all grown up now and when I run into someone I haven't seen in a while, it still gives me pause when asked "What have you been up to?"  I haven't found the cure for cancer; I haven't gone abroad with the Peace Corps; I haven't traveled to Mexico to build a church; I haven't helped rebuild a city ravaged by hurricane or tsunami.  I have donated funds which I hope found its way into each of those endeavors.  However, it just doesn't have the same zing as spending my time there, getting my hands dirty, making unused muscles sore.  And my donations were not one or two digits followed up by six zeros, either.

Writing my books does not reach the lofty goals I mentioned above.  But that's just it.  That's the point here.  When I run into an acquaintance I haven't seen in years, I can tell them "I'm an author, with three e-books on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, plus I'm working on finalizing my debut novel.  I have eight more fiction books in the works, too."

Just do something a little outside your normal, day-in/day-out, staid, predictable routine.  Like adding miniscule spices and hard-to-see herbs to your food can make a huge difference, add some variety to each and every day.  It could be stopping on the way home and spending just ten minutes picking wild blueberries by the railroad tracks near your home.  Or taking a one-day powder-puff mechanics class that gives you the added skill of being able to change out your car's air filter.  It could be starting a conversation with someone in your yoga class, making a new friend, finding out more about their fascinating life.

Not only does this cause us to grow, both in confidence and in knowledge, but you took action.  Action begets more action like success begets more success.  Every day find one way to add some ingenuity to your schedule.  Drive a different way home.  Really survey your surroundings, searching for treasure not-yet-named.  Check out various parks in your area and see if any have hiking/biking trails.  Take them!

I cannot possibly list all the choices here.  My mind, time and responsibilities hinder me.  But just get your imagination on notice that you want to see things differently, see more choices.  Your life will blossom.

One more thing.  Yes, there will be someone who will cure cancer.  That person's success will be worldwide and affect a lot of people.  However, that does not mean the reasons for you being here, your goals to reach, are not needed either, or by as many people.  This blog is to instill self-esteem which I believe is a foundational building block, if not the foundational building block as self-esteem is just another way to say self-love without the egocentric connotations.  Self-esteem is needed by all.

So don't rank your success against someone else's.  They are all needed on this earth.  And because you help just one does not make your role in the universe less than someone who helps millions.  Like that story of the child throwing one starfish after another back in the water.  Someone pointed out to her how there were so many she couldn't help, so many she did not reach for, trying to discourage her from even doing what little she could.  Her reply?  I'm helping the one I throw back in the ocean.

And what a great concept.  I'm helping ONE.  If everybody helped just a single, solitary, sole individual, the whole world would benefit and be the better for it.  I happen to believe that I am the person I should help first, to better me.  That way I have a growing wealth of wisdom to dip from in order to assist another.  You are doing your part, in no small way, when you help just one.  Keep at it.

Also, please feel free to share your get-out-of-my-rut ideas with the rest of us.

Courage Entails Taking Just ONE Step

We have all heard “take it one step at a time” or some variation, like “inch by inch, life’s a cinch.”  Yet I don’t believe that picture is clear enough when you first hike up your foot to enter the unknown, effectively transforming your routine life into your dream life.  For you may see only one step.  One.  That’s it.  You are standing on the only patch of earth and surrounded by air.  Bottomless air.  For those of you who are acrophobic, like I am, it can be terrifying.  Yet, you know what?  My fear of heights is lessening.  Just another proof that we should face those fears and prove them false.

So how do you plan your dream life, set into action all those goal-setting articles and self-help DVDs you’ve read and listened to?  You already know the basic steps to becoming what you know you were born to do—which is anything that lights you up, that has you animated, that you could talk about nonstop, whatever “that” is should be what you do for a career.

For someone wanting to teach at the university level, you know you will need a Master’s degree.  To get that you need a Bachelor’s first, and for that you will probably need to graduate high school (or get a GED or credit through home schooling, etc.).  For that example, I worked backward and found three milestones.  You plan with what you know.  You revise as needed, as you go along.

For me, being an author, I can tell you a little more about that career as I am living it.   I needed to write at least one book.  I needed to sell some of them.  But the overall reality is the same.  You ask yourself, What should I do now?  What one step would get me nearer to living my ultimate career? 

If you step out in faith, taking the one and only forward-moving action that you see at that nanosecond, I believe another step will be revealed to you.  I love that quote that says, paraphrased here, the teacher/mentor appears when the student is ready.  Meaning you made the decision.  You WILL go after that dream career.  Or the quote that reminds us that the Universe will supply us with all manner of goodies once our foot lands in the unknown.  I trust in a God that rewards people who follow their heart's desire, make a decision and forge ahead to make a better world one person at a time, starting with themselves.

So step out there.  It is not so scary after all.  And the benefits . . . well, they will have you smiling.  All day long.