I’m an obsessive rewriter. If I am asked to do a reading somewhere, I always hope no one has a copy of the book I’m reading from in front of them because I edit as I read aloud. I can’t stand to read my books after they’re published…because I can’t stand knowing THIS IS IT. I can’t revise anymore. (The only time I read them is if I have to at a public reading…or if I’m working on a sequel to a previous book and need to refresh my memory.)
I probably drive my editors crazy at the final edit and galley stage because I find all these big things I want changed. Well, they look big to me…I think sometimes my editors go, “HUH????”
So, I had lunch with a writer friend today…she has the first round of page proofs (apparently, she’ll get at least one more chance to go through these) for her first book, which was really fun to see. She showed me the things she changed…which were all things that pertained to the activities in her book. There were places the illustration of the activity didn’t match the text. But that was about it. For a 200 page book.
I said, “You didn’t make any changes to your text???”
She said, “No.” Then she showed me the letter she got from her editor that said basically, “we don’t want you making a lot of changes at this stage.”
Well, yeah…but that’s never stopped ME!
I just kept saying, “No changes??? No changes at all??? None??? REALLY???”
The mind boggles.
I’ll be getting page proofs for The Truth About Truman School any day now. Hopefully I will learn from my friend’s example.
