When You're Done, You've Just Begun...

So here I am, a shiny new copy of my novel in my hand, and what do I see? A big, big mistake. Good thing it was a proof, huh?

I’ve decided to invest the eight extra dollars to order a proof of the book and take the time to…uh read my novel  Guess how many mistakes I’ve found? Uh, yeah, don’t ask. A few on every page.

AND I PAID AN EDITOR.

It just goes to show, there will be errors even after you go through multiple beta-reading rounds, hire a professional editor, and edit it yourself.

For nine years, I taught at a charter school in Ogden, and we taught writing through the Lucy Caulkin’s curriculum. I LOVED it. Seriously. It retaught me how to write. Like for reals, and I was teaching that crazy stuff to FIFTH graders. Amazing!

Anyway, one of their mantras is, “When you’re done, you’ve just begun. Return to your work.” Do you know how many times I would say that to students? Like a lot. So much so that I finally decided to print it out on a piece of paper and hold it up whenever an eager writer told me, “Mrs. Rabe, Mrs. Rabe, I’m done. I’m done.”

No one ever told me they were done after about a month of teaching them, and it was amazing. Not because I wanted to crush their writing spirits, but because in writing, you learn, there is something we can always improve. But at some point, you gotta put the dang thing down and share it with someone. And that’s what I’m going to do, after I edit it one more time. 

Put yourself out there! It’s an amazing feeling. And who cares if you suck and wrote “of” instead of “off” (Just found that tonight). Big deal. Should that stop you from putting something really great out? Absolutely not.

Be brave.

Put yourself out there.