A new day

It takes a village to proof a novel. My goodness! I thought it was me, that I was a dork about commas and typos and such. Only to find out that everybody is a dork about them. Even the professionals. The proofreader’s list totaled eight pages of mistakes, and my total extended into five pages worth. I just got done comparing the lists, and between the two of us we marked the same one only once.

(To be fair to the proofreader, her changes stayed close to grammar and format. She was very respectful of my clumsy style problems, lol. Most of my five pages consisted of me fixing my clumsies. How did I get so clumsy?!)

I think I need yet another set of eyes to read it for it to be really done. I’m sure there are more we have missed. And yes, it is mostly my fault for not being better at seeing the problems to begin with.

Anyway, I’m almost done. I still have the last couple of pages to review because I’m considering making a minor change for clarity. Perhaps I left the ending too open. I’m not sure. It’s impossible to be objective when the work is your own. I am so madly in love with Georgia and Mendaline and Lo that there is little they could do I wouldn’t love them for.

Life is such a struggle! When people fully engage that struggle, even when things get difficult or they get it wrong, I can’t help but admire them. It takes courage and determination to meet life as it comes despite what that might be, to fully engage in seeking what is good, even when that means you raise every shadow on the walk.

I guess that is too easy to say, especially from my easy place here, drinking coffee, blogging. There is nothing romantic about struggle. But it isn’t the struggle that I love. I love the person who holds on come what may; the person whose courage becomes for all a pathway to a better life.