As any writer knows, proofreading and editing are major components of prepping a book for publication or finding a publisher in the first place. That’s certainly been the case for me as I have utilized a paid editor and proofread each of my manuscripts literally a dozen times or more before submission only to have even more edits necessary after my publisher went through it. That’s what prompted today’s discussion.
Having spent the weekend on one last edit of my next book, a manuscript that has already been read so many times I’m not sure my mind even sees the words on the page anymore, I found two more errors. One was the kind of mistake that a really astute reader would have found and the other simply an errant comma. Back to the publisher it went with my tail between my legs for not having found the errors earlier and a plea that even though we are close to the book’s launch date, the errors be corrected. Thank goodness my publisher will make it happen and I won’t have to live with a lifetime of looking at that book knowing those mistakes exist. I got a “do over”.
That brought me around to a thought. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could proofread and edit our own lives? Hindsight being 20-20 and all, our world would be so much better if we could go back and fix the problems we’ve caused or the mistakes that we’ve made. What would our lives be like if we could?
Would the twenty pounds we’ve lost and regained and lost again finally be kept off? Would we have avoided marrying the person who would turn out to be the wrong one? Would we have avoided taking that job simply because of the salary and instead taken the one at a lower wage that would have provided immense satisfaction to our life? Would we have avoided speaking hurtful words that once out of our mouths were impossible to take back? Would we have kept friends and avoided enemies? Would we or could we make the world a perfect place if only we could go back and edit our own lives?
As simple as it appears to be for the pages of a work of fiction, it is unfortunately never that easy in real life. Certainly, we still have an opportunity to make things right when we’ve made mistakes – if we’re brave enough to do so – but how many of us actually do? We still have an opportunity to say I’m sorry to try and take back a hurtful word or two. We can still quit a job we dislike or end a marriage that might not have been right from the start. We can still edit our mistakes.
But having that opportunity and doing what is necessary to make it right isn’t always so easy when there are deep emotions involved on both sides. Failure to make something right leaves us with a life filled with regrets, yet it may be easier to live with an error filled life than to swallow our pride and right those we have wronged or put a bad situation in the rearview mirror.
As I look back on my life, my mistakes stand out. There are more than I care to admit and while they have taught me lessons that have, hopefully, made me a better person, they come with regrets. While it is too late to do anything to correct many of my mistakes, it is not too late for others. In the 12-step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous, I believe they call it making “amends”; individual apologies to those you have wronged.
I’m not sure if that includes making amends to yourself for errors you’ve made where the only person hurt is yourself, but I suspect that’s also an important part of editing your life. Once we’ve addressed the mistakes that have impacted others, we need to turn our focus inwards. Forgive ourselves. Apologize to ourselves. Allow ourselves to right the wrongs of our past and to move on with a fresh outlook free from the regrets of our past.
Editing is an important part of writing, but it’s an even more important part of life. When you pay attention to the details and set a goal of getting things right, your need to edit will become less and less. Less edits in writing equals a better manuscript. Will it be the same in your life?
Have a wonderful week everyone!
BAL
Author Barbara A. Luker 