I have been building an addition on my house for a year, now. I framed it in, put in windows and doors, created rooms, wired and plumbed, and finally got to put on sheetrock. Closing it in made it really start to feel like a real house.
Only mudding and taping all the seams has taken forever. I just want to get done. Can’t we live in the rooms just like this? Of course not. It’s not finished. No one would accept conditions like this.
Mudding sheetrock is a lot like editing. First of all, it seems to take forever. I fill in gaps between the panels of gypsum. I round edges and crease corners. I smooth out rough spots. And then I go back and look at it with a critical eye and lo – cracks I thought I’d covered need another go over. But eventually I reach a point where it has to be “good enough.” I’m the only one who will ever notice that spot high in the stairwell wall, visible only in the direct beam of a halogen work light, where the corner dips a little too low.
So it is with my manuscript. I need to reach the point of “good enough” and let it go. Because I know I will always look at it and see the seams.
Missed you,glad you're back blogging.
ReplyDeleteAnd so it goes...building an addition, remodeling, or writing always (at least that's my experience) takes longer than I expect it to.
But you're right, at some point we send our manuscripts off as they are the best we can do at the time...they are good enough to send out. Perhaps we'll get some feedback from an agent or editor that will point out one of those cracks we missed and we can go back and finish it.
The good thing is, after the drywall, taping, mudding, and sanding process comes paint and the illusion that the project is finished at least for now.
Thanks for visiting, Judith! Paint can cover up a lot of mistakes!
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