Hitting The ‘Print’ Button

The Moment Of Truth

Recently, my daughter told me of Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, who spends years editing her books. As I write this article, I find myself at a crossroads, asking myself one simple question.

Have I edited my book enough?

No. I haven’t, because I used the word ‘enough’ in my answer, which means ‘as much or as many as required,’ and the last time I checked, there wasn’t a legal requirement for pressing the print button on a novel. It’s up to each writer to make that determination. So, why am I so scared to take the leap and print 25 copies of my book?

I am a perfectionist. There. I said it.

I have this fear that, when I receive the 25 books in the mail, I will open them and find one glaring mistake, so obvious and egregious that I should have noticed and corrected it or worse, I won’t see the error until I hand it to a publisher and they point it out to me.

How did Toni Morrison know her book was finished?

I heard a story about an author who, whenever he came across a copy of his book, would take out a pen and make corrections to it. I fear this is my future, so I asked myself; How does any author truly know their work is finished? The answer immediately popped into my head.

They don’t. Because stories never truly have an ending.

It’s time for me to press the ‘Print’ button…