Words from Blood Red Road by Moira Young, PubCrawl’s Book of the Month. Image of desert and superimposed stars used under the Creative Commons License.
In Blood Red Road, Saba is on a mission to rescue her kidnapped twin brother. The quest takes her across a post-apocalyptic wasteland, complete with dusty dunes, cage-fighting, sand skiffs, revolutionaries, and more. (Seriously, this book could not have more action or a better cast of characters!)
The above photo quote sums up Saba’s father’s belief that a man’s fate is written among the stars, but here at PubCrawl, we think it also sums up the process of sending a book to print! There comes a time when the edits are done, submitted, and nothing else can be changed. Tell us: Do you think this is liberating or terrifying? Can a writer every truly be done revising?
Like always, leave your answers below, or share longer responses in a blog post on your own blog, linking back to it via the comments.
Oh goodness, we can NEVER be truly done. Every time I read a page from one of my books–be they in a store or just a first draft on my harddrive–I have the insane URGE to change things. Heck, even going back and looking at old science publications, I see flaws in the research or analysis design, and I want to FIX it.
There’s a great quote from Neil Gaiman that pretty much sums up the truth about ANY work:
“Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.”
Also, AWESOME image. Just stunning.
Sooz, I was *just* looking at that Neil Gaiman quote the other day. It is so true. You want to make it as perfect as possible, but perfect isn’t actually a possibility, so if you don’t move on to the next thing you’ll just be stuck in a loop forever. Oh, writing. 😉
I love Blood Red Road….that’s all I have to say, haha XD
Gwen, Sooz and I picked this month’s Book of the Month, and let me say WE ARE WITH YOU. The two of us are rabid for the last book in the series. Love, love, love!
Haven’t read the book…but I MUST now, and also can I just say how flipping awesome that image is? It’s SOOOO gorgeous. 🙂
I agree with Sooz’s comment! Also personally, I dislike perfection because at a certain point, it gets boring. I read about a Japanese concept that values imperfection and there was this one absolutely fascinating method of pouring gold into the cracks of a cup when repairing it because the idea is that it is more beautiful for having once been broken. Those cracks that we fill in make the novel richer, but we are also embracing its imperfections.
I totally agree with Sue and Sooz! Great quote from Neil Gaiman! I don’t have anything to add 🙂
A little of both. No, wait, maybe a little bit more of “terrifying.” 😉
I think my biggest challenge when writing is my perfectionism. I tend to want to rewrite and rewrite scenes, and then rewrite some more, before moving on. I’ll agonize over paragraphs and sentences for way too long, and that’s not good when drafting! Learning to let go and wait until revisions to work on getting things just right is one of my biggest hurdles, but I’m getting better as I go along. That quote from Neil Gaiman that Sooz posted is wonderful! I need to print it out and hang it on my wall to serve as a constant reminder. 🙂
That’s such a great quote (and it makes me want to read the book!). But seriously, you’re right – this is how I’ve always felt when I finished writing something and editing something and have finally sent it out into the world. There’s a sense of finality there, a feeling of “things cannot be altered” that lingers. And that’s always intimidating!