Frustration!
I know how Charlie Brown felt in the annual fall Peanuts cartoon series as he lets Lucy hold the football for him only to have her swipe it away at the last second. So close and yet so far.
I'm sure the frustration I'm feeling is normal for authors. You see, I posted an additional chapter of my story "Claire" a few hours ago. I admit I love to write but I want what I post to be correct. Perfect would be nice, but at least correct.
I guess I worked perhaps fifteen to twenty hours on my last addition to Claire and Jim's journey. Perhaps more agonizing over just where I wanted it to go and then trying to put it into my computer in a comprehensible order.
After I'd finished it, I let it set for a day and then read the whole thing over again, tweaking it, hopefully improving it. With the inevitable decision to post the chapter hit me I sighed, DONE!
So, after it's up on SOL, I always read my work. AAARRRGGGHHH!
Like it seems to always happen, three paragraphs in I see that my editing skills suck and during a change I'd left in a word that should have been deleted. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
OK, it wasn't a big thing but as I read on, I spied more errors. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Then MORE!!! Double AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
All are little things that to picky readers are huge thorns. And ... more so in MY side!
I know that it's impossible to please everyone all the time so the only person I try to please is myself. Hopefully, by doing that I can please a few others too.
So, I cry AAARRRGGGHHH!!! get back on my word processor and tweak things a little more. This time hopefully getting it to where it's acceptable.
Like other authors I've spoken with, we all try to put our best forward. Like others, I cringe when I post a blatant error and some not so blatant. Like others, I try real hard to improve and like others, love doing what we do ... write and create.
So, if you're reading something of mine and something has slipped by, think how I feel ... AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
AJ.
BTW, I've posted a correction fixing --- I hope --- the errors I mentioned. Also, I hope I found them all.