It's too late! I've already submitted something and there are mistakes. Time to panic? Maybe. But not for long. If I agonize over every imperfect piece of writing, there would be no time to move on and write something else. But this time it was important.
Last week I posted writing Samples A and B for comments. Sample A was the first few paragraphs of a story already sent off to a publisher. It had gone through my critique group already, but now that I wanted to submit to the Storymakers First Chapter Contest, I asked them for another look. A good friend of mine really gave it the once over with lots of markings. This morphed into Sample B, which I sent off before the deadline to the contest. I changed the first sentence around so that it would immediately become the main character's point of view. It feels rotten to know that my first sentence sent to the publisher was not the view point I wanted. (Too bad this wasn't caught earlier.) But this same friend didn't love my new first sentence and had some better suggestions (after the deadline). Oh well.
Publishers expect some editing. Maybe other first chapters in the contest will have flaws as well.
I can't live in the past. I could revise and revise and it still wouldn't be perfect. We all want our best work to shine. It's true that I can fix what someone shows me is wrong. The greater truth is that I am starting to recognize problems spots on my own. This is progress. This is success.
While waiting to hear back, I'll try to remember that progression equals contentment. Do you see your own progress? Are you happy with it?
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