Blog Dis
Perfection is an illusion
2024-10-29
No one or nothing is perfect, at least to the naked eye. Perhaps death is the only form of perfection in that once death occurs, the corporeal human form ceases to exist in a live state, which is really the perfect way to end a life, don't ya think? After all, in all the thousands upon thousands of years that humans have existed on earth not one single life has been missed by death. Every single human born has reached the end of their life and has died.
I remind myself all the time that perfection is an illusion. As a writer, when you strive to reach that perfect pitch of an idea, to write the perfect sentence, or to produce a perfect final version, you will invariably look back on your work, maybe months or years later, and scratch your head. "What the hell was I thinking?" Perfection is the illusion because it dangles a long and wide fresh carrot in front of your eyes like you are the last starving horse on the planet. The stick holding the carrot is longer than your eyes can judge, so you keep marching forward, your mouth open and salivating, hoping soon you'll reach your ultimate destination of perfection and actually be able to take a bite of the carrot. Not so, you clod-hopping horse-pooping fool. The carrot as a symbol of perfection is held by the hand of illusion. Imperfection is in fact the standard course of things. We as humans are wholly imperfect, as are our silly notions and morals and most assuredly our ideals. With every decade, we become new people, at least in looks and thoughts, and the idea that we are the perfect woman or the perfect man, will in all likelihood change because our perception of perfection changes.
This week I held my book launch event for POM and it was a success. Was it perfect? Good question. I can only answer that I was thrilled with the end result, rather than disappointed. Thank you to all those who attended, taking time from their busy schedules to show support for a local author. I couldn't have done the launch w/o the help of others. After I finished reading one chapter, which took me 30 minutes, I was able to mingle w/ my guests, to catch up, to talk about my new book, and to grab a glass of wine and a nibble. Pretty much all the food had been gobbled up by this time, and the wine, ciders and beer, and coolers nearly cleaned out. A dear friend had driven in from out of town with her man and both were fascinated with the idea of me having written a 'hybrid' fantasy, rather than my previous series of six novels that would be classified as urban paranormal fantasy. As my girlfriend clutched her newly purchased copy of POM, she looked at its girth, some two inches thick, weighing just under one pound, and she commented, "Your editor had quite the job ahead of them." To which I said, "... and then some!" Editors: principal editing, copy editing, and proofreading are essential elements that make or break a new novel. Their role is to improve and strive for perfection. An editor worth their salt, however, accepts that this is a goal, rather than an ultimate achievement as an expectation.
Truth be told, I had switched up the order of things a bit. I ran with a soft-launch copy back in September because I wanted to test-drive the novel with Comic-Con fans to see if the size and cost would be popular at such an event. When I sold out at Comic-Con for two days straight, it made me realize that there is an interest in reading a huge book, to those of course who want to read big books. When I use the term soft-launch, I mean that my proofreader had yet to hack her way through my manuscript. Nowadays with print-on-demand services like Amazon KDP, it's easy to make corrections to a novel, to re-upload a revised version. Because my proofreader had other issues going on in her life, I was prepared to wait for her input and she didn't disappoint. Out of a total of 770 pages, some 265,000+ words, she stumbled on a total of four teensy incorrections that a pair of reader's eyes might naturally auto-correct, rather than for me to have produced an absolute perfect copy. These minor doodads are now being corrected by my editor who had also handled the typesetting of the print version.
I'll give you an example, my proof-reader flagged the usage of the phrase 'signaled-out' rather than the more common phrase of 'singled-out'. I chose the former out of purpose because I wanted to convey that one character had been motioned to leave. Rather than the latter version of singled out to mean that a character had been spotted, as in being spotted sitting in the stands (the distinction provided by my editor, incidentally). It's a subtle difference. When an author writes, it's our job to run with a turn of phrase that is intentionally different, if we're able to work it into the manuscript. On purpose, I also leave one mistake, i.e. a slight typo that really isn't an error but will come across as one. I don't want to be perfect. I don't want my manuscripts to be perfect either. One character's name is Zoisite. When I refer to this character I use the truncated version of her name as Zoi but only once did I type it as Zoe. 😂 My lovely and ball-busting proofreader caught it! [Man, I'm sure it gave her pleasure catching it too].
I've read many, many books, mostly those produced by major publishing houses and I can count on one hand the number that were absolutely perfect. With some, I've picked out typos on their back-cover write-up, which makes it a glaring error, and with others finding typos in the manuscript. So as an Indie author who utilizes the work of contract writing services, knowing that major publishing houses have at their disposal multiple levels of editorial eyes to read thru a manuscript, and still errors get missed, reassures me that my philosophy of not attempting to achieve perfection is nothing short of perfect! My illusions would only be shattered if tomorrow everything being produced in the world would have one version and never an improved version in the future.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was plagued with the ideal of perfectionism and perhaps he is one of the rare composers whole symphonies, operas and concertos could be classified as bloody perfect. It is how I regard his work in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Each subtle note was precisely in the exact place where he wanted them to be and yet, when his music was presented to the High Court of Venice, the King declared that Mozart's music was written with too many notes.
Even breasts are imperfect. One is larger than the other. I write with my right hand and therefore the muscles on the right-hand side of my body are more defined that my left, and consequently it appears that my left breast is less perfect than the right. So, the next time someone tells you that this or that is perfect, roll your eyes and gently remind them that perfection is an illusion. And if they are wise, and I mean truly wise, they'll have lived long enough to hide one flaw when they produce a creative piece of work. The master carpet weavers in Persia make hundreds of thousands of knots to produce one carpet and when they arrive at the end of their tireless works of art, they purposely leave one knot tied imperfectly. You won't notice the error. No one would. Their belief is that only God gets to be perfect.
When it comes to perfection, I've learned to embrace the philosophy of imperfection.
(Note of special thanks to my nephew and niece, to a friend of a dear friend, and to a former colleague for traveling from out of town to attend).
If you are looking for a new book, a big book, may I suggest then to visit my bio on this social network where I've saved a link to my author site. Go to the Shop page and treat yourself.
I remind myself all the time that perfection is an illusion. As a writer, when you strive to reach that perfect pitch of an idea, to write the perfect sentence, or to produce a perfect final version, you will invariably look back on your work, maybe months or years later, and scratch your head. "What the hell was I thinking?" Perfection is the illusion because it dangles a long and wide fresh carrot in front of your eyes like you are the last starving horse on the planet. The stick holding the carrot is longer than your eyes can judge, so you keep marching forward, your mouth open and salivating, hoping soon you'll reach your ultimate destination of perfection and actually be able to take a bite of the carrot. Not so, you clod-hopping horse-pooping fool. The carrot as a symbol of perfection is held by the hand of illusion. Imperfection is in fact the standard course of things. We as humans are wholly imperfect, as are our silly notions and morals and most assuredly our ideals. With every decade, we become new people, at least in looks and thoughts, and the idea that we are the perfect woman or the perfect man, will in all likelihood change because our perception of perfection changes.
This week I held my book launch event for POM and it was a success. Was it perfect? Good question. I can only answer that I was thrilled with the end result, rather than disappointed. Thank you to all those who attended, taking time from their busy schedules to show support for a local author. I couldn't have done the launch w/o the help of others. After I finished reading one chapter, which took me 30 minutes, I was able to mingle w/ my guests, to catch up, to talk about my new book, and to grab a glass of wine and a nibble. Pretty much all the food had been gobbled up by this time, and the wine, ciders and beer, and coolers nearly cleaned out. A dear friend had driven in from out of town with her man and both were fascinated with the idea of me having written a 'hybrid' fantasy, rather than my previous series of six novels that would be classified as urban paranormal fantasy. As my girlfriend clutched her newly purchased copy of POM, she looked at its girth, some two inches thick, weighing just under one pound, and she commented, "Your editor had quite the job ahead of them." To which I said, "... and then some!" Editors: principal editing, copy editing, and proofreading are essential elements that make or break a new novel. Their role is to improve and strive for perfection. An editor worth their salt, however, accepts that this is a goal, rather than an ultimate achievement as an expectation.
Truth be told, I had switched up the order of things a bit. I ran with a soft-launch copy back in September because I wanted to test-drive the novel with Comic-Con fans to see if the size and cost would be popular at such an event. When I sold out at Comic-Con for two days straight, it made me realize that there is an interest in reading a huge book, to those of course who want to read big books. When I use the term soft-launch, I mean that my proofreader had yet to hack her way through my manuscript. Nowadays with print-on-demand services like Amazon KDP, it's easy to make corrections to a novel, to re-upload a revised version. Because my proofreader had other issues going on in her life, I was prepared to wait for her input and she didn't disappoint. Out of a total of 770 pages, some 265,000+ words, she stumbled on a total of four teensy incorrections that a pair of reader's eyes might naturally auto-correct, rather than for me to have produced an absolute perfect copy. These minor doodads are now being corrected by my editor who had also handled the typesetting of the print version.
I'll give you an example, my proof-reader flagged the usage of the phrase 'signaled-out' rather than the more common phrase of 'singled-out'. I chose the former out of purpose because I wanted to convey that one character had been motioned to leave. Rather than the latter version of singled out to mean that a character had been spotted, as in being spotted sitting in the stands (the distinction provided by my editor, incidentally). It's a subtle difference. When an author writes, it's our job to run with a turn of phrase that is intentionally different, if we're able to work it into the manuscript. On purpose, I also leave one mistake, i.e. a slight typo that really isn't an error but will come across as one. I don't want to be perfect. I don't want my manuscripts to be perfect either. One character's name is Zoisite. When I refer to this character I use the truncated version of her name as Zoi but only once did I type it as Zoe. 😂 My lovely and ball-busting proofreader caught it! [Man, I'm sure it gave her pleasure catching it too].
I've read many, many books, mostly those produced by major publishing houses and I can count on one hand the number that were absolutely perfect. With some, I've picked out typos on their back-cover write-up, which makes it a glaring error, and with others finding typos in the manuscript. So as an Indie author who utilizes the work of contract writing services, knowing that major publishing houses have at their disposal multiple levels of editorial eyes to read thru a manuscript, and still errors get missed, reassures me that my philosophy of not attempting to achieve perfection is nothing short of perfect! My illusions would only be shattered if tomorrow everything being produced in the world would have one version and never an improved version in the future.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was plagued with the ideal of perfectionism and perhaps he is one of the rare composers whole symphonies, operas and concertos could be classified as bloody perfect. It is how I regard his work in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Each subtle note was precisely in the exact place where he wanted them to be and yet, when his music was presented to the High Court of Venice, the King declared that Mozart's music was written with too many notes.
Even breasts are imperfect. One is larger than the other. I write with my right hand and therefore the muscles on the right-hand side of my body are more defined that my left, and consequently it appears that my left breast is less perfect than the right. So, the next time someone tells you that this or that is perfect, roll your eyes and gently remind them that perfection is an illusion. And if they are wise, and I mean truly wise, they'll have lived long enough to hide one flaw when they produce a creative piece of work. The master carpet weavers in Persia make hundreds of thousands of knots to produce one carpet and when they arrive at the end of their tireless works of art, they purposely leave one knot tied imperfectly. You won't notice the error. No one would. Their belief is that only God gets to be perfect.
When it comes to perfection, I've learned to embrace the philosophy of imperfection.
(Note of special thanks to my nephew and niece, to a friend of a dear friend, and to a former colleague for traveling from out of town to attend).
If you are looking for a new book, a big book, may I suggest then to visit my bio on this social network where I've saved a link to my author site. Go to the Shop page and treat yourself.
