The lighthouse and outbuildings at Cape Pine, Newfoundland. Cape Pine is the most southerly point in the province. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Forgive me, Lord, for all the bad words that have come out of my mouth or been in my head during these past four months. Even though I have a wonderful editor, I feel that ultimately I am responsible for each sentence that goes into our Come Home Year book for St. Shotts.
Is the word spelling correct for Canada? My, oh my! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all use the same spelling for woollen and traveller? Then the Newfoundland words like brin and bally carters, would bryn and ballycaters be acceptable? Is it okay to use O.K. and TV? When a writer writes it as she says it, should I leave it or not? I know I will get better at this, but it will take years! Is that a good title or do I change the writer’s title to one more appealing?
Then checking all the punctuation can be crazy! Should all those ; be taken out and , used instead? Will I leave the short sentences or phrases in? Or do I rewrite the whole sentence? It doesn’t help to have been a teacher for 35 years. Bah-humbug!
The preface has to be perfect. Well, how do you write a perfect preface, and edit it yourself prior to sending it to your editor? There is always a word or comma out of place, which changes the look and sound of the piece. And how many times can you send corrections to your lovely editor? I’m new at this, folks, so forgive me all my moaning!
Just happens that a fellow blogger, Diane Tibert, came to my rescue and pointed me in the right direction towards getting ISBN numbers and an account. She also helped enhance my front and back covers. Thanks so much, Diane! She is a wonderful writer and has more talent in her little finger than I have in my whole body. Check out her blog on wordpress. www.dianetibert.wordpress.com
Then it’s figuring out if what each writer says makes sense. How many people are in our little community of St. Shotts? www.lovinglifeinnewfoundland.posterous.com How many shipwrecks have occurred off our shores? Is our lighthouse at Cape Pine unique? How do you correctly spell St.Vincent’s and St. Shotts? Is there an apostrophe or not? Is it the Thirty Days Prayer or the Forty Days Prayer? So many checks and balances. Oh, yes, almost forgot this one- are tea leaves read on your hand or in your cup? Or both?
Well, friends, it’s nearing the end to all the editing and I won’t be sorry. But there is an upside. Soon we will have 300 copies of our book entitled St. Shotts, Newfoundland: Our Home, Our Anchor. And there are many writers, family members and friends who are waiting eagerly to get their hands on it! So all the frustration will be worth it! To be cliche… the pleasure will exceed the pain! I hope.
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I think you will be forgiven! Hang in there.
Good for you for doing this. It will alll be worth it in the end!
I have feelings of ambivalence but I’m sure the writers and their families will enjoy it immensely but I’m always second guessing myself. All profits are going to the community.
Pauline, thank you for your kind words. They are more than I deserve. I’m glad I was able to help.
As for getting the words right, I write the way I learnt to write. That means I still write and say ‘spelt’ and ‘burnt’ and ‘spoilt’. It was the way I grew up; perhaps those words are old now, but they are my words.
Your stories are for the people of St. Shotts and for those who some how have a connection to the community. Your words, the ones used in the community should be used. Even if you were writing for a US market, to add flavour to your stories, I think it would be great to keep your colour, your labour and your woollen mittens. We Canadians are unique in many ways I won’t quickly give up my traveller, plough, dough or axe.
I know from personal experience that it takes a lot of time and effort to complete a book. Congratulations!
Once again, thanks for being so kind!
Sent from my iPad