When your book gets published, you give the editors your completed manuscript and wait-wait-wait for them to return it with their edits. When they do, you get to make all kinds of changes. For me, that process is like this:
Illustration courtesy of Allie Brosh, of course. 🙂
Then….the book goes back to your editor and you wait-wait-wait some more, and then it comes back in PDF form. At this point, you’re not allowed to change all the things. You can make notes about some of the things that desperately have to be changed, and you can look at the images and ask the designer to move them around, replace them, etc. But the content of your book is set. And you have to live with that. And you won’t want to. You’ll still want to change the things.
So you’ll spend two weekends parsing and snipping and making teeny little edits on the document with the little digital highlighter. You’ll say to yourself, “If I comb through this one more time and don’t see any more changes to make, I’ll send it in and be done with it.”
But you’ll NEVER be done with it!
There will always be one more tiny edit you want to make!
At some point in the journey, you may pull this card:
And when you get the Knight of Pentacles, Reversed–it’s time to stop.
The Knight of Pentacles indicates a job well done. He’s slow and meticulous, but that’s what makes him produce the best results. But when he’s in reverse, he’s stepping off his horse and calling it a day. And by this it means, so should you.
Nothing will ever be perfect. Nothing should ever be perfect. There will always be room for another draft, another change, another everything. But if you wait for that perfect draft, you’ll never produce anything. It’s time to put your baby out into the world, knowing there may still be a misplaced comma in there somewhere. And that’s okay.
Knight of Pentacles Reversed says it’s time. Maybe it’s time you also listened!
If you’re interested in learning more about the Court Cards of the Tarot, I’m teaching a class at Mind Body Soul Yoga studio in Washington Heights (NYC) tomorrow (Tuesday, 8/9) at 7:00 p.m.! Register today and save a few dollars! Registration can be completed at this link.Â
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