You think you've got it right

As I've said many times before, You think you've got the story/poem/chapter right - Or I think I've got the story right. Then I re-read it for the third time. And change it all. Then I print it off - and the fun starts - look at it!

And that will lead to probably over a hundred changes to an apparently completed two-page story.

So then I'll read it out to a group for critiquing. And there'll be almost as much fun again. Partly it's because reading it aloud gives me a whole new perspective on it. And I get different points of view from the half-dozen listeners - often called beta readers - and, if I'm lucky, they'll be kindly critical.

Eventually, I'll slot it into a forthcoming short-story book featuring women/girls as the central characters. And in shuffling it round, it'll undergo more alterations, because there will be a period when I've given it a rest, and new vision gives a new view. And something will strike me as not being quite right...

Then when the proof copies come back from Amazon, I'll find another hole in the net...

You still haven't got it right. You've only got it writ.

But, with this particular story, that'll be in the New Year.