EDITING
Quite awhile ago I wrote quite a long story,
Long enough for a good novel for you to see,
But hundreds of pages need editing, hard to do,
Yet the theme is good and the story could be true.
I look at the big binder and my heart does sink,
I should lock myself away and very hard think,
Concentrate and notice each silly little mistake
So that the book will some progress start to make.
You do it once and again and still faults are found,
It seems that it takes ages to get it off the ground.
I get right into the story told once again as I read
And of the many mistakes I take very little heed.
I need to set my mind just to find each little fault,
Spot and reread even if I have to come to a halt,
Get it all ready to maybe one day send away,
See if someone will publish it one happy day.
But sitting in a binder full of grammatical errors,
All the spelling mistakes that fill folks with terrors
Will never be seen except by part of the family,
So I may not write awhile so corrections to see.
Read and re-read it and then change each computer page,
Nearly three hundred single space sheets will take an age
To check and put to rights but it needs to be well done,
Even if not published there’ll be lots of remembering done.
(Millicent) Ann Margetson 4 January 2006