Agonizing About Writing:

When is enough, ever really enough?

Academic writers work more slowly and tend to labor over their work as discussed in this post.  Academic writers and grant proposal writers share much. Many academics write grants to further their research and scholarship.  At some point both grant proposal and academic writers have to stop tinkering and submit that work.

After all that work of rewriting, formatting, spell checking and proofreading finding an error or errors after submitting the work brings on a sinking, if not traumatic feeling. There is some good news from the distant past.  Errors found after the fact did not seem to matter so much for the author quoted below, who wrote some great stories.  She must have had a thick skin; and I for one, love her attitude.

“There are a few Typical errors; and a “said he,” or a “said she,” would sometimes make the Dialogue more immediately clear – but I do not write for such dull Elves.”

– Jane Austen, writing to her sister Cassandra on January 29, 1813, on errors found in the first edition of Pride and Prejudice.