It’s a fantastic feeling to accomplish a task you’ve been working on for a while.

Setting up a new organizational system, remodeling a kitchen, coding, writing a story, planning a wedding or a seating chart.

Definitely take a moment to pat yourself on the back, bask in the glory.

But before checking the task off your To-Do list, check for bugs—those nasty pests that always show up in one form or another and are happy to derail your hard work.

What to do?

Should we leave them alone and hope they’ll fly away on their own?

Spoiler alert: that rarely happens.

Also, don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re the only one who’s going to see them or that they’re not a big deal.

That’s magical thinking.

So, it’s probably best to acknowledge that the little buggers are there and get rid of them.

I don’t code, so I can’t offer any assistance to you in that arena, nor am I especially organized, and I’m not updating a kitchen or in need of a seating chart.

However, I am in the middle of revising a story.

In my case, the bugs are plot holes, character motivations that don’t land, weak logic.

When I finished this particular manuscript—oodles of revisions later—I rejoiced.

And I looked for bugs.

Many of them were glaring, and I fixed them.

Others I hoped were only obvious to me.

I also gave my work to others to see what bugs they’d find.

They found some I didn’t (which I fixed) and found bugs I saw, too, but hoped weren’t too big or bad or ugly.

Then I sent the first several chapters off to agents.

One of those agents replied that she liked my main character (yay! Throw a party!) and wanted to see the full manuscript.

I double checked it for bugs again…and hoped a couple of the bugs that still bugged me wouldn’t be obvious to her.

Let me tell you, bugs are never as ugly as they are when an agent points them out—which happened.

When agents talk, when they offer feedback (!), it pays to listen.

And, yes, it is mortifying to have the bugs magnified by someone who matters, especially when you consider that you can’t re-query an agent unless they ask you to revise and resubmit, which didn’t happen in my case.

But, as I always say, when you know better, you do better. (I should say, too, that before querying, I attempted to fix the bugs that bugged me, but couldn’t quite do it.)

Bugs are insidious.

Be vigilant.

Expect bugs and moles and gophers and all kinds of irritating critters.

Get rid of what you can.

What you can’t banish because it’s too late…well, better luck next time.

Repeat after me: When you know better, you do better. (Should we get matching tattoos?)

Have a happy week,

~ Gail

(Onward!)

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