Some Things You Might Not Know..

Some things you might not know about coming to the closing laps of a book.

1. It's good to know how to use the "track changes" feature on MS Word.
2. It's good to have Hi-Lighters and tape flags to use on the ms and keep track of things you want to check, like the right title of a poem. Find that 1949 Modern Library edition of same to see if you're spelling it right.
3. You will wake up at 4 am wondering if you spelled something right.
4. You will have a good copyeditor from the publishing company side who makes notes to you about pronoun case and how you use too many commas. You will read her notes in track changes. She uses one color, you get another.
5. You will want to own the idea of whether or not something is a proper noun or if you're using it in a whimsical fashion. Know that you can call your pharmacist and ask him if a particular medication name you use in a scene is trademarked or the generic name. Make note about same, using track changes feature.
6. Take short breaks and do other stuff, like upload your syllabi to the e-learning site or take a short walk.
7. Get back to work.
8. Know that nothing is perfect, and congratulate yourself on doing a really hard job.
9. And that dedications page? It's really hard.