SECOND THOUCHTS

How often second thoughts overwhelm me is about average for a human female, I suppose. But they are extremely annoying when they occur to an author after a book has been edited and published and it's too late to do anything about what you now feel should have gone into the story that you didn't think of while writing it. I've learned over time to send such thoughts to the recycle bin and then delete them from there. But they do annoy me until then. Still, the pubished books sell, so maybe I was right in the first place.
Consider this scenario, which is not about a book, but a house.
I grew up in a small village on the south shore of Lake Superior before I became an adult and ventured into the wider world of Texas, California, Upstate New York and Nevada. Somewhere along the line my brother,twenty years older than I, convinced me I should purchase two lots on the south shore of Lake Superior that were in the village to "keep in touch with my roots." So, okay, I thought, since the lots were $500 each I could afford that, plus the taxes were minimal.
Years passed. My parents are now dead, and so is my brother and his wife. I've been married twice and am now with my Life Partner, the man I should have married in the first place, someone I grew up with. My second thoughts came extremely late here, but have worked very well indeed.
Not too long after we got together, we came back to the village to visit my oldest niece and her husband, plus my LP's favorite brother and his family. My niece tells me the high school didn't get a bid from anyone this year for the shop class to build a house on whatever lots people might own within the village limits. Why not put in a bid to have them build us a vacation cottage on my lots?
When I agreed, she called the shop teacher and he came over to talk to us and he suggested a house rather than a cottage for its eventual sale value. So, okay.
Now we needed instant house plans. It happened we loved the design of our house in Carson City, and the plans had been left in the basement. Why not a smaller house, based on those plans?
In case anyone ever tries something like this--never have a house built when you're living across the country from where this is taking place. Phone calls, no matter how many, are not a good substitute for being at the location and able to monitor the entire process.
Well, now we live in our house the year round. Essentially, we love it, but there are quite a few things we would have had done differently. Some we've been able to correct. Others, we live with. Fortunately, the worksmanship is excellent since the shop teacher is a builder himself. Plus we never could have built a house like we have for the same price, since almost all of the labor was at no cost to us. In any case it's far too late for second thoughts, just like with a published book. So they've gone into the recycle bin and been deleted.
Now that I've gotten the rights back on many of my old books, do I plan to add any second thoughts to them if I intend to republish? Nope. As I said, those thoughts have been deleted long ago.
But I have to say not all second thoughs need deleting. Sometimes, no matter how belated, second thoughts do work perfectly. Or may it's just that old saying--the third time's the charm.
Incidentally, the shop teacher is now the school superintendent.