How can actors stand watching themselves?

I have my galley printed out and attached neatly to a clipboard for proofing. It's probably a bad idea to look for typos while a playoff hockey game is on, but hey... I'm good at multi-tasking.

Speaking of hockey, I regret to say that I am rooting for Anaheim, although Ottawa is Canadian and all that. But everybody knows that no self-respecting Torontonian born in Montreal will root for the Senators. Sarry...

Back to the proofing. As I go through the formatted version of my manuscript, I'm reminded of the comments actors make when they see the final cut of whatever movie they're in. As they stare at the screen in horror, they see every mistake they made and fight the urge to tell the director to reshoot the scene, but it's too late.

It's not too late for me to take care of any little typos in my final draft, but I find I must fight the urge to rewrite the whole thing. No matter how good it is, a writer will always find something he or she hopes will make the novel better. I must let this baby go, zits and all. The readers will decide if it's good.

I'm sure many successful writers would love to take back their first novels and bury them in the backyard, but in my case, I accept that I will improve my writing with every novel, and I'll build an audience with each release. That's a promise.

Gotta get back to work.