Hit Send, Then Forehead

Had to stay up most the night to get them finished, but I was finally able to get round two of the edits turned on Friday morning. Yay! Such a relief to get those finished and click "send." After taking a moment to dance around the living room, of course, I had a little time left to get ready for work.

I think I was still smiling during my commute when I literally smacked myself in the head. THE DELETED SCENES! THEY'RE STILL THERE!

You might know how well I handle requests to delete things, so when I did take out scenes the editor wanted removed from the manuscript, I tacked them on at the end to save them. I couldn't bear to just shove them outside to be all alone in the cold and rain. Plus, maybe I'd find a place they could be used. If not the whole scene, at least a sentence or a few of the prettiest words.

But I meant to cut and paste them onto a new document before sending the manuscript. They weren't supposed to be clinging onto "THE END" or standing around like bad house guests. As soon as I parked I took out the phone to fire off an "ACK!" email to the editor. She's lovely, and replied back with a "No worries allowed" message. I still felt like a dork.

It could have been worse, though. At least I didn't have any notes-to-self on there like, "Develop sinister plot to sneak this back into the manuscript. Mwoohoohoohahaha!" And thankfully it's an editor I'm already working with and she's really nice. If this were our first correspondence, leaving a page and a half of randomness after the story ends wouldn't make the best impression.

I know I'm not the only one--what flakiness have you submitted in a premature click of the "send" key? Letters addressed to "Dear Agent," or a draft that wasn't ready to go?

Anything that's made you feel like this guy?