Rain is soft on the roof and I'm sitting at my desk, working through the latest iteration of the manuscript of my novel for my publisher, Laura Stanfill. I recently did a pass on the book primarily focused on catching any places in the story where the continuity is off or where any of my details don't quite jibe with my classic noir era time setting. Did they really put whipped cream on milkshakes back then? Probably not. Was the phrase I used in this bit of dialogue actually in use at the time? I don't think so. When I finished going through the novel, I sent that pass, with my comments and proposed changes, to Laura, and now she's sent the manuscript back with her comments and her decisions on my proposed changes.
I scroll through the manuscript, accepting changes as I go. All down the right-hand side of the computerized pages are our comments in little talking bubbles labeled with our names.
One of the features that's new to the Microsoft Word reviewing pane—or at least that I maybe never noticed before—is that you can put a react on a comment. See there? In the corner of the talking bubble where I explained why I want to cut a phrase from a paragraph, there's a little thumbs-up. And if you hover your cursor over the thumbs-up, another bubble pops up, labeled "L Stanfill," with one little word, as if you need it explained further: "like."
She likes it! OK, then. I click accept.
It's such a pleasant, relaxing process, after all the hard editing stuff, to just scroll and accept, scroll and accept. I trust Laura's opinions implicitly, one of the many reasons I'm so glad she's my publisher.
But I start to notice. There's a little "like" pop-up bubble that isn't going away. I scroll to the next comment, accept another change, scroll further, but that little "like" bubble keeps following me around.
I hover my cursor around the bubble to look for an X I can click. There's nothing. It must be some little likey glitch. If I were working on the internet, I'd hit refresh. That would do it. But I'm working using my desktop app.
I let my cursor mosey around the bubble again, trying to find an X again. Nothing.
I'm sure if I press save and then close out of the Word file and reopen the file, it will disappear.
I don't know. Maybe I won't. What harm does it do, bobbing along, over there at the edge of the page? I kind of like it. It's as if, no matter what, there's a hint of Laura following along, telling me this book is good. And I'm going to need to feel that as the pressure mounts, as we get closer and closer to the birth of this novel. So, I scroll and accept, scroll an accept, and the "like" bubble joins me on my way.
