Run the Mile You're In

I think one of the most difficult parts about writing is that first round of revision. During drafting I push through, writing as fast as I can and telling myself that I can fix it later. After letting my book breathe for several weeks, later becomes now, and usually, it’s completely overwhelming.

Later rounds of revisions are tough too, but by then your story has a shape and you are just slowly chipping away at a few errant pieces. But that first revision, when you are staring at the huge block of stone that you must sculpt into a thing of beauty, can feel like an impossible task.

For me, I don’t really get a sense of what I want a story to be until I’ve almost finished drafting it. So when I sit down to make it so, there are too many things to fix, too many hurdles to jump, too much ground to cover. I know what I need to do to make the story what I want it to be, but sometimes I doubt whether or not I have the ability to do it. It’s like passing a road sign that tells you your destination is 2,000 miles away. You know where you’re going and that you are headed in the right direction, but man it’s going to be a long drive. Because it’s night. And it’s storming. And you’re tired. And why the hell aren’t you there yet?

I don’t know about other writers, but I find my story in the revisions. Each round uncovers something beneath that stone that I didn’t know was there and teaches me more about my characters and my craft.

In the end, I have to take my own advice. Every year, as my students are starting their research papers, I can see by the panicked look on their faces that they are overwhelmed with the given task. Looking at the whole piece can be daunting. But I tell them they have to write their paper just like they would eat an elephant—one bite at a time. So when I feel overwhelmed with all that I have to do to fix a story, I take a step back and focus on one chapter, one page, one paragraph at a time, and do what I can to make that part better. And then I do it again. And again. And again.

Running taught me that lesson first. 26.2 miles can be an overwhelming distance. You’ve got to run the mile you’re in.

Revising Isn't for Wimps

As I’ve said before, this writing thing is hard work.  I must be doing it wrong.

Most people have this idea that writing is nothing more than sitting down and transcribing scenes that are going on in your head.  Then, once you type “The End” (which I’ve never actually done), you just have to read over it to find all the typos and then you send it out and it gets published.  Those people are wrong.

Sometimes revisions involve digging through the
dirt and sniffing out the parts worth saving. See what
I did there?

I don’t know about you, but my first draft really isn’t even a first draft.  It’s more like a .5 draft.  Or a 300 page outline.  Because once I’m done revising – and by revising, I mean ripping the guts out of the story and completely re-writing it – it barely resembles the story it started out as.  And it’s exhausting.  No, it’s not as exhausting as mining coal or teaching teenagers, but some days when I'm sculpting my sentences it feels like I am trying to scrape them out of the rock with bare hands.  Seriously.  Again, I may be doing it wrong.

But revisions are what I like best. I love taking a manuscript and tuning it and molding it into the story I’d always intended it to be. The story that caused my heart to beat fast, the characters who had conversations so loud I couldn’t fall asleep until I’d written them down. With revisions I’m able to move things around and examine them from all angles because they're on the page to begin with. When it’s just a blank page, I have to fill it. But when those words are there, I’m more able to see what I did, what I wanted to do, and the chasm inbetween.

But revising isn’t for wimps. You have to come face to face with your prose and admit that not all parts are pretty. In fact, some parts are actually so humiliatingly hideous that you are terrified their shouts of “fraud” actually echo across the publishing world.

Revisions demand fortitude because you have to keep going after reading the junk. You have to have the guts to admit even the pretty parts aren’t perfect, and that scene you love so much serves no real purpose after all and has to go. You have to endure the doubt and self-loathing that mixes with pride and will keep you from making this story what it can be, what it should be, and what you intended all along.

But if you can do that, your story will be that much stronger, and you will be that much better. Write on.

Enjoy This Moment

Gus enjoys moments with food or flowers.

When the universe was handing out patience, I must have been in the bathroom. Because I got hardly any of that stuff. But I do have an overabundance of anxiety and nerves and restless energy, which just means they were handing those out with doughnuts, and of course I went back for seconds. But if you are a writer, you will have to learn patience.

As the wise old sage that I am, I always tell my students to stop looking forward to things in their future and learn to enjoy the present. The present is the only thing we have, and if we are always wanting our days to speed by to get to the next thing, those days will oblige us, and before we know it, too many days have passed and few are lying ahead. So as a teacher, I am full of advice.

Which I hardly ever take. Because as a writer, I’m ready to get finished with the first draft, be done with edits, get it on the shelves, write another one. And my husband recently threw my own advice back in my face. He told me to stop looking forward to my book release and enjoy this moment. (Oh wise hubby! Where did you learn that? ) Since I have many more books in me, he reminded me that if I’m always looking forward to the release, I will be always looking forward – and never enjoying where I am.

Some of you are in query hell. Some of you have subs out with editors. Some of you are working on your very first draft of your very first novel and wanting to be done already. I understand your impatience. I feel it every single day.

But I am making a conscious effort to enjoy where I am. I will enjoy these revisions because they are the first I am doing with an editor. I will enjoy this afternoon because it is October and I only get one of these months a year. I will enjoy my birthday later this week, because even though I’m getting older, the alternative is much worse. And I will enjoy family who drive me crazy and students who frustrate me because I am lucky to have both in my life.

So I will enjoy this moment, wherever I may be. Who’s with me?