I don't know how many times I've edited my spiritual memoir. It doesn't matter really. I never count things that really matter but pursue, persist, and persevere until I accomplish what needs to be done to achieve excellence, to heal, to grow. It's been a slow process. Being a burgeoning writer, I'm pretty sure it's always going to be a slow process. Creative juices have their own ebb and flow to their tide. Each writer observes and walks his or her own beach to learn and breathe its salty air.
Something happened last week that surprised me. I printed out a copy of my manuscript to send to a beta reader. As it sat on my desk to be mailed, I started to page through it to see how the latest version looked on the page. Before I knew it, I was in another line edit. I'd already sent the MS to my developmental editor. I thought I was done for the moment until I got her feedback. Wrong.
Clarity blew in like a storm out of nowhere. I read through page after page in high adrenaline mode, marking corrections, finding new ways to clean up sentences, avoiding duplicate descriptions as if my life depended on it. If I knew what an upper felt like, I might have been experiencing something like its effects.
Maybe the work was so clean finally, the edits came more easily. Maybe this is what it feels like to be close to a finish line in a race. Who knows? The thrill of this line edit is a new exhilaration for me on my writer's beach and I'm staying with it '
No comments :
Post a Comment