I had my first child at 19 and by the time I was 35, I had given birth to five beautiful children and inherited a wonderful step-son. So you could say, my uterus had served it's purpose and I wasn't going to be needing one anytime soon. The strange thing is, an emotional grieving came over me the weeks leading up to the surgery. Why? It didn't make sense to me. It took me awhile to reconcile those feelings, but here is what I came up with.
1) I have an emotional attachment to something that is part of who I am.
introduced to me there.
3) My doctor assures me that this will solve several problems with my health
and well-being.
4) To get to that "well-being" I will have to endure some pain associated with
the procedure.
5) I'm going to need some TLC for several weeks.
Are you seeing the correlation? No? Here it is:
1) We're attached to the words we work so hard to create.
2) There are memories and feeling attached to the way the words are organized. We like how they sound in our heads.
3) Often it takes one of our critique partners, beta
readers, agent of editor to diagnose what will make the story stronger.
4) Removing them will require blood, sweat and perhaps tears as we wor and
rework scenes.
5) After the process, we may need a break, a nap or even chocolate to get us
through the recovery. We have to be kind to ourselves so we can roll up our
sleeves and get back to work.
Have you ever experienced your own Revision Grief?
So, keeping in line with #5, I will be taking the next week off from blogging. :( I will meet you on the other side on Marvelous Middle Grade Monday when I will review Kevin Henkes, Junonia.
Last but not least the winner of the drawing for the copy of Plain Kate by Erin Bow is....... Brooke Favero
No. I always felt tremendously better and less depressed after having the baby. And I always feel good when I'm done revising and happy with my work. :)
ReplyDeleteHope you rest and feel better. I totally get the analogy to writing. Sometimes it takes more than one critique partner telling me something for me to hear what precious words need to be cut.
ReplyDeleteGreat correlation. And restful, quick healing to you.
ReplyDeleteRevising feels good to me though, like taking a shower after working outside. It sheds all the junk and makes the story shine.
Congrats, Brooke! I'm jealous. Now I'll have to buy my own Plain Kate. =)
Pam...phenomenal and YES, can I say that I have written a Children's Book and I am really having a difficult time editing or letting someone else edit it because it's so personal and it's so 'mine' oh gosh, you hit the nail right on the head...but in the folder it sits with no, NO work! UGH!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your recovery!
ReplyDeleteI think its a good idea to take time to recover from the birth process and bask in the glory of a new creation. A Sabbatical from writing is sometimes just what we need in order to be more productive.
ReplyDeleteFirst time here, btw. Lots of helpful information and food-for-thought. Nice. :)