Tonight I was frustrated by the pace my revision is progressing. I've gotten a lot of work done in the past 10-12 days, but I still have so much further to go before I'll be in a shape to query/submit to agents, and the amount of work is daunting. I mentioned this to my good friend, Sharon, who is both a prize-winning martial artist and an excellent writer, and she sent me this:
Think about making a sword. The steel has to go through the fire many times to be purified. Then it has to go through again to be shaped, to be honed; then it's sharpened, a handle attached, cleaned and sharpened a final time before being called a sword.I hope so.
Maybe your novel's like that.
Comments
I think of myself as being *pruned* at this time, taking away self, what others think of me (hierarachy from the past) and down to my territory of writing...what comes from my efforts after everything is processed.
Thanks for the sword...I think I have a poem I wrote somewhere about a sword...must get it out! :)
Jeanna, I'll happily glom all the credit I can get, but this particular post was Kathryn's. :)
What you wrote in your second paragraph, Jeanna, is what I'm working through--carving out a narrative space to fit my voice. It is in some ways a deeply humbling process, and I'm trying to weigh the "what a reader is going to know at this point" yadda yadda with the temptation to fantasize about what people will think of ME as a writer. I'm trying to let go of ego and just work for what's the best for the book. If that makes any sense at all.
I have been reading :*the War of Art* by stephen Pressfield. (I love his book: the Legend of Bagger Vance)
He presses that writing outside of *heirarchy* allows the muse to be present...and self to be absent.