You Are Not Your Tonsils

Cut 'em out!

That's Winnie's big news this week. 

Popsicles and ice cream, here we come! 

And as I begin another manuscript revision, 

I reflect that life and writing are not far apart. 

Writing seems simple. 

It's only words, right? 

Plop some on a page and send it off to get published!

Such a romantic life, those writers! 

But the drafts, oh, the drafts!

Who knew there were so many revisions? 

Like life, writing is messy. 

It does not fit into boxes squarely. 

It takes pain and scratching out, 

deleting beloved characters and rearranging, 

knocking down not only small sentences, 

but bones and bracing, 

fireplaces and front doors.

A flexible canvas is essential -

or, at least as essential 

as the knowledge that 

you are not your manuscript.

You are lovable, 

even if your story isn't, 

even if your words need major surgery, 

or your book didn't make the New York Times Bestseller List,

or win any awards, 

or your blog only had two viewers last month. 

You are not your tonsils.

My sage writer brother advised me this week 

after a sound critique -

"Let it sit a few days, 

do something else that makes you happy, 

then approach your story with a little distance

and a bottle of wine."

So I sewed. 

Can you tell we're into The Sound of Music?

It was a happy treat
for Sound of Music-obsessed Winnie 

before her big tonsil extraction.

And then, to revisions. 

I love Scrivener for writing, 

but I needed something more tactile.

 

If I had a writing studio, I'd make a cork-board wall. 

Alas, the dining room does not lend itself to cork-board walls.

This is my solution.

It's a long strip of foam-core, 

layered with rows of card-stock 

left open at the top

like a hanging file rack.  

Now I can niche notecards and shuffle scenes around 

to my heart's content! 

Let the revisions begin!