This is Writing
Allow me to paint you a picture good reader.
The time is 1:00 AM on a Sunday morning. I’ve just gotten home after a night out with good friends, watching a UFC fight that was very exciting and action packed. The house is dark, and everyone else is in bed. My plan is to let the dogs out real quick. Take a shower and go to bed.
Then I flip the light switch in the kitchen, and I notice something sitting on my keyboard. The stack of papers seen in the picture, and just like that, my plans have changed.
The pages in that picture? Those are the first 33 pages of my most recent draft of my debut novel. I used to joke that I’d done better than ten drafts of Eyes in the Dark, but guess what… It’s not really a joke anymore. This is seriously at least the tenth true revision.
You know what those sticky notes are? They are the suggested edits, and in some cases revisions that my long suffering daughter, who has read my book cover to cover numerous times, is suggesting I make. Remember, this is only the first 33 pages of around 190.
These notes aren’t left as a means of discouragement, or even chastisement. These notes have been left in the purest spirit of love and charity. My daughter spent her time off from school to painstakingly go over these pages line by line, word by word, with the full knowledge and understanding that I would be giving her 6 times that number by the time I’m done doing the revision I am on.
This comes after hours of chats with all of my girls, talking over plot points, characters, set pieces and dialog. Much of which was just going to end up changing, and thus spawn additional chats, all in the name of making this book the best it can be.
The total process will likely have taken a month or two by the time it is done. And once it’s done? What then? My novel will go again to beta readers. Then onto rounds of professional edits, likely to include further revisions, before we get to the fun part… holding a physical copy of my book, my and my families blood sweat and tears squeezed between a brightly colored front and back cover.
This… is… Writing…
So I grabbed a water from the fridge, fired up Spotify, and sat down to read each and every one of those notes. I had to brush away a few tears, not because I’m sad about having to do more edits. No, I cried a few tears of joy tonight because I have been blessed with the opportunity to have a need to read these notes.
Being an author means lonely nights, long days of uncertainty, having your ability questioned, having your confidence shaken, being told you’re wrong, feeling like an imposter and yes, on occasion, a bit of the purest joy that can be felt by any artist, regardless of the medium their art is presented in.
This is writing, and I love it.
Until next time good reader, take care.
EDIT: MAY 13 —- Follow the below link for another example of “This is Writing”