The Man said again, “I find it hard to
believe in all of these years you still haven’t published one book.”
I stared at him, still unable to
conceive how Mr. Drama can say things like that. He doesn’t see all of the
accomplishments I have achieved. He sees the one I’ve always wanted but haven’t
completed. He doesn’t see that he has done everything in his power to make sure
my every minute had a claim on it so I would be forced to back away from my
work.
My English prof said, “Authors don’t
work on just one project at a time.”
I thought, “That’s true enough. But if
they want to be published I think they must need to focus on just one at a
time.”
A while back I told you I had
discovered a way to write a rough draft with a beginning, a middle and an end.
Every time I go shopping I look for inexpensive (OK, cheap) journals with
pretty covers. If they have 120 sheets of paper that means 240 pages of
handwritten story! And I’m getting that pretty down pat, in my opinion.
Now I am at the next hurdle:
editing/revising/rewriting. Why am I so afraid of this?
More than 20 years ago I wrote a
children’s picture book for our twin daughters. My mother read it. She thought
it could use a little tweaking. This sounds familiar. Did I already talk about
this? Long story short, what if I can’t edit, revise, rewrite? What if I’m not
smart enough to do it?
This morning I devoted 2-1/2 hours to
working on a new story in a new journal. When the time went off I set it for 20
minutes more to wrap up the day with my characters in that story. I plan to do
the same tomorrow and each day after that until it is finished.
After lunch I worked on the article for
my paying gig. The executive director that I report to at the agency emailed me
yesterday to say she was thinking as she finished reading the most recent
article in the newspaper. She noticed on her Rolodex that she hired me March
16, 2000. At 50 articles per year she estimated more than 650 articles and
other publicity could be credited to me. The articles have directed a lot of
people to seek assistance to find their way to a healthy lifestyle. She said
she hopes this will continue.
I told her about once a year I think, “I
don’t want to do this anymore and I need to tell Eloise.” Then I am past the
moment and good to go for another year. I don’t make a great deal of money
doing this job but I don’t want to let go of it, either.
Supper is behind me now. I’m going to
set the timer for 2-1/2 hours and work on revisions/rewriting/editing Belle and
Sam’s story. The first step is the hardest, right? Stephen King could make this
a lot easier for me if he would offer to spend six or eight weeks tutoring me
through this process, but I don’t think I will spend too much time waiting
since he doesn’t even know I’m a writer!
It’s not likely that I will get done everything
on my to-do list for today, things like planting tomato seeds, pepper seeds and
soaking heavenly blue morning glory seeds. Nor will the dusting and vacuuming
carry me past a successful white glove test. But today still will end
productive.
© 2014 Cathy Thomas Brownfield ~ All
Rights Reserved. This blog may not be reproduced in any way without the
permission of the author.
