Don’t take the semi-silence here as any indicator that things have been slowing down. Lots happening, not the least of which is that in getting the book “repackaged” for Lisa’s copy edits I’ve been making another mad-dash through it. It’s moving along pretty easy, which I hope is a good sign.
But …
Yesterday afternoon and this morning I came upon the one segment of the work that has always seemed … well … flabby. I’ve been through this book more than a few times, and each time this section gets a lot of work. Each time it gets shorter. And each time I leave still feeling that it’s not really sharp.
This morning, for the first time ever, I made changes that have me thinking that it’s actually pretty damned good piece of writing. I mean, the piece has always “worked,” in that I think it’s told the story and is a little entertaining. But, you know, it just didn’t make me happy.
My latest pass at working on this book has consisted of me printing out a chapter, making physical edits while standing up, and then going to the computer and entering those edits (and making other small adjustments in process). Print, line-edit, enter, repeat.
And when I finished entering changes on these chapters this morning, I picked up the “used” pages and tamped them together to straighten them up, lightly pounding them together on the table. This is a motion you lose when you edit on screen, by the way. It’s really not advisable to bounce your screen on your desk, after all. But as I did this I was hit by that sense of accomplishment that only can come from within.
I smiled and I thought. “You know, that’s pretty danged good.”
And now I get to turn to the rest of the day knowing that I’ve already done something special.
Not a bad deal, eh?