Jabber: Mooo-oooom! Monkey keeps saying our spaceship is a doghouse!Monkey: It IS a doghouse!
Jabber: It's a spaceship!
Monkey: It's a space-doghouse!
Jabber: (stomps feet, raises voice) It is NOT a space-doghouse. It has WINGS. It's a spaceship!
Monkey: (draws on wing) I'm coloring this wing purple.
Jabber: AHHHH! (tears purple marker away from Monkey) NOT LIKE THAT. IT HAS TO MATCH.
Monkey: No! (grabs marker back, screeches shrilly)
Jabber: MOMMMMMM! MONKEY KEEPS WRECKING THE SPACESHIP!
Elissa (through the window, staring at editing notes with hopelessness): Siiiiigh. How about if you draw on the left wing, and Monkey draws on the right wing? That seems fair.
Jabber (in a voice that can be heard several blocks away): MOM! WHAT GOOD IS A SPACESHIP IF IT'S NOT SYMMETRICAL?
I know, I know. This happened like a week ago. And yes, shortly after this I sent the kids away to their grandparents' houses for the weekend. A weekend which unexpectedly stretched out into four days. Yes, I missed them. No, I didn't blog. Yes, I've been ensconced in editing thoughts. No, I haven't blogged. Yes, I have read like five books in the last week. No, I haven't blogged. Yes, I began the tedious project of painting my back deck in the hot sun. No, I did not get a tan on my legs. (Yes, I did get a smattering of freckles on my nose.)
Yes, my editing has brought me to tears. To driving my husband to yard work. To throwing things. To giving up. To starting over. To getting excited. To tears again. To inspiration. To throwing things again. To emailing my agent with my crazy showing. To meeting an amazingly sweet and kind writer who shares my wonderful editor. To appreciating all the wonderfully supportive people who make it possible for me to even contemplate doing any of this. To tears again, these of a different sort. And now to work.
(And no, I didn't blog.)
4 comments:
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Yeah, but you read all those books! I kept seeing the updates from Goodreads and thinking "How is she doing it?"
Changing things up is good for us. I know you can do this book thing. I know you can.
Thanks, Jen!
Lisa, I only read a few of those books this week--I decided (maybe as a way of procrastinating the editing?) to coordinate my librarything.com account with my (formerly much-neglected) goodreads account so that all my books are entered, rated, and reviewed in both places. A while back, I decided that I didn't want to put my reviews on goodreads because it's too public...like, as a writer I'm supposed to think about other writers, especially in my genre, and do no harm, and I felt like my reviews--which are only my opinions, after all--were not always glowing. I worried that by having them in a really public, popular place like goodreads, that I would always be second-guessing myself when writing them, trying to be so diplomatic, etc. I think...I think I'm over that now. I just try to be balanced, and hope that the good things I have to say make up for mentioning some of the weaknesses. That's how (I think, now) I'd like people to review my book. (I hope.)
The editing...I'm getting better. I was feeling a little adrift earlier, but I'm getting my bearings and coming to terms with the fact that this is going to be a lot more extended, soul-searching kind of revision than I'm used to doing. I'm used to spotting a problem, getting an idea, and jumping in to tear shit apart. I'm a girl of action. But my editor wants me to do a LOT of thinking thinking thinking before doing. And that's...hard for me, haha. But I'm getting a grip, I think. Until next week, lol.
I have cried I think three times today about my boy's behavior. Okay, twice about their behavior and once about something else, but still. Why do they have to be so damned difficult? As the old saying goes, they are lucky that they are so cute!
I cannot wait for your book to come out so I can read it! Keep at it and hang in there. You can do this! xoxo
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