Slow down, take a breath

So, Mercury's out of retrograde. Thank gods! That was a crappy week.

Now, about this writing shtick... We writers are truly neurotic, aren't we? Thinned skinned, over-analyzing every rejection letter that comes our way, wishing we had thesauri in our brains.

If you're anything like me, then you just need to calm down and take the time to learn our craft. (Did I just say that? "Craft?" Yikes!) After all, I've only been doing this for a year. Or it will be a year at the end of March. I've got a lot to learn.

But as my friend, Lynn, wrote to me yesterday: "You and slow go together like oil and vinegar."

Sigh. It is true. I want everything to happen yesterday. Like I'm running out of time. I wrote my first manuscript in a couple of months after starting it long ago and then sitting on it for years, not writing anything at all. By the time I got back to it, I wasn't into it. I had moved on to a different place in my head and my life and the content no longer felt real to me. But, I also felt that I had to finish it, for the achievement of completing something. I didn't want to move on to another story leaving one unfinished. (I had already done that a couple of times.)

However, by the time manuscript (MS) #1 was completed, I hated it. Couldn't wait to write the next one. Was snarky and irritable in my desire to move on. (Just ask those who live with me!) Then I pounded out MS #2 in 16 days. I think that's got to be some kind of record. Of course, I mean draft 1. Then came the rewrite, but I still think that 60-odd thousand words in 16 days is pretty impressive. No slacker am I! But, same thing as with MS #1, I couldn't wait to finish it and move on to the next story. But the concept had been swirling around in my head for so long that I had to get it onto paper before I could move on.

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of MS #3. And ya know what? I think I like it. There are moments in the book that I'm proud of -- and that's a rarity for me.

When I say "moments in the book" I mean those phrases or passages that strikes one as being authentic. For example, I get that sometimes from Stephen King. He is critically slammed all the time, and yet, there are moments in his writing when he captures a moment (usually when he is referring to something from childhood)that I read and say: "Yes, that's it. That's exactly how that felt for me back then."

Isn't that what we, as writers, want to achieve? To strike that chord? Make that connection? Speak someone's truth?

For me, there are a few bits and pieces of that in my current oeuvre (Aside: Isn't that a piece of pompous wordsmithing?) that I'm happy with. (Ah, and now the Canadian in me niggles and prods me to say something self-denigrating like: Oh, gee, well, it's not really that great. I mean, it's just mine...) Gotta love those neuroses.

But today, writers-in-arms, today begins the edit of MS #3! Do I hear trumpets? Is the sun rising, kissing the horizon as I speak this? (Actually, since this is NS, it's raining and grey, but I'll ignore that.)

Let's take a collective breath, appreciate the time we have to write, and move forward -- slowly, smelling the roses and all that.

Colleen