Day 52 – Putting Pen to Paper

Today I am challenged to explore what failures I am avoiding that may be preventing successes. I hadn’t even finished reading the challenge for the day when I knew exactly what I have been avoiding and it’s literally the reason I’m writing this blog every day – I have been putting off working on the second draft of my book. Isn't it funny how our greatest aspirations often come hand in hand with our greatest fears?

I read through the first draft late in May, almost a month after I finished it. I made grammatical changes, I moved stories around, and then I began to chop. I chopped. And then I chopped some more.

I remembered reading in Stephen King’s book, On Writing, that Stephen recommended cutting about 10% of the first draft. By the time I was through chopping, I cut 90% of my first draft. Bones were all that remained of what was once my great accomplishment. And bones help nobody.

I think I cut so much of it because I was worried that no one would like it, or that I would get harsh criticism because the stories I selected to tell weren’t meaningful enough. I worried that I wasn’t enough. I really got down on myself, in the most positive way possible. Because, let’s face it, if I can’t find a way to turn this negative situation into a positive one – then what the hell am I writing this book for?! It's the one project that simultaneously excites and terrifies me.

I am committed to starting back up again tomorrow and getting through draft 2 in the next 30 days. I am committed to turning my manuscript into at least one hybrid publisher before I officially turn to indie publishing. But I am prepared to move in that direction as soon as I finish this next draft.

If I keep refining, and cutting, and adding, and modifying I’ll lose the message I originally planned to share. What’s worse is that I may lose my passion for the project altogether before I get to the finished product.

In my short 40 years on this earth, I have found great pleasure in starting to learn a new thing, to do a new thing, to grow my skills in incremental ways. I am truly content being a master of many things but an expert of few. It has served me well and I will be glad to be a novice at this as well, but I have to finish it – for me, and [hopefully] for you too. Here’s to embracing the bumps in the road and turning them into stepping stones towards our goals.

Stock image provided by Unsplash.