Things Will Change

I’ve been very bad to my creative self these past couple of weeks. In fact, I’ve been pretty horrible to my physical self as well.

I haven’t done the things that make my mind and body happy and healthy. I didn’t get much writing done, and what I did write I looked back at later and erased, looking over my shoulder to make sure no one had read it first. I avoided the gym because it’s dark in the morning and cold outside of my bed, I ate cookies and fudge and any number of high caloric foods that made me feel pretty gross.

That’s over now. And I am back on track as of a couple days ago. The only problem is, everyone in my book feels like a stranger to me now. I remember writing my last entry about how close myself and the characters in my book were, and I still feel that they are beyond important to me, but I am looking at everything with different eyes.

I had to reread some passages, some chapters, and rewrite a little here and there. I had to go back and flesh out some of the people in the book that I personally felt close to, but only because I knew what I wanted them to be. I had not previously do my assignment I knew about them because I had already felt intimately connected to this character. Problem was, I had not provided enough to my reader to feel the same.

One of my favorite things about writing though is how much fun the editing process is. Most writers would stare at me open mouthed for saying this, because it is commonly found to be a torturous procedure. It is taking a work which is close to your heart and cutting it up. I view it as a polishing of the work; making it shiny, making it beautiful, making it flow. The first draft is always about getting ideas out, the editing process is about rounding those ideas into something that can translate.