Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Improper Poll: The Point of No Returning


I’ve spent much of the weekend revising a dog story with a toasty-warm cat curled up in my lap. The cat thing loses a great deal of its charm when the outside temperatures have long surpassed warm toast and are hovering much closer to sizzling bacon grease as they've been in the past few days. Still, I only had the heart to move that cuddly kitty a few times. He certainly didn’t take the hint when I fanned us with exuberance. Anyway. All this revising reminded me of something.

Years ago, I was talking to an artist, and she told me the hardest thing for her was knowing when she was done with a painting. I understood what she meant. For me, writing is even worse. When I write, I must reach The Point of No Returning before I submit something, or it’s torture. And by Point of No Returning, I don’t mean the point where it’s impossible to turn back. I have to get to a point where I’ve returned to the story so many times, I can’t think of a single thing left to do to it and am therefore no longer compelled to keep returning.

Maybe it’s a sickness, but I return again and again because I keep finding misplaced modifiers, poor word choices, trite phrasing and even missing words. How could I not have noticed these things the first, second, and twelfth times I read the piece? I think it’s because writing is always an interplay between emotion and logic, between what we want to say and how we want to say it. If spoken language is sound that is symbolic of our thoughts, then writing is physical symbols that represent the audible ones. In other words, each written word is a symbol of a symbol. That’s tricky stuff. For me, it’s too easy to go deaf to the sound of my own writing voice, I think because I have to keep one part of my brain quiet while the other does its thing, because the two don’t always play well together. Is it just me? Am I making excuses? Maybe. I only know that I constantly must rap on the knuckles of the part of my brain that has to remember writing rules while shoving another part out the window to go romp in the rule-breaking land of creativity. It’s an ongoing war in which the sides continuously shush each other.

The worst thing is I’ve learned from experience is that if I submit something too soon, and if it still manages to get accepted, I will quite possibly hate it for all eternity if it didn’t reach the Point of No Returning. Or if I later think of a better way to have made a point.

Twice now, I ‘ve done something that is probably taboo in the writing world. When an editor has sent me edits, I’ve asked if I could add a couple more. They were tiny—nothing that would change a word count—but I felt if I didn’t do them, I couldn’t be at ease with the piece. Fortunately both times the editors were gracious about it.

Am I a hopeless neurotic? Do you revise compulsively? And when do you know a piece is finished?

I’d also like to welcome a relatively new blog follower, Theresa Sanders. Theresa is a local writer and a dear friend who inspires me as both because she writes as she lives, with her own brand of gentle, yet sophisticated, grace. Thank you for joining, Teri!

22 comments:

  1. I feel your pain. I struggle with the same dilemma after submitting something for publication.

    Thank goodness for understanding editors!

    And congratulations on your recent acceptances.

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    1. Donna, I'm sorry you feel the pain, but I am so glad to hear I'm not the only one who does that. Amen about the editors!

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  2. Tammy--You liar! Your pieces come out of your anal orifice already in sheer perfection mode.

    And every one of the WWWPs know it. So don't even bother trying to pile on more tall tales.

    However, you WERE telling the truth about Teri. I barely know her, but she is quite a wonderful writer and person. And she has a great son and a darling grandbaby.

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    1. Hi Sioux, thank you so much for your kind words. We must remedy that "barely knowing each other" thing. And I do agree with you about Tammy -- she is a lil bit of a liar! She's a fabulous writer and we all know it! :)

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  3. LOL, Sioux - if I ever get my big ol' constipated derrier to expel any novels, I know exactly who I want to write those reviews that go on the back! But you're definitely right about Teri!

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  4. I have a story coming out Sept. 10 that I am not pleased with. At the time, I thought it was great. During the final edit, I wanted to scrap the whole thing and suggest a completely different work. Yeah. WANTED to. But I went along with the suggestions. At least somebody was happy with it.

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    1. Sorry to hear that, Val. I've been lucky so far when it comes to editors, but I once had a time when they changed my favorite line in the whole piece. I had to go through a small grieving process.

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  5. You have described the prolem perfectly: one part of brain must be quiet. So true. I just sent an editor a request to change a typo from MARTIAL issues to Marital. DUH!

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    1. OMG, Linda, that sounds like something I'd do. At least you caught it. You were one of the editors who let me add some edits, by the way, and I appreciate it!

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  6. Oh dear, I just read Linda's comment and I'm laughing.
    Tammy, you're perfectly normal. I could go through someone else's work and do an edit or even a rewrite and not fuss about it, because it was a job, and I was always good at working.
    But my own writing had to be taken out and re-done forever because it wasn't a job. It was work, but not a job. For one thing, I knew what I wanted to say, so, like Linda, I might miss a transposition because I knew it should be "marital" so that's how my mind saw it. Proofreading someone else's work, or even reading a newspaper, was another thing again. The typos would just jump off the page at me. I could almost proofread by scanning, but I wouldn't let myself get away with that when I was being paid for it.
    When we're editing or rewriting our own creations, we are pulling apart something that is part of ourselves, of our minds and our souls. Not easy. Not atallatall. The same thing also applies to printers: one of the first things I ever learned about setting type was "don't proofread something you set"!
    If you know when you've reached the point of no return(ing) you are ahead of many of us.
    K

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    1. Thanks, Kay. You summed it up perfectly, and I'm glad to hear I'm not too weird. Interesting about the type, but I can see that.

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  7. Yes, it's really hard knowing when the story is good enough... but I don't think you have anything to worry about!

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    1. Thank you so much, Lynn! It's encouraging to me to hear we all seem have similar worries, though. Also, for some reason I'll find way more mistakes on a hard copy than when I'm reading it on a screen. I don't know why it would matter, but it does!

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  8. Tammy, I've never seen anything you've written that isn't simply lovely. You are exceptionally talented.
    Are you working on something for the CS dog book? I tried to get started with a story and noticed they postponed the closing date (again). So what do I do? Postpone writing the story, of course.

    In regard to edits, I couldn't agree more. It takes me forever to submit a piece and even after I see my work published, I could easily take a red pen and make additional changes. I think I've got a severe case of Editor OCD.

    Pat
    Critter Alley

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  9. Pat, I'm so moved and flattered by your gracious comment! The dog story I mentioned in this post was intended for that book, and I too was surprised to see they'd moved the deadline even more. As in a LOT more. I made myself summit it anyway, though, because I've missed deadlines that way. It's like the Tortoise and the Hare effect or something. And yes, I love the way you put that: Editor OCD. That's it.

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    1. Case in point: "summit." Sigh. Apparently my inner editor often isn't obsessive enough.

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  10. You've nailed it, and no, you aren't alone in your compulsiveness. Even after submitting things I go back a day later and, as you said, find all sorts of things I wish I had changed. Sometimes I think I hinder my work by being so nit-picky. There is that point at which modification ruins voice. I've done it more times than I can count. *sigh*

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    1. Yep. I'm often afraid to read old work because I know I'll find something. Good point about ruining the voice, though.

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  11. Hi Tammy! First, thank you so much for your kind words. It’s my pleasure to follow your blog and the blogs of other writers and friends. Though I’m not able to get on Blogger as much as I’d like, I so enjoy reading everyone’s posts. We are incredibly blessed to have so many talented writers in our midst. And while I don’t have a blog of my own, I do have a Facebook writer’s page, and I’m using that as a kind of blog (don’t know if that’s how it’s supposed to be used, but oh well!). I so appreciate everyone who follows me there, and if anyone else would like to stop by for a visit, I’d love to have them!

    Second, to answer your questions about The Point of No Returning, I revise compulsively as well. I’ve heard some writers say they don’t care for the revision stage, but it's actually my favorite part. I love living within the confines of a piece, and though it’s often hard getting there, if I don’t achieve that deep connection to the work through repeated revision, I simply can’t submit it. I know this means that I’ll miss a deadline or two, but like you, I’ve found that if I submit something too soon, I worry myself silly over it. I lie awake at night thinking about what I should have, could have, would have written! I’m not sure how I know when a piece is finished. To say that it just “feels right” sounds like a cop-out, yet I do think it is an instinctual process. Thank you for this wonderful, thought-provoking post! Like all of your lovely writing, it’s made me see that I’m not alone, and that in itself is so very comforting.

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  12. Hi Teri! I did wonder about including your FB page, but I am hopelessly confused about such things and didn't know if people had to be your friend to see it.

    I just read an interview with Khaled Hosseini that you gave me. He likened the writing process to moving and said the first draft was like getting all of the heavy furniture in, and the revisions were like getting to play with the final touches that make it home. I though he said it so well as he does everything.

    I'm so grateful to everyone who answered this. It made me feel so much better about revising as many times as I want. Thank you all so much!

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    1. I'm actually not sure about FB, Tam. My page is supposed to be a public page, so everyone should be able to access it, but I've had people tell me they've had trouble finding it :( I'm still in learning-curve mode regarding FB, I'm afraid. And speaking of learning curve, I just discovered today how to see on Blogger when people have posted on their blogs. Yay! Maybe THAT will help me keep up better.

      Yes, I love how Khaled Hosseini said that. For me, that first draft is like VERY heavy furniture -- and it kinda gets clogged in the doorway from time to time! And the revision process is where you really get to make the house your own. Thanks for reminding me of that quote!

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  13. Well, I do know what you are talking about. When in college, not too many years ago, I loved writing research papers. I knew when they were "done", somehow. But now when I re-read them, I find ways to improve them and even find errors that the professors missed too.

    I just began helping out on our work website, and had re-read the brief "info" couple of paragraphs over and over. Two days later, I found a glaring error. At least things are easy to change on blogs and websites.

    Keep up the great work, Tammy!

    Hugs,

    Kathy M.

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