Weary Wednesday

It's seems I'm taking more time off than usual with everything...writing, renovating, and just living. The beginning of the year saw me backing down from my daily blogs to three times a week, and this month it's more like twice a week. What can I say? Too many fish in the pan and all are burning. The master juggler is getting old and dropping her balls.

Five short years ago, I could have gardened, chopped trees, painted, wrote, cooked, worked two jobs, etc. Now, I'm lucky if I can do one of those things a day. I spent Saturday chopping down two Japanese yews which were very overgrown...I'm talking about trunks five to seven inches in diameter reaching twelve feet tall. I ended up having to climb up on the roof to top them off...that's how tall they were. Luckily I do have an electric chain saw which I love. I was done.

I cut them back to about three feet tall and they look scraggly. I know they will fill back out. I actually have hated them since we bought the house, but my husband loves them. It was a compromise because if it were up to me I would have chopped them all down to the root ball. After two hours I had them back to a manageable size and then came the job of cutting the limbs and branches I cut off. By the time I finished, I was exhausted. My broken heart was pumping at almost two hundred beats a minute. I hear you now, "Are you insane!" I must be, but the job is done. The repercussions of this action...a day in bed because my back would allow me to either stand or lay down without pain. I couldn't sit in a chair more than five minutes at a time. In case you didn't know, I have rack and pinion steering in my back due to a shooting incident and an accident.

SO what does this have to do with writing, you ask. Have you reread your story and had to decide what is needed to make the story pace faster? Streamline? Make it flow better? You got it. Sometimes you have to start at the top and work your way down.

It may mean making drastic cuts of things you absolutely love about your story. Major writing, and cutting it off at the ankles and starting again. Don't get discouraged. The same impetus which caused you to begin writing will carry you through.

You, as an author, can edit a story because you wrote it. It is much harder to do it for someone else's story. What do you risk in editing someone else's work?

1) You are calling their baby ugly. Nobody wants to hear this. As a writer you have given birth to your creation. It's like when a mutual friend called my sister a nasty word. Now, I may have used that same word to describe my own sister from time to time, but this was different...this was a fighting word to me. I did punch him for it.

When your baby is ugly there is hope. Your story will develop into your dream child over time. It takes editing to make this creation beautiful. Just like this huge eyed, big, eared, scanty haired child pictured. It won't always look like this. View your creation the same way...it's just ugly right now.

2) Time crunches. This is major for me right now. Too many irons in the fire. The more I try to do the faster time flies until many things get left unaccomplished. As a writer, how many times have you been writing and looked up at the clock to see hours pass? Or worse, still looking at a blank page after several hours? Time is your worst enemy or your best friend...it's all about perspective.

You work your day job and have three hours to write in the evening. This is after you've cooked and eaten your dinner, done the dishes, put a load of wash in the washer, and the kids are in bed...and you are staring at a blank screen or worse... line after line of squiggly red and green lines and your brain is too tired to correct it. For me, it's eight manuscripts on any day and that's a light day...my own and others.

3) You basically piss off the person you are editing. Part of the anger stems because you just called their shining creation ugly. Another part of the anger stems from the dumb mistakes they made while writing and they knew better. They are kicking themselves. You are handy so they vent towards you.

It's like the processes of grief (shock, emotional release, preoccupation with the process, physical/emotional symptoms, hostility, guilt, depression, withdrawal, and resolution). A writer goes through all these things when working with an outside editor. A good editor will understand all these things which does not have anything to do with them and realize it's all part of the author's process. They will step back and let the writer go through all the steps and then come back to the editing process later. This can take a couple of hours or months. It all depends on the writer.

Something to keep in mind when you ask someone to critique or edit your manuscript. Above all...
Keep writing and loving the Lord.

GI2GB

I've often been asked how it is I do what I do...juggle like a mad woman.  I tend to be a multi-faceted, multitasking kind of gal and have been my whole life.  Of course, this has not been done easily.

In the past I have juggled two full-time jobs, a spouse, a very large extended family, full time classes, and my five children with all their extra baggage, ie ballet, band, this or that function etc. (now I include their spouses and children into the mix so it's a trade off.) 

Today, (I cut back when I turned fifty...sort of)I juggle two part-time careers in ministry work and  college professor, but I'm also  a part time college student, author, mother, grandmother, and caregiver for not one, but three people dear to me- my spouse who is terminally ill, my 24-year old daughter with an inoperable brain tumor, and my 91-year old father-in-law with Alzheimers.

I seem to have the ability to shuck off concerns to the point where I seem stressless.  In truth, I feel stress just like everyone else does. I have days where the world crashes in on me, just like people around the world. I just act on it differently.  That's where today's blog comes from.  It is my GI2GB.

I can't admit to creating this, but I can say it has been successful in my life for seven years.  I can't even tell you where I got this idea from because it was one of fw:fw:fw infinity type emails someone sent me years ago.  Have I peaked your interest yet?

It is my Give It 2 God Box.  The principle behind it is so simple, but when used correctly, the results are surprising.  Mine is really nothing more than a plastic box I keep at my bedside with a slit in the top.  It can be anything, a salt box, a shoe box, or whatever.  I will warn you.  This can be addicting in a most heavenly way.

The premise is simple also.  Whenever you reach the end of your rope and feel like there is nothing that will fix XYZ problem, you write it down on a piece of paper and you put it in the box.  Yes, most of us will pray, but there is nothing tangible in prayer.  Believe me, I am not knocking prayer, because I spend hours in prayer every day.  This is a prayer with a tangible action, since most people respond better when they feel they are actually doing something about a problem which overwhelms them.

Now, let's be honest, quite a few of us give our problems to God and then continue worrying about it and trying to figure out solutions, etc.  Quit that!  If a problem is bad enough to be put in the GI2GB, then why in the world would you want to play indian-giver and take it back??? If it is so mind boggling a problem and you have looked to every other resource to solve it and found none, give it to God and forget about it.  Let God be God.

Have you ever watched a toddler who wants a cookie on the table and was told he couldn't have it?  The toddler inches his way over to it, and then his little fingers stretch out to grab it...all the time looking over his shoulder to see if his parents are looking.  Now, think of your prayers, are you this toddler?  You gave the problem to God, and then wiggle your way back to the problem?  Raise your hand, you indian-giver, you!

Okay, now you've decided to give this box a try.  You cut the slit into the top of the box.  You go out and buy some special little notepad to write your problems on. This is not necessary, I've written some of mine on napkins.  You've got a problem you want to give to God.  For me, it's my husband, daughter, and father-in-law.  I have no control over the outcome and it really irks me, at least for today.  Tomorrow will be another set of insurmountable problems.

Sorry, I got sidetracked.  I write the problem on the piece of paper and put it in the box and forget about it.  It's amazing. I've done an action to solve a problem when I didn't think there was anything to fix it.  By doing an action against your problem you reduce your stress, but more importantly it is a step in faith.  Now this is the hard part...forget about it, because you have given it to God and let God work.  DO NOT OPEN THE BOX.

Now pick a time frame, for me it is a year,  a New Year's Day event.  Remember, God's time is not your time.  Open the box. Yes, I said open it. Now take out all those pieces of paper.  Read each one.  Make two piles- one for those that have been answered or do not apply anymore, and the other for those not answered.  The pile of unanswered messages go back in the box for the next year...they need to cook a while longer.  Remember it's God's time, not yours.  For those that no longer apply or have been answered, write on the back how it was answered or why it no longer applied.  I actually keep a journal of these.

Would it surprise you that over 98% of my pieces of paper went into the answered or no longer applied pile?  All the added stress that I lost by just giving it to God.  Oh, and don't forget to thank Him for the answered ones.  Be faithful unto the Lord.