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Monday, July 4, 2011

Cleaning out my closet

Tell Me Your Story Tuesday

 Please enjoy this 
clip to get you in the mood for today's post. 
Just push play. I'll wait.  



Funny, right?
I would think so, too...If it wasn't my life.
This is my project for the week.



I must make all of this fit somewhere in here.

And trust me, this is a "good" picture of this room. There is so much lurking out of the camera range, it makes me want to cry.

Kind of like doing revisions.
I am taking a class from
Candace Havens .
I just finished what she calls
REVISION HELL.
  While avoiding the closet pondering ideas of great meaning, I was struck by how similar the process revision  is to cleaning out my closet.

Step One:
Feeling   overwhelmed
I walked by said closet probably ten times, opened the door, sighed, closed it
I opened my WIP probably ten times, changed two words, sighed, checked Twitter.
 ,
Step Two:
Planning
I have been researching closet organizational options, mentally deciding where things should go, giving myself pep talks: "I'm sure there isn't actually a troll living in there."

I made notes for my WIP, mentallyworked through scenes and dialogues, gave myself pep talks: "Candy is going to kick your butt if you don't get this done."

Step Three:
Going in
I made work on the room that the closet stuff needs to inhabit. It's like one of the those puzzles were you have to move everything else to move piece. I told myself I only had to work for 15 minutes. I ended up working over an hour.

I made myself sit down and do my Revision Hell process. It took a couple of hours a day, but it was worth it. I finished the whole WIP. It will need this process again. I know that, but I also know that I can do it. Hopefully, that will make steps one and two less intimidating.

So, what did I learn from all of this?
  1. Eat the elephant one bite at a time, or if you aren't into pachyderms, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In otherwords, quit staring at it and get started.
  2. Nothing can make you feel inferior without your consent. (I may have paraphrased a bit) or, plan your work and work your plan.  I needed to think and process what needed to be done. Stressing over it and dreading the tedious process  ahead did nothing positive for me.
  3.  Rome wasn't built in a day.  I gave myself plenty of time to work on the revisions. I took breaks when my brain locked or my butt went to sleep from sitting in this chair too long. I am giving myself a week to complete the closet to playroom transfer. Burnout isn't productive.   
So, Tell Me Your Story:
What elephants do you have on your plate? 
Done any revising lately?
 
Side note: I am looking for authors to be featured on Tell Me Your Story Tuesday. If you would like to be interviewed, or know anyone who might, please email me!



1 comment:

Teri Anne Stanley said...

I find that when I have big "thinking" jobs to do...like revising (or, ahem, actually writing) something, I am pretty motivated to get closets and drawers cleaned up. And vice versa.

It's an interesting balancing act. Kind of like, if i have 15 things on my to-do list, I can usually get about 12 of them done. If I have five things, I can do 2. If I only have 3 things on my list? I check Twitter.