I often struggle with the time it takes me to take an idea and form text around it. Text that I am happy with. Text that I am ready to publish.
Recently I got exasperated by the process.
WHY CAN’T I WRITE THIS?
A revelation came to me that writing is like sculpting. An artist in front of a slab of clay begins by taking some away, she moves it around, she shapes and forms it. From time to time, she steps away to gain a different perspective and then returns to move, and form, and shape some more. Until finally she says, “it’s done”. The process takes the time it takes and she doesn’t rush it.
Writing is actually like that too. My medium is thousands of words that I can pick from and put on paper. Like the sculptor, I am wanting the words to gather into the form that looks, sounds and feels like what I’ve intended. So like a sculptor, I need to expect some words will need to go, new ones will need to be added and whole sentences will be moved about. I need to expect that I will read and reread the same paragraph 50 times after every tweak until “its done”. And at that point, hopefully, what’s there might resonate or connect or be of value to you, my kind reader.
Like a sculpture or indeed any work we do, if we care, it takes time and attention.
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