Hey everyone,
Ten minutes ago, I finished editing the second book in the Freelance Writer’s Guide series. As tempting as it is to hand this work over to someone else and be done with it, I’ve decided to do it myself for now.
There are a few reasons for this.
One, I’m updating the books for the second editions, and so I’m doing much of the heavy lifting, anyway. Two, it’s been a while since I looked at them and I want to be sure that I still agree with everything I’ve said. Sometimes, as I’ve grown in my career, I’ve changed my mind on certain things or found more to say on a subject, and I want the books to reflect that. Three, the books have already been through a human editor and I feel like sending them through again is just overkill. Four, and the strongest reason, I’ve been using ProWritingAid* and I’ve been learning so much!
Even though the books are taking so much time to update, edit, and proofread, and this is about the time I want to throw my hands up in the air and go work on a new project (two of which are calling out my name in their sweet sweet voices), I know I need to stick to this. It’s the first time in my career that I feel like I can not only see where I’ve made an error, but understand the reasoning why. Usually, when an editor picks apart a piece of work, they don’t explain their reasoning (which makes sense; everyone has their unique skills and they don’t have time to teach me) but what that means is that my mistakes have become my habits, ones that I rarely know are wrong in the first place.
I’m seeing that now, how I misuse commas in the same way each time, how I have a real desire to tell people to “start doing this or that” and I seem in love with the phrase “be able,” which is terrible, terrible construction, and I didn’t know how much I hated it until I saw how much I love using it.
Working on these books has felt like getting a masterclass in editing, and so, even though I’m not enjoying the hours I’m spending in the chair doing this, and I am outright offended that it’s taking time away from the novel revision and the new nonfiction book, both of which have deadlines coming up soon, I’m persisting.
Here is something I have learned about the creative work that we get to do in our lives: When you’re still aspiring to do it, when you haven’t quite reached that point where it becomes what you do, you only see the wonderful pieces of it. You can’t imagine that there would be parts of it you loathe, that you find boring, that you never want to do. When other writers complain about the drudgery the day can become when you’re doing parts of the business you don’t enjoy, you think, “That won’t happen to me!”
It will. It does. It is, as author Mark Manson likes to call it, The Shit Sandwich.
“Everything involves sacrifice,” he writes. “Everything includes some sort of cost. Nothing is pleasurable or uplifting all of the time. So, the question becomes: what struggle or sacrifice are you willing to tolerate? Ultimately, what determines our ability to stick with something we care about is our ability to handle the rough patches and ride out the inevitable rotten days.”
My shit sandwich today is that I have to go edit something I wrote several years ago, have already read 357 times, and now need to rip apart once more.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What flavour of shit sandwich is on your plate today?
Cheers,
Natasha
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