Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

I always underestimate the time it takes to edit. It’s like hiking in the mountains. You’re walking along, focused on what’s in front of you. You estimate the time it will take to get through 80,000 or so words of a novel. Then you come around a bend in the story and you just stop. You read the section over. You read it again. The plot is broken here. It’s not just a tidying up job anymore. It’s like you just discovered the ridge you thought you’d be clearing in another 10 minutes, is a couple hours away.

Or a whole day away. Or a week away. Damn.

Here’s another metaphor. You are operating on a patient. You think they just need some stitches, but then you look closer and discover they’re about to lose a limb. Sigh. This is where I try to remind myself of writer Anne Lamott’s great advice about writing. You do it word by word or in her particular metaphor “bird by bird.”

Being here now is challenging when I really want to be 150 pages forward, past this tangle. The only way out is through. I’m glad my previous project has found a publisher. This project is far from ready.