My flower beds have been over run with weeds.
Every time I went to my front door, I'd say to myself, "I really need to weed those", but then I'd forgot or find something better to do.
Tonight I'd had enough. I sat down and dug in, pulling up weed after weed. I got most of it. Sure there were a few patches here and there that were hard to pull up, but I figured the beautiful flowers around them would distract anybody from noticing or I'd wait until I have a shovel.
I find this to be very similar to editing. I know I need to edit. Every time I open my computer, I see my document on the desktop just waiting to be opened. But I usually find something else to do. Then one day it will hit and I'll press option O. I'll go through each paragraph, trying to make each sentence better, but there'll be a few stubborn ones that I can't seem to fix, so I leave them thinking that I'll catch them next time. Or I'll hope no one will notice (invariably they do).
Back to the real weeds. I filled up two grocery bags and thought I'd done really good until I got around back and realized I still had a lot more to do.
Sound familiar.
9 comments:
Sounds very familiar. Both the weeds and the editing.
Speaking of which, I have an edit waiting for me too. But at least it's a short story. And I should get it done while betas are reading my novel. But there laundry, tidying, dishes, etc.
I was weeding my ms this weekend of unnecessary words after reading Janice Hardy's post on Friday. At least they're easier to remove than plants that you aren't if they're weeds or the real thing. :)
Entirely familiar. Sometimes I can even fool myself into thinking my rough draft is in pretty good shape.
You may laugh now (I sure am).
~ Wendy
Sounds very familiar. I'm the same way about both weeding and editing. Put it off as long as possible. Lol
I'm with you on both accounts. Editing and weeding, two "chores" I avoid. But oh, doesn't it feel good when it's done? :)
We live in the woods and it's so easy to just dismiss weeds as "the natural look." I planted some gladiolas this spring and when I went out last night, I noticed they were peppered with all kinds of weeds. I pulled up a few, but it's not only hard but dirty work... and I don't like being dirty! :)
Revising I usually like. At least the first few times. After that - I just get restless and impatient. I suppose, like my yard, I'm tempted to say, "That looks good enough."
Oh, yes, very familiar. I spent about 6 hours weeding my garden last week, and it's something I find highly satisfying. I can stand back and go, "This looks good! I did this!"
It is the same with editing. I can go through the book, making it better and beautiful, and then sit back and go, "This is better! And I did it!"
Oh yeah, weeding definitely sounds like editing all over. Haha isn't it funny that we can draw a comparison between two such different things like this?
That is a very good analogy.
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