Last night my writing partner and I spoke on the phone after what was (for both of us, agreeably) a too-long hiatus. (Hey, sometimes life gets in the way.) Besides catching up, we discussed the recently updated To-do list for Why I Love Singlehood (thankfully, the list seems to be getting smaller).
"Did you happen to read the draft I sent of the final chapter?" I asked.
"I think so," she replied.
"You would know," I said. "It sucked big time."
"Oh, that one," she said with a laugh. "It was rough, yes. But I wouldn't say it sucked."
"I would. There's a fine line between 'rough' and 'suckage', and I crossed it."
I had considered posting that as my Facebook status, but decided it could be horribly misinterpreted. We decided instead that it would make a good forecast, only I made a slight edit, from "rough" to "cloudy". The latter is less accurate as far as I'm concerned; but it's also less, er... suggestive.
"Is it me, or have we been editing and revising this thing for a really long time?" my writing partner asked.
"Yes, we have," I answered. But, I assured her, this was not a bad thing.
Sure, the long distance communication, the patchwork fashion in which this novel was put together, the interruptions of life and other jobs along the way has made this a rather unorthodox process in every aspect, not just time. But I also reminded her that the blood, sweat, tears, and time have always been in the revision process. Sooner or later (preferably sooner), we'll call the draft "finished". But we'll do it only when we feel confident that we've put out a product worthy of our readers, something that will give them pleasure, make 'em laugh, make 'em think, make 'em crave a cookie to go along with their next latte. Something we would love to read.
We're almost there. We're so close. And we can't wait for you to read it.
In the meantime, we've got work to do. We've got rough edges that need smoothing. We've got poorly constructed sentences that need refinement. We've got loose ends that need tying. We've got suckage that needs... well, we've got to make it not suck.
I'm confident we're gonna get it done. In fact, don't look now, but here comes the sun.
4 comments:
...suckage that needs...de-sucked? no, wait. it needs...unsucked. no, that's not any better... hm...
Ironic, isn't it -- trying to find the best antonym for "suckage" is producing, well... suckage.
How wonderful that you can see the finish line! Is it shiny? It SHOULD be shiny. I think this might be the most annoying time - when you're so close you can almost touch it but it's tantalizingly out of reach. No - writing the middle is the most annoying time. No, finishing the first draft...no...oh, forget it.
Is it the finish line we're seeing? I think we're seeing the sign that says, "Next stop, the finish line."
But it's nice when you can smile at the suckage.
:)
(You wrote another kick-ass post on It's a Mystery, btw.)
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