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imaginarycircus at 12:15pm on 07/05/2010
imaginarycircus at 12:15pm on 07/05/2010My plan for months was to finish editing this draft on Monday (three days from now) and send it back to agent. But I've been sick sick sick this week and I'm far from happy with the editing I've done. I'm not making any decisions yet, but I may hold the ms back and give myself an extra few weeks although I wanted to be done with the thing before we went to Paris--I don't know. I can sit in cafes anywhere and work. Obviously I'm not going to spend 8 hours a day editing in Paris. We have to wander and show David Sainte Chapelle and walk around Ile-Ste-Louis and I'm itching for a walk through the Tuilleries and the Jardin du Luxembourg. I have friends living in Paris whom I'm anxious to see. My aunt and uncle are coming from London for the weekend to see us, which will be excellent. I won't have a ton of extra time, but I am the one who decides if an extra 10-15 hours of editing will make a huge difference in this thing or not.
I just had to remind myself. I'm in charge.
I had such bad luck with deadlines last year and kept blowing through them, but I know I was a lot sicker than we thought (hello severe anemia) and it took me until August to come up with splitting the POV as a solution, which was simply a matter of waiting for my brain to supply the right answer. And sometimes my brain is slow, but also sometimes the problems I am trying to unknot are difficult.
One of my professors (we call them tutors at St. John's) told a story about when she was a Johnnie and they were doing Eintein's General Theory in senior math. She got up and filled all the chalkboards in the room with equations to demonstrate the section and then she put the chalk down and said, "I stayed up until one am and I got stuck here. I don't know how to get to the next step."
None of the other students had gotten that far.
Her professor said, "I stayed up until 2am. Substitute beta."
Sometimes the answers and solutions are so simple anyone could see them, but it just takes time and patience. I have to remind myself of this because I often find myself wishing I were smarter so that I would see answers and solutions more quickly. The truth is that it takes patience more than anything.
I just had to remind myself. I'm in charge.
I had such bad luck with deadlines last year and kept blowing through them, but I know I was a lot sicker than we thought (hello severe anemia) and it took me until August to come up with splitting the POV as a solution, which was simply a matter of waiting for my brain to supply the right answer. And sometimes my brain is slow, but also sometimes the problems I am trying to unknot are difficult.
One of my professors (we call them tutors at St. John's) told a story about when she was a Johnnie and they were doing Eintein's General Theory in senior math. She got up and filled all the chalkboards in the room with equations to demonstrate the section and then she put the chalk down and said, "I stayed up until one am and I got stuck here. I don't know how to get to the next step."
None of the other students had gotten that far.
Her professor said, "I stayed up until 2am. Substitute beta."
Sometimes the answers and solutions are so simple anyone could see them, but it just takes time and patience. I have to remind myself of this because I often find myself wishing I were smarter so that I would see answers and solutions more quickly. The truth is that it takes patience more than anything.
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