I’m currently writing a series of essays for The ADHD Homestead. They’ve provided a case in point for why I stopped numbering these series in advance.
I may have thought I knew how many posts this would turn out to be, but Post #1 has already become three posts. So that’s how that’s going.
The other day, I sat down to rewrite the conclusion to (what was then) Post #1. I really got in the zone and did what I considered my best writing yet on the piece.
Unfortunately my “conclusion” weighed in at nearly eight hundred words.
It also uncovered some new angles, as good writing sessions often do. I can’t wait to dig into these ideas! However, doing this in my conclusion is a lot like starting a deep conversation with a friend after they’ve already handed me my coat and opened the front door.
That’s what next time is for. My entire fabulous conclusion had to go. Not in the trash, mind you. These early revisions can feel like tending houseplants. Sometimes you do everyone a favor when you take a deep breath, cut off a big healthy piece, and stick it in a jar of rainwater to grow its own roots.
Which leaves me exactly where I started on Tuesday, in terms of Post #1. A place I find rather frustrating to arrive on a Thursday afternoon when I have to publish this thing next week.
I may complain, but this is actually my favorite part of the writing process. I love the cutting, the rearranging, the expanding. It’s a time of discovery and growth. Sometimes, as in this case, a piece leads me down a twisty path to the insight I never knew I needed.
I’m doing the same thing with the memoir I’m drafting now. As soon as I felt myself getting attached to the opening, to Chapter One, I knew it was coming. If my writing group has taught me anything over the years, it’s never fall in love with your opening scene. The more tender feelings you have for it, the more likely the group is going to unanimously recommend you cut it at the next meeting.
C’est la vie. I don’t know what will replace my Chapter One in that project yet. I just have a strong hunch something will. The only way to find out what is to write my way through the darkness until I stumble into it.
If you’re in the stumbling this week too, I propose a toast! And if you’re still letting your houseplants overgrow their containers because you’re afraid to cut them, take heart. Sometimes our trimmings of potential take root and grow into something lovely. Sometimes they don’t. Either way, proper pruning makes for a healthy plant.
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