open-heart surgery
sometimes, as a writer, you write something, revise it, tweak it, love it... and then you put it away.
sometimes, it sits on a shelf or in a drawer, just waiting.
sometimes, you take it out soon after and start working on it again right away.
sometimes, you leave it alone, let it marinate, and you go on living your life in the meantime... until something changes, or a switch flips, or a lightbulb goes on, or you suddenly have a burst of motivation and you begin another rewrite.
sometimes, that rewrite is minor. a little nip here and a tuck there, just for cosmetic purposes.
sometimes, it's a bit like open-heart surgery because major work needs to be done.
so you take what you've made, dismantle it completely and then put it back together stronger. tighter. better.
it might be a big, ugly mess when you make the first incision, and then the second, and then the third, and then you move around some vital organs, disconnect some arteries and reattach a limb or two.
and, as you go, you hope the patient not only lives when you're done, but thrives.
3 comments:
I think the prognosis is good.
It can be quite long and messy, though reattaching limbs is not usually required. You can also expect the patient to be completely drugged up and out of it for the first day afterwards, though I'm not quite sure how that part of the analogy fits.
oh, i think the grogginess analogy works... because there's often a period of post-rewrite confusion and residual messiness that sometimes requires follow-up procedures.
Love your metaphor.
Post a Comment