Dream Work Is Not Always Easy But Worth It

I was disappointed - downright upset - with the words neatly printed on the pages. I’m a better writer than that! I exclaimed internally.

It was close to midnight, there I was lying in bed editing the novel I’ve been developing. Something deep within raged and in a burst of raw energy I tossed it into the burn bin in my office. I turned on my computer and posted on a social media site the following statement, “just tossed my 61-chapters of rough draft into the burn pile and is seriously contemplating hitting the delete key on my novel. I give up…”

Never did I expect the response I received from friends and colleagues. I knew I’d get flack, but I didn’t care (at that fleeting moment). Mostly they stated, “Don’t do it.” “Don’t give up.” One of my responses to my newly formed cheerleading squad was, “Thanks guys… that’s the problem, I keep setting it down thinking by some miracle it’ll bet better or I’ll be more inspired ~ I’ve set a time to write daily and life got in the way ~ read the How I Did It & Survived books hoping for encouragement and answers as to my delay tactics. It’s been four years since I started this novel…” Only two people told me, “Good for you. Now you can move onto something else.” Sounded great at the moment until I realized that I wanted to finish this book I started writing.

I will finish writing THIS novel, dog-nab-it.

Several weeks later, after letting the internal stew simmer from a boil, I pulled the novel out of the trash. I didn’t open the draft I spent precious time writing, printing and binding. Nope. Instead it followed me from room to room and even rode with me to work a time or two. Near the closing of the month of April, with great joy, I posted on the media site the great news to my cheerleading squad, “…A few minutes ago it (my novel) looked up at me with sad, brown puppy-dog eyes. I opened my banished novel and have started to edit it again. Like a long lost love, it feels good to hold the book again.” I could hear crowd cheer.

So that was in April; it’s May 12th and a lot has changed. I’ve slashed and hacked sentences, paragraphs and rid of chapters that no longer served the book in an entertaining way. I’ve back pedaled and reconstructed the storyline to remove the sludge from the reader’s eye sight. On May 8th, I posted, “Edited chapter 5, changed 6 to 7 and 7 to 6, took a hunk from 6 and morphed into a spot in 8… Half of 9 was missing in action and had to finish a second portion so it would make some sense. 10 only needed a little trimming and 11 went on a diet and lost a page. 12 is gone and now I move onto chapter 13. Ah… what a wonderful day in my world.”

For fun, I asked the cheerleaders, “Okay, if you were sitting down in a cafe about to eat a bowl of soup, what kind would it be?...What would Sarah, your waitress, bring you?” The response was great. I love my cheerleaders. The support I’ve received from them has stirred up, boasted and raised my creative energy to new heights. Dream work isn’t always easy, but well work the effort ~ especially when you have a cheerleading squad as wonderful as mine. Thank you all.