How Do You Eat an Elephant?

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course. Kiersten White's blog entry today reminded me of how hard we work to write and rewrite and rewrite just one book. And we do this over and over again. Kiersten asks about how we do it.

http://kierstenwrites.blogspot.com/2010/10/its-always-impossible.html

I know that writing isn't easy for me--I'm not an English major and I haven't written stories my entire life. I dream them, but write them down? Only in poetry and songs. Until now, that is.

Another way to look at this... My family and I have read our entire set of scriptures, at about 5 pages a sitting. Amazing, isn't it? One small bite at a time, we've accomplished more reading of the Holy Word than many people do in a lifetime. Now that our dear children are a little older, we read a little less and discuss a little more.

This is a good pattern for revisions. Write a little less and discuss or listen, more. I want the essence of the main character to speak through me. I want to hear the river from far off, as was discussed in Bryan Russell's blog post: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/10/narrowing-of-perceptible-world.html

I want to close in on the river, zero in on the dragonfly, and make ripples in the stream, feeling the water move gently through my fingers. I need to tune my listening ear, and send that through my fingers to the keyboard.