Thursday, July 8, 2010

Cut and Paste

In the last couple of days I have cut and paste chapters of my book so I could chop them apart, change language that I didn't like, descriptions I wasn't happy with and conversations between characters that just didn't work.

Sometimes I wish I could do that to my life. Wouldn't that be great? Oh the things I could do with that ability!

Oh my, I started my day dog-tired; I'll cut and paste a better beginning. Hey, I didn't like the way my son talked to me earlier today. Here, let me just cut and paste what I would like to hear come from his mouth. Fight with my spouse? Not even, totally backspaced. Stubbing my toe on the boys' crap left on the floor? That wouldn't even exist in my world, deleted. Long days watching my boys do what they are passionate about, Heck yeah! Dates with my husband, dancing without my feet hurting, eating whatever my hearts desires and lose weight at the same time, my bank account so flush with funds, my only worries were how to spend it, I could live with that. Added details in my manuscript of life, just make sure to show don't tell.

But would life be really worth living if I could do that? Isn't it life experiences that make me who I am? What if I never experienced failure and pain or excitement and success? Could I truly write about it? I don't live in a bubble. Bubbles burst, wobble and as much as I hate to admit it, when people look into them, they magnify and extenuate every detail about your life.

So if I went around re-writing my life, deleting and adding, cutting and pasting, working dialogue into what I wanted to hear, I would never be who I am today. And I have to say, right now, my life isn't half bad!

I can't wait to write about how amazing it was to have the perfect agent who fell madly in love with my work and sold it to the perfect publishing house for the perfect book deal. (So magnify on that my iridescent bubble and act as if!)

Now it's time to go out, write your life and be okay with the typos.

1 comment:

  1. I love this Gretch. Lately, I have been way too focused on the "typos" in my life. Thanks for the reminder to let go of them!

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