Celebration
What does it take to write a novel? To finish a novel? This week I spent some time flipping through through my Making It All Right notebooks--not drafts and manuscripts, but the composition books where I made notes and thought things out. I found lists of names, dead-end plot ideas, pages from calendars, timelines, chapter-by-chapter analyses, floor plans, and cartoons. There's one notebook for the first draft, and then five more for revisions--which seems about right.
Or, there were all those notebooks. I'm not writing or rewriting that novel any more; I need my creative space (literal and metaphorical) for exploring new writing.
I was on the verge of tossing it all into the recycle bin, along with several old manuscripts—with a little regret for some of the cool stuff in there—when, on impulse, I started ripping out pages. Soon I was digging through a drawer for my scissors and glue stick.
Because at the end of long creative work, it's not just about letting go of what's over. And it's not just about being satisfied with the product, though that's real too. In a couple of hours of happy collaging, I found a way to honor and celebrate the writing-rewriting process--the labor, the learning, the sheer persistence of creation. Something to keep, as the rest of it goes off to become paper for somebody else's writing process (or maybe toilet paper; that's useful too).
Here's what my notebooks became. If you haven't read the book yet, don't peer too closely--it's probably full of spoilers, but they're small. (Oh, and “MHV” was the title of the novel-in-progress, from the main characters’ initials.)
The outside, made from the cover of the first notebook
Open…
And open again.
Thanks for sharing my celebration!