Distance
People have always told me that distancing yourself from your work now and then is the best thing a creator can do. When you take a step back, you have the freedom to move outside of your work and look at it afresh with a more discerning eye when you return to it.
I tend to forget this, especially when I’ve set a writing deadline for myself to finish Draft 2 ASAP by the autumn.
But the good thing about being so busy with life is that I’ve gotten some distance from my story, so when I went back to try editing last night, it was so much clearer and easier to see all the parts that could be improved. My mind felt alive again, and my hope was renewed that I could actually do this!
To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal …
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
{UPDATED 6/26/09}
How easily I forget. ^_^