Life is like a grand novel. You probably won’t fully realize whether you enjoyed it or not until the conclusion. But like that novels’ journey before it landed in your hands, you’ve experienced a plethora of edits to get where you are today.
The edits of life are part of the process. Some chapters ideally sound great, but don’t pan out on paper. Last minute plot twists are added, character development can be a bitch, the chapter you thought sounded glorious ended up needing a re-write…but re-writes are OK. I’ll repeat that for the folks in the back…REWRITES ARE OK. Nobody has a clean first draft. They’re all messy as hell BUT they’re a great measure of the progress to look back and see how far you’ve come.
At times you’ll feel like you’ve lost your mojo, then you’ll get it back, then lose it again. You’ll have moments when you want to quit because what you have now isn’t close to what you started with. These may be followed by moments when your words sound like pure silk. And vice versa.
Your story won’t always go as planned. But if I can share one piece of advice it’s this…don’t be afraid to edit. Don’t be afraid to want to edit, start to edit, and be elbow deep in the mess of an edit. And if you want to scratch it and start a new story, then that’s fine too!
Your story may not end how you expect it will, but it damn well might have had the edits you needed to get there.
You are the author of your life. Write wherever it takes you….or you take it