I’m hung over on Nyquil
Madison and I got out the Holiday books, Playmobil Christmas set and wooden menorah. I’m decorating slowly to give the kids more time to savor. Plus I’m lazy.
Becca gave me edits on my sample chapter this morning and it’s killing me not to look at them yet. (Brett is out at a tiling workshop because he tore out the floor in our bathroom this week so this blog time, which I’ve been doing between ministering to a very snotty, very whiny 3-year old, is it.) Some of what she wrote echoes what Barbara said, too. It’s always good when people have the same problems with an essay because then you know that it really isn’t working that way.
Like I said, I haven’t looked over the edits but I have looked over the emails she sent telling me the basics of what she thinks isn’t working in the piece and it’s the same old trouble — I have a hard time focusing on the singularly important stuff. When am I going to get better at structuring?? Why do I have such a hard time stripping things down to the central text?
I’ve been thinking about this as I work on the chapter outline. I think sometimes I make things harder (more complicated) than they need to be. Sometimes details are helpful and sometimes they’re just distracting. When am I going to figure out the difference?
I often get distracted by details, too. Isn’t that common in a highly creative mind? heheh In my writing (editing) process, I sometimes have to literally cut things apart to be able to physically rearrange my ideas, out things in, take things out, and see my core ideas.
Does it help you to work visually at all? Sometimes I try to sketch out a mind-map diagram of my work, and I often find more clarity that way. Of course, I sometimes make several versions of the diagram to figure out what the heck I’m doing! I’ve even cut the mind map itself apart and rearranged THAT. Weird, I know, but hey, whatever helps.
Good luck with your edits!
I’ve never been able to make mind-mapping work for me even though I always think it SHOULD work for me because I do think kinda visually. I take a lot of notes with arrows and circles and things. My trouble is bringing too much in that I think I need to bolster to explain and then finding out that what I’ve brought it in distracting. I have a hard time trusting that less is more.