Editing Tip #4: Slow Progress Is Still Progress
Have you ever seen a glassblower create a beautiful ornament or an intricate sculpture? From beginning to end, the process takes hours and hours as the glassblower heats, adds color, constantly keeps the glass moving, blows, and repeats until the artist has a complete piece of work (see the process here).
Writing and publishing a book works much the same way. The process takes hours and hours (which adds up to months and months—or years!) as the author forms the idea, adds characters, writes, edits, and repeats until the author has a complete piece of work.
Glassblowing and publishing a book both take a long time from beginning to end, but if neither started their slow progress toward the end product, they never would be able to hold their artwork in their hands.
Remember that when you think that the only 10 minutes you have to spare in a day is “not enough” to edit your book. Sure, you can spend those 10 minutes dreaming of the day when you could have a few hours each day to write and edit, but then you look up and months have gone by with no progress instead of those 10 minutes a day adding up to several hours.
Action Steps
Evaluate your daily schedule and find where you can spare 10 minutes to work on writing or editing your novel.
Take advantage of those opportunities to make slow progress, which is still progress.
(P.S.: This blog post was written in the 10-15 minutes I had to spare in the morning before my day got busy. If I hadn’t seized that opportunity, this still wouldn’t be written. This method really works.)
Would you like to know to make progress editing your novel? Sign up for my FREE Novelist’s Editing E-course and get a step-by-step guide on what to edit in your novel and when.