Beware the ides of March.
Forget the Lenten Experiment--my major penitential act has been editing a manuscript that is taking much longer than I had anticipated. I thought I'd finish it last week, but now I'm wondering if I can get it done before next Sunday. The more I edit, the grumpier I get (cf. yesterday's post). Mr Neff has been marvelously patient. Right now, he's loading the dishwasher.
(Digression: for lunch we had a salad made of finely grated cabbage dressed in olive oil, lime juice, and a little salt and sugar; each pile topped with half a baked beet, sliced, and half a sliced orange; garnished with a dollop of thick Arab yogurt and a sprinkling of pecan bits. We also each had half a chicken breast, browned and then braised with half a cabbage, coarsely chopped, and some chopped onion and garlic, a splash of orange juice, and a shake of ground ginger. For supper we had leftover black bean stew, just like last night's, with a jalapeno corn muffin given to us by a neighbor we ran into while walking our dogs this afternoon. We also had Monastrell wine left over from my lunch with Ginger on Friday.)
Well, I was thinking about why the editing was putting me in such a foul mood. Do I really hate editing? Sometimes. Am I really miserable as I slog through this manuscript? No. Why, then, am I so grumpy? I think it's the dailyness of it--the "same damn thing over and over" aspect of editing a long manuscript.
I've never been good with dailyness. I wrote two books of daily devotions for Loyola Press just to see if I could discipline myself to do it--365 reflections times two, dailyness on steroids. I thought if I passed that hurdle, my dailyness-avoidance would be solved.
Apparently not.
One foot up and one foot down, That's the way to London town.
Hey, maybe I'll quit editing and fly to London. The dollar is holding up quite well against the British pound ...
3 comments:
Well, my friend, if you think editing is dailyness, try writing a detailed commentary on a book in the Bible. There is, I'm sure you can see, absolutely no plot.
Oh, Scot, I did that several years ago. Well, maybe not detailed. But as detailed as I could bear. And it was grievous to be borne.
... and by the time you're done with it, you can't imagine why anyone would ever want to read the "damn" thing ... until readers with fresh eyes express their appreciation. Then you remember briefly.
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