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September 18, 2008
Grantia
Neil took the list I'd written to the grocery store a bit ago. He had been gone about 20 minutes when the phone rang. "What's grantia?" he asked.
"Grantia?"
"Yeah. It's item 3 on the list. After plain yogurt."
I have no idea. I try to visualize the grocery list in my mind but I have been deep in my novel today and nothing really slides into place. "We need eggs," I add, unhelpfully, knowing "eggs" was a pretty far cry from "grantia."
Neil tries spelling the letters out to me. "G -r -a" as if that will help.
I'm tired. It's been a long day at the computer. "Honey, I really have no idea. Just get everything else."
The other end of the line is quiet. Then I hear a laugh. "Green tea!"
"That's it." I laugh, too, now remembering using the last tea bag at breakfast.
Okay, so why am I sharing this domestic moment with you? Because I'm finding revising to be a lot like deciphering a hastily written grocery list! I know I put the basics on the page: a character I care about, a problem, a bit of a mystery, conflict, humor, dialogue. But as I go back over this draft, I feel like I'm puzzling out chicken scratches on the back of an envelope. What was this thing, here on page 14, supposed to be? Is that a funny line there, on page 53, or a redundancy? And for heaven's sake, what on earth is that grantia on page 92?
This is part of the process, too. Taking those scribblings and making sense of them. That's what I've been doing all day today.
So now, I'm going to make myself a nice cup of grantia. As soon as Neil gets back from the store.
Posted by kirby at September 18, 2008 06:14 PM
Comments
My current revisions are feeling the same way, Kirby! There have been several sentences I've read the last couple of days where I've gone, "Huh?!?!?" And I can just hear my crit partners saying the same thing...and then writing it in the margins:)
Posted by: Emilie at September 19, 2008 03:15 PM