Completing Your Final Draft OR What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
Friends,
I vividly recall hearing a Torah lecture on “the short, long road” versus “the long, long road.” When we choose the short, long road we maintain the illusion that skipping steps will help us reach our goal more quickly. Writers (and those who love you) you know this to be true! How many times have you told yourself “this is my final draft,” even though an inner voice (perhaps dressed as impeccably as Tatiana “Orphan Black” Maslany on Emmy Night) is telling you there’s still more work to do?
I write to you today as an advocate for the long, long road.
If you’re a writer in need of an editor to help you bring your draft to completion, please read my philosophy on editing:
https://jilldearman.com/services/
If you aren’t quite at the draft stage and need a coach you will find my insights in prose and video form on the same page.
As we approach the Autumnal Equinox, I am offering up a fall editing/coaching special. Please contact me at jilldearman@gmail.com to learn more. In the meantime, see if you recognize yourself in any of these four archetypes:
https://jilldearman.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Which-Type-of-Writer-Are-You_.pdf
As my old college buddies and I used to say when dealing a poker game called night baseball: “It’s a long game!”
http://www.pokerhouserules.com/stud/nball.htm
But oh, when you hit the jackpot, baby!
Bio: Jill Dearman is the author of The Great Bravura (http://bit.ly/1QgqrO3), a novel, and Bang the Keys (Penguin), a book for writers. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School, and held the position of part-time Professor of Journalism at New York University for ten years. She is an award-winning prose writer whose work has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, New York Stories, North Atlantic Review, The Portland Review, Lilith, and numerous other publications. Jill runs a successful freelance editing / coaching business. A native New Yorker, mystic-about-town, and lifelong film fanatic, she enjoys taking imaginative forays along the seedy side of the street.