Time and tide
Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 7:30PM Word count: 253 Reading time: 1 minute 
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. – Oscar Wilde
Revise and revert: I know the exercise well. It’s not usually a simple comma that gets removed. More than once I’ve spent half a day revising a scene only to realize it was better before I started to play with it. I’ve torn whole books apart and rearranged them, only to put them back together again with the slightest of changes. Now that you mention it, I am thankful for the gift of word processing.
I say half a day but I can’t be sure. Time loses meaning when I’m swept away by a story, either the telling or retelling of it. As Mary Novik explained, through her character Pegge Donne, in Conceit: It was true that, when I picked up my pen, it was sometimes hours before I counted a minute gone. Like eating a fresh buttered pike, I could not stop until my belly cried out it was glutted.
Right now I’m revising a novel. For the fourth, fifth, or maybe even the sixth time? The fact is I love the characters and they drift around me like phantoms wailing to be heard. So when I pick up the hard copy to move a comma or two, the clock stops ticking and the walls recede.
Are you lost in any projects right now? What stops time for you?
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Photo by: Kris Jacobs
Reader Comments (4)
Lucky you! I'm the opposite. I think I've spent at least an hour writing, then look at the clock and realise it's only been 20 minutes! Seriously, time always drags for me. It's only right on deadline (like about 7 hours before it) that time gallops.
I can spend an entire day writing and revising to find I accomplished just two meager sentences. Still, if they were good ones, I consider the day a success. Time doesn't drag for me if I am lost in the story.
Hi Liz
I guess the worst part of losing track of time like that is it can take me a couple of hours to write several hundred words, even for something as simple as this blog.
Maggie
Good morning Allison
Of course there are the other days, not so often, that I can stare at the screen and whatever I do seems s leaden and sluggish at best. That's why I like NaNoWriMo - it forces me past those days. I have get something down so I just do it.
What NaNo has shown me is that if I push through that barrier, the story starst to flow again and it's back to the races. Well not always. Some days it's just hard work but I hang on to the memories of the good days to keep myself moving forward.
Maggie