Taking time to let it run its course, I allowed the Revision Bug to consume all my free time from mid-December until now. It happily revised about 15 poems for me, finalizing perhaps 8 of them; the rest much improved. That's about a weekend per poem.
How I made time: Did not plan any daytime events on Saturdays. Did not watch TV or movies. Fought to preserve solitary Mondays. Did not read books. Hosted only once. Kept away from appealing cookbooks and magazines with tempting, complicated recipes. Did not drink wine or beer. Used software to calculate 2009 taxes. Ignored yard work, dirty car, and plants. Let go of Facebook for a while; with reluctance turned down two or three nice invitations.
The backlash: Occasional sprees, of various kinds, to release the tension. (Revising isn't resting!) Buying lunches when I could have/should have made them. Skipped about half my walks and workouts. Friends don't call because I haven't called them. Sleepy by 8:30 p.m.
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I should have read this before I decided to start a blog. I have to learn to say no to (social) things.
ReplyDeleteThis lifestyle of yours is pretty much how I've spent the last two years, working on the Plath Project. I'm a pretty bad friend lately, and I'm out of shape and not in touch with the latest of anything, but it can't be helped. Sometimes a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do...
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