Thursday, July 06, 2006

Seems Worse Than It Is

I'm definitely one of those people who thinks things are going to be worse than they are. Maybe it's the cynic in me - or the realist - depends on who ask.

Case and point - last week I started the new job while still trying to finish up parts of the old one. Essentially, it was a good 100+ hour work/week. In addition to that, I had marketing stuff due for a mailout for Rumble and had to design and print 700 flyers. Well, with all that to do and stress over, I figured there was no way I could work on my proposal - and the 4 billion editorial comments from my agent that will make the work absolutely perfect when dealt with.

Soooooooo, I didn't get any proposal work done last week and with the fourth falling in the middle of the week, half of this week was gone before I got down to business. Well, by that time, the proposal editing had become in my mind a fate worse than root canal. I imagined sweating and tears and head banging (perhaps even heavy drinking).

Until I sat down yesterday and actually started working on it.

The mind is an incredible thing. When I rolled over some of her comments in my mind before yesterday, I was like "what the hell am I going to do about that?" But when I sat down with the document in front of me, the writer part of my mind said "okay, let's get to it." And by God, we did.

So revisions are going better than I ever expected, but then I always expect death. I keep trying to remind myself that I feel this way every time and every time it is so much easier than I thought it would be.

So I think I'm going to print out those words and tape them to my desk "It's Never As Bad As It Seems"

What about you - guilty of this?

3 comments:

Colleen Gleason said...

Good going, Jana! I often have a similar reaction to revisions--they seem so far-reaching sometimes, so "big"...but when I actually start to dissect them and pull it apart, a lot of times, it's the simple addition of a sentence or tweaking of a word that nails it.

Glad you're back in the swing. I'd love to read it again if you want when you're done with the revisions.

Jana DeLeon said...

Hi Colleen! And yes, I'd definitely love for you to take another look. It is so different but so the same - I'm sure another writer will understand that ridiculous statement. :)

Jana DeLeon said...

Hi Wendy - passion, huh? I guess I never thought about it that way. Maybe you're right! lubs ya too!

 
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