Enjoying the quiet

I’ve noticed that the different phases of writing have different energies.  The initial stage of the first draft the writing comes fast and furious for me.  Sections pour from my fingers as they fly over the keyboard.  I can write for hours and the time flies, the ideas flying even faster.

The writing slows down as I add the filler scenes, moments that get us from A to B and add details to the story or the characters.  I think more, keeping the whole story in mind and what my reader needs or wants to know, as well as what my characters want to reveal.  The physical process of writing is slower as I think about what goes on the page in more detail.

Now I’m in the third draft stage, where I rewrite the book a word at a time.  This stage takes a while, even when you just edit the original document, but it’s where you add details and change wordings, bringing the reader into the story instead of just telling yourself what the story was.  

This stage is meditative and I’m enjoying it, however, I am noticing some resistances coming up during this stage.  Sometimes that little voice of doubt tells me I’ll never finish, even though I’m over half done.  I wonder if anyone will ever read my book, even though I wrote it mostly for myself.  It’s not hard to push past and keep going, as I’ve learned how to tell the little voice to be quiet, but the little voice is sometimes still there in the background.

Now that both books are in this phase, my writing feels different than when both were In the frantic writing phase.  I do have a personal book in the frantic stage, but I never work on that in the morning during my “professional writing hours.”  Now my professional writing is calm and quiet, a whole new stage for me to enjoy and explore.

Writing is definitely a journey with many different types of terrain along the way.  Between what I explore on the page and what I explore inside, it’s like moving through entire new worlds, both in me and in my head.  I don’t regret taking this path for a moment.  I have found an inner serenity in my writing that I often get in meditation and martial arts, a quiet place to visit and explore.