The Ides of Revision by Laurie Calkhoven

I’m going to begin with a quote from Parker Palmer from the Center of Courage and Renewal:

There is a hard truth to be told: before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I have walked in the early spring through fields that will suck your boots off, a world so wet and woeful it makes you yearn for the return of ice. But in that muddy mess, the conditions for rebirth are being created.

That quote popped into my e-mail box one day (I get a daily gratitude e-mail) when I was in the middle of a hard revision. I couldn’t figure out how to make the story work and was thinking about abandoning the book completely. Then I realized I was in the plug ugly stage, but rebirth might be on the way. I had to be willing to walk through that field and get my boots dirty. Once I decided to revel in that muddy muck, to roll around in the messiness, I found my way out.