I was going to confess this week to something truly weird about my revision process...and now I find that someone else has been brave enough to post a picture of themselves doing the exact same thing!
Go right now and read Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast's interview with author/illustrator Tricia Tusa. And when you get to the picture of her cocooning, please don't laugh. Because I do that, too.
Well, I don't pull the covers over my head, but I do get in the bed, put a notebook and pen by my bedside table, and take a nap. I usually take a short nap (20 minutes) every day anyway, but while I've been revising, I find I've become a serial napper. I pace, write, go lie down, get up, pace, take notes, go lie down.
I'm a physical person; I know that about myself. I have to run, box, do yoga, dance, move my body in some way in order to be sane and happy. But somehow, I missed how important the simple act of lying still was to my revision process.
Revision can seem like such a whirlwind of activity. Rip out every worthless adverb in that paragraph! Move enormous blocks of text from one chapter to another! Strip away the useless veneers! Throw out the junk! Build new structural support!
Yeah, I agree. All that needs to be done. But I'm taking a nap anyway.
Serial napper! The truth is out! I think that's better than being a serial muncher . . .
ReplyDeleteThat is totally fascinating to me!!! A nap?? I haven't taken a nap (without a hangover) in 30 years. You boggle my mind - you with your spinning classes and now this!
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe.
Oh, I munch too, jama...
ReplyDeleteBarbara, no nap in 30 years? I would be a blithering, non-functioning brain-dead crazy woman. Sleep deprivation is my worst nightmare. (Pun intended.)
Oh, me too! I couldn't function without my "power nap!"
ReplyDeleteMy mother taught pre-school for 15 years and always said that you were never to old to take a nap.
ReplyDeleteI agree. While falling asleep, I think, figure it all out and wake me when you're done. Usually I will wake up with renewed ideas and one clear direction.
Thanks for kicking us nappers out from under the blankets!
I'm so glad you posted this. I just loved it that she shared her coccoon picture. I was even afraid to type that it was "quirky," 'cause...well, "quirky" gets so over-used and 'cause sometimes it's just a nice way of saying weird. But then I love me some weird anyway.
ReplyDeleteI just loved that she was so truthful about it. Not afraid to show something that some people might consider "silly."
I think it's flat-out brilliant, too, to do that. Don't we all need to cocoon ourselves from this world as often as we can?
One day when I'm not in charge of young kids, I'm going to be a serial napper, too. I seriously don't know why we don't adopt an official siesta in this country. Amy's on to something -- I often remember things in the wee hours of the morning, as in still-dark hours while I'm turning over in my sleep. They wiggle out of the cobwebbed corners of my mind while it's otherwise at rest.