The Next Big Thing – Revision

I drink my sinus tea, hoping for some relief from what I call a Humidity Headache. Next I try the Netti pot. Finally, I resort to taking Sumatriptan, a migraine medication that I take when the pain is too much and I’m afraid the whole day will soon be lost.

This seems to be how a lot of my choices are made. Try the easiest most pleasant route to a goal first. If that doesn’t work, try the next best thing. And if that fails too, hit the problem with something I know will be effective but comes with some nasty side effects. This might be an apt description for how my manuscript revision is going…

A week ago, I took a half of Friday off and rode my bike home from work. The weather was perfect – mid 70s, windy but not too bad. I hoped to bike off months of stress and frustration, clear my head and reenergize myself for my manuscript revision work ahead.

An awful load of expectations for a bike to carry.

I stopped at a park along the Mississippi River to eat half a sandwich that was left from a lunch meeting earlier in the week.

I made my second stop at the Coon Rapids Dam park. The wind caught me as I crossed the bridge across the dam. I had to lean to the right to keep from veering into oncoming bicyclists and foot traffic. But the wind and the mist from the dam felt good as I rode.

There were plenty of other people at the park – some fishing, others laying on blankets, walkers on the path and several other bicyclists. I stopped at the visitor center and sat down to eat yogurt that I’d mixed up with strawberries from our garden for desert.

I pulled out my notebook and pen to jot down a revision plan for my book and some thoughts on how I wanted to spend the summer. My brain went blank, unable to grasp what it is I’m trying to do lately or how to get to this elusive, invisible life I’d like to be living.

I’m tired. Just to put together this blog post felt like a monumental effort that required laying down afterwards for a nap.

I don’t know if it’s just what happens in your late fifties or if I’m not getting the right levels of vitamins and minerals or good quality sleep. Maybe it’s all the bad hormones and crap that stress can release into your body. But I’ve been stressed out before and not felt like this.

So what is the Sumatriptan in this scenario?

I have the whole week off, but that’s no magic bullet. Sometimes having lots of time to work on something is worse than being forced to grab 15 minutes here and there.

And this is a vacation… There exists an intention to relax and find the right mix of rest, inspiration, community and new creative work before I have to return to my job. I don’t want to spend all of my time at my computer.

I broke open a new notebook this morning that I bought for the purpose of working through my manuscript revision. To be honest, I’m feeling a certain level of horror at getting started. I had expected that my first readers would suggest I tighten things up — maybe remove a bit of this, add a bit of that, and they did suggest those things. But they also suggested that I reorganize the story.

Reorganize?

NOOOOooooooooo!!!

So the notebook is for me to record my thoughts and emotions, especially my fears and some rather crazy hopes surrounding this work. It is a place for me to start planning the steps ahead and recording my progress.

So I’m curious… What’s your Sumatriptan for healing yourself after a big push and preparing for the next big thing? Do you give yourself a lengthy break? Or just move right on to the next project? And if you do take a break, what do you do during that time? How do you not let the break become procrastination?