October 30, 2016

Cut

31 Days of Practicing Faith

In October, I am free writing for five minutes a day—raw and unedited—on practicing faith in the every day. Each day is based on a different prompt from 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes.

{Day 30} -Cut

This part hurts.

When I write, it’s so personal. Each time I send a piece I’ve written into the world, it’s like baring a piece of my soul. I put my heart onto the page and give others the power to damage it with their reaction to my words.

Any artist does this. Art is an extension of ourselves, it’s letting down our walls a little bit so that others can peer over into the dark and tender places inside of us. We hope people will be gentle with us but they often are not.

As I seek to grow stronger in my craft, working with a good editor always grows me the most. I work hard on a piece until I feel it is perfect and then I release it into their hands.

It comes back cut to pieces. Deletions and additions, suggestions and critiques mark up the page. I don’t recognize my own work anymore. For a moment it feels like rejection. I don’t want to let go of these words I worked so hard to pour onto the page. She’s suggesting I cut out parts that I agonized over. My heart feels a little wounded and I have to walk away from the computer for a few minutes.

I come back and look again. I realize that her words are right. I couldn’t see it clearly from my vantage point but the cuts are needed. I could have said it better with fewer words. The cursor blinks like a question. What are you going to do? Which words will get cut and which will remain?

This part hurts. Deep cuts always do. But then comes the healing. You can’t have one without the other.

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