Paying for School

My ongoing adventures in life and the pursuit of more...

Monday, November 21, 2011

Editing OR The Death of Ideas

I'm in editing mode.  After discovering that my 8 page (max) paper was really 17 pages once I applied double spacing I've been killing some perfectly good ideas.  I'm cutting paragraphs like bit players in some Hollywood blockbuster are left on the cutting room floor.  I'm watching words that I've picked out of thin air, crafted and put on the screen behind that damn, flickering line that keeps imploring me to add more, fall to the floor.  I pause for a second to think and that line sits there, throbbing, pushing me to come up with a word it's never revealed on the white screen before.

And I slowly become aware that I'm losing it...

17 pages are down to 8 now.  Plus title page.  Plus bibliography (please God, don't let him count the bibliography...).  And words cover the floor, some whole phrases, some paragraphs - there's even one whole page that sitting under my thinking chair, dejected and plotting - i fear - to give me a paper cut.

I have so much to learn.

p.s. Much thanks to the generous contributors to Educating Brian!  Money received by paypal, gifts sent to SSU, offerings at church - I am grateful and I am humbled.  This dream is coming true one dollar at a time!


4 comments:

  1. I always tell myself that it is better when I've cut so much. I seldom believe it.

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  2. ah, the words we use to comfort ourselves...

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  3. I hear ya. I leave out entire concepts in my papers. Its kinda depressing, and you know if you receive a bad grade on it you'll immediately be like "Ya but, I had so much more to say!" Frustrating.

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  4. Every half decent writer learns, at some point, it is imperative to "kill those babies..."

    Reading aloud works, too... :-)

    The most important lesson I learned in my first year of J-school was this phrase:

    "Economy of words"

    Duh...

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