First, the good news as a follow up to my last entry. Once off the medication, my blood pressure dropped quickly to the desired level (below 120/80) and my pulse rate slowed too. The headache lasted an extra day, but by Monday I was back to 100%.
Good thing I’m feeling better, because I am tearing apart and pasting back together my next novel, Return to Me (Zondervan, July 2007). I did the easy stuff first — seeking out unneeded "ly" words, resisting the urge to explain (R.U.E.), making notations on various pages where I need to add things. Next I added a prologue which was actually fun to write. The biggest change, however, has to do with chapters that contain scenes from the pasts of my two main characters. I’m reorganizing where they appear in the book. I’m hoping that what led into and out of those chapters won’t be compromised by the redistribution, but I won’t know until I finish reading through the entire book. I just hope I won’t have to move them back again. Ack!
But for all the ways my head feels like it might explode when I’m doing revisions as I add and delete, move and change things around, all the while trying to remember what I’ve added or subtracted that might require another change in chapters further on in the book, I also feel a sense of excitement, knowing that I’m making the book even better than it was, of having a chance to deepen the emotion and strengthen the characters.
The revisions will most likely take me through next week to complete. This isn’t something a writer should rush. At least not this writer.
I’m reading Liz Curtis Higgs’ wonderful little book, Embrace Grace: Welcome to the Forgiven Life. It’s a gem, a mood lifter and an encourager, just like the author herself. This book could easily be read in a matter of hours, but I am reading it slowly, in small bites, and savoring it. This morning, I came to this:
"Faith is not something you fall back on; faith is something you step into. Like venturing inside a dark room in a stranger’s house, convinced you’ll find a light switch to the left of the door. Ah, there it is."
No falling back on my faith. I’ve gotta step into it. I like that.
In the grip of His grace,
Robin
