Deep below the ground in Seattle, WA the biggest digging machine the world has ever seen lies motionless. Big Bertha. Big Bertha was supposed to dig a new tunnel to replace a stretch of freeway called the Alaskan Way Viaduct in downtown Seattle. Now two years behind schedule and 30 million dollars over-budget, she is broken and unable to finish the job in her current state. As I type this, workers are rescuing this mammoth machine from the earth. Many would call Big Bertha a failure. I say she's in the middle of a process.
I, too, am in the middle of a process. Friends remind me that Dr. Seuss was rejected 26 times before his first book was published. Or that Einstein was considered mentally handicapped because he didn't speak until the age of 5. Or that Thomas Edison famously said, "I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that do not work." Process, my friend.
If any of these people, and many more, had not finished the process the world would be quite different today. Can you imagine learning to read without Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop and nonsensical There's a Wocket in my Pocket? I can't. Or what science would be without Einstein's Law of Relativity. Trust me, it's awesome. And will give you lots of headaches in high school physics classes. And lastly, do I even need to mention what the world would be like without electricity? Forget not having internet or wifi and that means no Instagram and Facebook--what if you had to cook over a fire? Or chop wood to stay warm at night? Process made all of these wonderful things happen. And more. But you can look them up on Google... thanks to another list of people who suffered through the process to make it possible!
I will be the first one to admit I sometimes HATE going through the process. Ah! Why can't I be done already? Why can't this story be finished? It's giving me a headache! And, worse, I feel like a failure because I haven't gotten "it" right yet... sometimes after many, many, MANY tries. Failure? No, it's part of the process.
Sometimes, though, going through the process is incredible, amazing, and beautiful. I find myself in a spot I never would have imagined a hundred steps ago. I am struck by the fact that had I not written that gobblydegook months ago and had I not been rejected and told what was wrong and had I not trusted those people who gave me the feedback and had I not WORKED... HARD... I would not have written those five words or that scene that just made everything in the world make sense! At least for a moment. Then, like a rubberband snapping, everything goes back to being confusing and trouble and a problem... Process.
So, guys, when your teacher asks you to do a brainstorming list, or a web, or a story map, or any other form of prewriting... maybe the dreaded outline??? Try not to hate it. Or when you are asked to revise for sentence fluency or grammar or punctuation... Think... this is part of the process. This draft, while it will never be read by my audience, is valuable and will help me get to the place I want to be... the LIGHT BULB! Where everything comes together and makes sense and there is that AHA moment.
Revise, revise, revise. That is my new process. And I hope it can be yours, too!
Happy writing,
Rachel
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