Sunday, April 18, 2010

Organized Chaos

This weekend all of the churches in our community got together and had a food drive for the local food bank. Each church was in charge of a different communities to pick up the food, which was then delivered to our church to be sorted and boxed up for future consumption.

We had a group of people unloading the vehicles, another group emptied the bags and sorted the food, while others distributed the specific food to other tables to be boxed.

I helped out with the sorting table. At times there were bags and bags piled up and when we dumped out the food, the table was full of a mixture of soups, stew, vegetables, and beans (lots of people gave away beans). Slowly we'd designate one part of the table for soup, one for beans etc. Soon the pile of food that had looked so overwhelming was carted away to the appropriate tables, leaving room for more food.

We have to look at editing that way. If I look at the whole book all at once, I get weighed down with the daunting task, but if I take it chapter by chapter and scene by scene, slowly the words get distributed to their appropriate sentences and I start to make sense of it all. So that's my job this week, take it one chapter at a time. Don't look at the next one until I'm satisfied with the previous. Hopefully I can make some progress.

Side note: We collected 18,000 pounds of food and it was great to see all of the churches working together for a common goal. Very uplifting.

11 comments:

Candyland said...

That's the way to do it. One thing at a time:)

Unknown said...

That's amazing!! What an awesome community you have!! I agree with you from the editing stand point and I have to say that I just realized this just the other day, when I look at it as a whole I become so overwhelmed I can't even think about it! That's were my writers/revisions block comes into play!!!

Great post!!

patti said...

Very, very cool. Praise God for a win-win situation!
Patti

Anonymous said...

I'm doing this with my revisions right now and even my chapter feels daunting! Although I'm trudging through it and hoping for the best.

Congratulations on the excellent food drive! You're a kind and generous soul.

Anne Gallagher said...

Good for you and 18k. That's really great. I also like the fact that everyone gave away beans.

Editing, ah, the bane of my existance. Like you though, I find it much easier one scene at a time.

Nice post, thanks for sharing.

Heidi Willis said...

That's awesome! What a great community activity, and what a great analogy.

I don't always revise a chapter at a time, but I do revise one issue at a time. Otherwise, it is too big.

I hope the revisions are going well!

Kasie West said...

Awesome comparison. Sometimes I'll even look at edits a layer at a time. Like, this round I'm going to make sure X isn't talking too much for his quiet nature. Or something like that. Anyway, you're right that trying to look at a book as a whole is way too overwhelming.

Unknown said...

That is so neat! Both the giving and the lesson learned from it. What a productive weekend!

Julie Dao said...

GREAT mindset. Take it slowly and climb one mountain at a time :)

lisa and laura said...

You have such a gift for finding writing lessons in your day-to-day life. I love it.

Terri Tiffany said...

I'm doing that same thing right now.Taking one chapter at a time and treating it the way I might a short story:) Enjoy!