eWriteLife Blog

“And the vessel that he was making from clay
was spoiled in the hand of the potter;
so he made it over; reworking it into another vessel
as it seemed good to the potter to make it.”
- Jeremiah 18:4 (The Amplified Bible)

Lyndie McCauley, author of the devotional book, DAY BY DAY wrote: “There is nothing wrong with starting again if you do not get it right the first time.”

I know she meant that as people, we need not get it right the first time in our walk and work in life. We are allowed to make mistakes, but we need not stay wrong. We can always start over. The idea seem just as apt for writing.

You see, both in life and in writing, I’ve found myself starting over many times. There was a time I didn’t like the idea of beginning again and again. After all, it is tiring and frustrating.

One story I wrote found its way back to my mailbox with a nice rejection letter from the editor. It bled with red ink, thanks to marks of proofreading. But instead of rewriting the manuscript immediately after I received it, I let it sit on my file untouched.

Like a potter who chose to live with a less-than-perfect pot of clay, I didn’t rework my story into a new form that would be worthy of publication.

A year later, my computer crashed and I needed to retype all my files that were lost during the techno-tragedy. The less-than-perfect story was one of those that needed retyping. And I did. Only I ended up rewriting. And re-submitting to the same editor from the same magazine who rejected it the first time around.

Publication and a cheque came a couple of months later.

Something good seems to always come out of tragedy. I just wish I didn’t have to wait that long. At least I know better now. And so do you.

Exercise: Rummage through your files of less-than-perfect stories, articles, or poetry. What do you think can make your piece a better fit for publication? Try and rewrite it in a form that seems totally different from what you started with.