Today I went on a run. I try to go for runs 3-4 times a week… for most of the summer I was working towards a 5km run, which I accomplished about two weeks ago. Since then I’ve been doing 3km runs, because honestly? 5km takes too gosh darn long.
But yesterday I realized that I had been running about 2.6km instead of a full 3km (about 2 miles, for American readers). So I had to add a few hundred meters to the run… which I did today.
Those 400m (4 football fields, more or less) added over 4 minutes to my run. Which makes no sense! I was previously running about a kilometer every 6 minutes, and by adding less than half a kilometer I added way more than 3 minutes to my time.
But psychologically, it was a big addition. It didn’t add much actual range, but in my mind, it added an entire section to the end of the run, past the point I was mentally ready to be done.
I think the edits on the novel are a little like that. Every time I sit down to see how far along I’ve come, there’s a part of me that looks at the page I’m on and psychologically goes “Argh! Not even half way yet!”, when in reality I’ve done a tonne of work (writing it! Editing it four times already!), and this is just the last little bit that I have to get through to publish the book.
Anyway, just like with the run, it’s a question of putting my head down and just getting through it. Which I will!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!