In recent months, I’ve lost some weight. This isn’t something I ever planned to write about on this blog, but lately it’s been on my mind whenever I sit down at my writing desk. Just as so many writers have found that running complements the writing process, losing weight also has parallels to the writing life.
Take my interaction last week with an acquaintance who complimented my weight loss. I thanked her, but then I added that the hard part would be maintaining my progress. When I said this, she gave me a confused look.
“No,” she told me, “you’ve already done the hard part!”
While I appreciate this woman’s support and kind words, I couldn’t disagree with her more. How many people have lost weight only to eventually gain it back? I spent months sweating in the gym and paying attention to what I eat, but that doesn’t end now that the scale reflects a smaller number. I have to continue these new habits for the long haul to ensure I don’t end up back where I started.
During those months I worked to lose weight, I was also revising my novel. (And revising. And revising.) I couldn’t help but connect the two efforts. Before long, I came to see that believing the hard part of weight loss is over as soon as you fit into that smaller size is akin to believing the bulk of the work is over after finishing the first draft of a novel.
Trust me, I know writing that first draft is difficult. Sometimes it seems impossible. It’s a huge accomplishment to finish a full draft, and reaching the end is a cause for celebration. But the first draft is merely a first step. So much more comes after it—seeking beta reads, restructuring, adjusting the plot and pacing, slashing out characters or adding new ones, rewriting scenes or entire chapters, and more.
Not all writers will agree with me here, but I think the first draft is comparatively easy—it can be freeing, a time to explore and play on the page. Once revision starts, however, things get more serious. Now is the time to make the manuscript shine, to make sure all the strong parts stick. I can’t tell you how much more time I’ve spent revising my novel than I did writing the first draft. And aside from an agent, editor, or the writer herself deeming the work “ready,” there’s no objective finish line with revision.
Similarly, weight loss is a process, and one that doesn’t necessarily come with a concrete end point. Like revision, the process isn’t perfect. I make mistakes, and take small steps back, and worry I’m not doing enough. Through it all, I understand there’s no magical point in the future where I can declare my work complete.
Maybe “the hard part” isn’t a part at all but the whole of it. There are no shortcuts, not in revision and not in getting into better shape. And so I keep showing up, time and time again, to put in the work. The hard part.