I have this tendency to listen to my favorite songs over and over and over again until they’re worn out like an old pair of holey socks. So I put them away for awhile. Maybe for a week, maybe for a month, or maybe even indefinitely. If I happen to hear them on the radio by accident I cringe, and must change the station immediately. I don’t want any contact. Soon I forget about them and go about my daily life. I might find some new songs to listen to and enjoy. One day the radio will spring to life playing an old favorite. I’ll wonder, how could I not love this song? The beautiful chords, the lilting melody, the starbursts of emotions it invokes in me… It feels like a brand new song. Sometimes distance can be good.
These thoughts reminded me that these feelings are not so dissimilar to how I feel about my manuscripts during the revision process. Sometimes a manuscript I so loved in the beginning suddenly feels like the worst thing I’ve ever written. But if I put it away for awhile, get a little distance then perhaps one day I’ll be able to look again with fresh eyes as if it were shiny and new, and fall in love with it again.