D is for Delete by Sharon Heagy

        Delete, delete, delete. What a wonderful thing it would be to have a personal delete button. We would be able to erase careless words we’ve uttered that cut like a knife instead of providing comfort. Moments of embarrassment could be swept away with a few backspaces. Tragic times would disappear with the click of a button. Trauma would cease to exist. Hmmm…. sounds a bit like heaven. But here on earth our trials and mistakes are what mould our character as human beings and grow us as children of God. They help us to empathize and sympathize with others so that we can encourage and uplift with kind words and a heart gentled and smoothed by the sandpaper events of life. They guide us to His wisdom, love, grace and mercy and to the knowledge that without Him, we can do nothing.

        Nevertheless, the delete button is a practical and necessary tool for a writer. We click and clack on keyboards filling page after page as fast as our minds can imagine. No need to turn back and have a look. Words pour out of our soul in poetry or prose. Words full of life experience and worship. Words to woo, words to create suspense, words to instruct. Words of truth. Then the flow stops and we take a breath. We shake our heads to remove us from ‘the zone’ and bring us back to reality. We read and re-read what we have written and with that one beautiful button we can create a concise and almost lyrical piece. With the delete button words and sentences are hacked away like a machete slicing through the underbrush, ruthless yet with purpose.  Then we prayerfully consider what we have created and ask God to take away more dross, and the piece becomes even more polished. It is at this point that we may give our creation to someone we trust, who will constructively and prayerfully help us to find any mistakes and excess we may have missed. Then, when all is said and done, when we believe we have done our best, we surrender it to the Lord to be used for His purposes. (Though in truth surrender is also where we begin.)

            The editing process is one of my favourite parts of writing. Finding just the right word here or turn of phrase there makes my heart sing. It doesn’t always turn out as perfectly as I would like, due to my tendency to procrastinate but mostly because I am not perfect. It’s a process and one in which I am always learning.

            Philip Yancey has often shared a quotation about the writing life from Philip Roth, in Zuckerman Bound, 

 

“I turn sentences around.  That’s my life. I write a sentence and I turn it around.  Then I look at it and I turn it around again.  Then I have lunch.  Then I come back in and write another sentence.  Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around.  Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around.  Then I lie down on my sofa and think.  Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning.”

            

This is one of my favourite quotations about writing and my apologies because I believe I have shared it before. But it suits the use of delete.  Delete has always been an important and integral part of the writing life, even before the advent of computers or typewriters when a good swift stroke of a fine pen could put a satisfying swoosh through any unnecessary material. 

            May you never fear the delete button and its ability to wipe away the words you have so lovingly crafted. May God show us how to prune our work so that it will be more fruitful and meaningful, just as He does with us. (John 15) May God bless your day.

 

p.s. Would you be willing to share your favourite quotation about writing?