The Editing Process

 Are you a work in progress?

I certainly am. The older I get, the more aware I am of various typos in my life.

Life typos, if you like. I intend to unite, and instead I untie.

This is great if you like an anagram, or even an atomic typo (where the wrong word is still a real word, and therefore unlikely to be noticed by a spellchecker). It is not so great if you are aiming at perfection. My fumbled good life intentions have led to many errors over the years.

Some life typos are spontaneous and true mistakes.

Some are habitual; the result of muscle memory and repetition. I may or may not notice these.

Some might be the consequence of tiredness or sloppiness.

They are in my thought life and actions and words. When I do notice life typos, they distract me and I get annoyed by their mere presence. I get angry at my temper. Edgy with my impatience. On good days, amused at the irony as well.

The problem is how I perceive my imperfections.

Like many recovering perfectionists, I expect more of myself than I can deliver. Like many writers too, I expect my manuscripts to be as perfect as they can be…

…despite spontaneous writing mistakes, like missng letters…

…despite words which get through my spelling filter (Pharaoh/Pharoah is one of my habitual blindspots)…

…despite those days when I am tired or sloppy.

A WIP is not expected to be perfect at first submission. That’s why we need editors.

And we are works in progress too. You and me. We’re not finished yet. There is no ‘first draft’ in life – what we do now matters and mistakes have consequences – but there is always grace to grow and in time we can tackle our life typos.

There is a super verse in Hebrews 12:2, which talks of Jesus being the ‘author and perfecter’ of our faith. Jesus writes truth and love and joy into our lives as we strive to be like him. The Greek for ‘perfecter’ is τελειωτής (teleiōtēs), or ‘finisher’. He is our great editor. He alone can make us perfect and finish the job, spotting typos we don’t see, suggesting alternative plotlines, finishing the work to the standard required.

He can even take the loose pages, words and letters and reorder our life’s work into something far more beautiful than we had realised. He even takes our errors and edits them.

Where we think we are unraveling, he shows us all about revaluing.

(Another atomic typo? Anagram? Deliberate error?)

 

Lucy Robinson’s book, ‘Telling the Big Story’ will be out with Kevin Mayhew later this year. It is currently in the editing process. Lucy is a part-time biblical tutor for Spurgeon’s College. She is also currently in the editing process.
Image from Pixabay.