All nicely sewn up? by Jane Walters

For the past few months, I’ve been offering a set of guides to editing – which quickly morphed into an extended grammar lesson. I hope it was useful to some of you! 

Whilst editing is something we can do at any stage of the writing process – perhaps reviewing what we last wrote before embarking on the next part – it’s usually associated with the end. It seems an appropriate theme for this point in the year.

It was a momentous day when production of Australian soap Sons and Daughters stopped in March 1987. Knowing the demise was in sight, the scriptwriters made sure that everyone’s plot-line was tidily (and non-sensically) resolved so that the remaining half-dozen viewers could rest easy, knowing their heroes would be living happily ever after, albeit in obscurity. 

It’s what I find myself attempting to do this December. My whiteboard, ever reminding me of my impending deadlines, is still sporting way-too-much black writing. (I managed to rub two off last week, only to replace them almost immediately with a different two…) There’s something about the milestone of 31 December that feels like everything should, as my title agrees, be nicely sewn up.

That novel – finished, obviously.

That editing project – completed to the client’s satisfaction.

That short video script – in the bag. Soon.

Those accounts – signed off.

Oh, and the decorating done.

And all so that I can start 2025 with a clean sheet: that newly-started, not-quite-signed manuscript; those dreams for ACW that can become plans. 

But life is never quite that neat, is it?

Is that why some of us are fiction writers, so we can pretend we have some control over someone’s life, if not our own? And, if that’s so, do we choose to close every plot-loop and resolve every situation? Dare we leave anything just hanging?

Despite my own best efforts, I won’t have everything done by 31 December. I know what I’m trying to do here: protect my mental health as well as my physical well-being. My mind works like a computer that’s got too many windows and tabs open. I really need to press the little red X in the corner, for everyone’s sake!

But then I pause. Take a breath. Remind myself of all those times this year when God has promised to lift the burden and urged me not to strive. After all, He’s not finished with me – or any of us – yet. Let’s let that be good enough.

Jane Walters is Chair of ACW and leader of Green Pastures Christian Writers.

Her next Ready Writers' Retreat is being held in February 2025. For details, contact her: chair@christianwriters.co.uk