The conversation between two family members went something like this:
“Well (sigh), you sold your aunt.”
“Say what? You sold your aunt?”
“No! Haha! I said, ‘You soldier on.’”
Now whenever we speak of getting past something, we talk about selling an aunt, or selling the wrong aunt, or having to sell more than one aunt, or not getting a good return on the sale of an aunt.
It’s an apt way to think about moving forward. When you sell something, you’re free of the mental responsibility of that thing. You can move on, your attention and investment in something new or different.
Bugger Beginnings and Selling Aunts
In an old book I recently discovered, ELEMENTS OF WRITING FICTION: PLOT (copyright 1988), Ansel Dibell advises against spending too much time revising beginnings: “I think more stories have collapsed from premature tinkering than from any other single cause” (p. 190, electronic version). A bit earlier: “And much of your second-guessing will be wrong” (p. 189).
When I first studied writing, that’s all I did – beginnings, over and over and over until they hung like damp dishrags and I had drowned in the sink, certain I couldn’t lifeguard a word, much less a meaningful sentence. Phyllis Whitney, in another old book, GUIDE TO FICTION WRITING, (copyright 1982) says, “Expect to do your beginning over several times. Often, when I have the rest of my novel finished, I am still rewriting the opening” (p. 55). When I had trouble beginning the third installment of a fantasy series (still unsold), I finally summarized everything that had happened. “The queen died a year ago…” blah, blah, blah. Later, when the draft was complete and cooled for six months, I discovered a place to start at the end of chapter three. Discarding the worry about where to begin allowed me write 80,000 words, a draft story I could reframe.
Just Sell That Aunt!
Especially at night, even years later, I turn my brain space to tinkering with what I’ve written. In those moments before sleep, I recraft beginnings, sentences, and dialog. But beginnings get more revision than any other part of the story. For me, selling that aunt is the only way I can soldier on!
Leave a comment on your process for letting go and moving forward or share family speak that has more than literal meaning for you. Thanks! : ) Humorous Lee
Funny! For me, “selling my aunt” means asking someone I respect to read and critique my “finished” manuscript. And, boy do I miss her and long to have her back once she is gone. Soldier on!!!
😂