When I Came West (Part Sixteen)
Two months later I heard from OU Press again. This time Matt sounded as weary and frustrated as I felt. Before submitting the project for board approval again Chuck Rankin had wanted to read the revised manuscript.
What Chuck discovered upon rereading is that he felt the story needed to end much sooner than it did. He felt that the last two sections of the book were not as compelling as the first third and that the manuscript needed to be cut.
In other words, if I would be willing to make major cuts, but take parts of the story that were illuminated in those last chapters and re-braid them back into the earlier story then I would have a book that was shorter but more powerful. I wouldn't necessarily be rewriting, only reshuffling the thematic order of the story, an intense reorganizing of the material. Matt suggested that I call Chuck Rankin directly and discuss the possibility of a new direction for my book.
Did I want to give up? Yes. Did I want to cuss and stomp and build a fire and incinerate the story? Yes. Instead I talked out all my seething thoughts to my husband, to which he replied, "I would have told the whole crew to go to hell a long time ago. You have more patience than a saint. You need to do whatever is right for you and I will fully support your decision."
The smartest thing I ever did for my book was wait. I tabled the whole thing for a long weekend and instructed my head that it was not allowed to entertain any notion of When I Came West and I ordered my heart to stop feeling anything about that time of my life or my attempt to share that journey with the world.
I waited. I waited until I was calm and clear-eyed and ready to hear why Chuck Rankin felt my manuscript needed more revision. I called him on a sunny, beautiful day with birds singing. I sat outside on the stone steps and watched the flowers on the Rose of Sharon bush nod in the breeze. I listened with great attention. I pretended that we were not talking about my story, only the story of someone else's life.
In the end, I understood. I knew what I had to do to my manuscript in order for it to be the best book it could possibly be. I ended our conversation by telling Chuck that I would make the cuts and I would rewrite the whole manuscript.
