Write Well: On the marshmallow, the editorial letter, and the long game of the writing life

Showing great care, attention, and persistence. Diligent in the long, quiet way.

From the Latin assiduus, from assidere, “to sit beside, to attend to.” The literal sense is older than the metaphorical one—an assiduous person was, originally, the person who sat beside the work and didn’t get up.

The sed-/sid- root is one of the most useful clusters for working writers, because so much of what we do involves sitting. Sedentary is the one we usually hear in a doctor’s office, but the family runs deeper. Reside is to sit back, to settle. Preside is to sit in front of, to lead from the chair. A president is the one who sits at the head. Sediment is what settles to the bottom of a glass when nothing disturbs it. To subside is to sit down, to calm. Insidious—to sit in or lie in wait—keeps the menace of the root alive.

For the writer, assiduous is the word that names the part of the job no one warns you about. The book gets written by the person who keeps sitting down at the desk. That’s it. That’s the whole secret.

She was assiduous in her revisions, working through every page her editor had marked.

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Question: How do I know when my book is ready to send out?