by Alissa Lukara
Okay, I have listened to one too many webinars of late about how you can write a book in a weekend. Or two weeks. Or, if you need to tackle, write and polish a book on a deep subject, you will need to take a “really long time” to write that book– 3 months, that is – “part time” of course in between your actual career and life.
Being a good writer, these proselytizers of the faith of “speed writing” insist, does not matter. Any editor, coach or ghost writer can Tidy Bowl clean it up for you.
It’s the attitude this implies. Yuck. Like writing is the necessary mess that the housekeeping staff can clean up.
What matters most, they say, is the boost a book can give to enhance your professional status. And trust us, your career needs that status bolstering.
Or, if you have good or great ideas, if you do have a life’s work you want to share, we, the reading public, need it, can and should benefit from it. And maybe we can. But do we need it now, today, must we have you share it and have your career bolstered by writing the book in two weeks.
Then, there are those in nonfiction arenas, who say you don’t need to have your own ideas. You can slam together a bunch of interviews with experts (Better yet, have them write their own interview about your subject – that way, you don’t even have to come up with questions) and wham, The Book. Brilliant. Borrow other people’s expertise to ratchet up your career.
I am not saying that we could not benefit in any of those instances from your writing a book of your own or other experts’ ideas. I am certain we would. Have. Will continue to do so.
But why does the work it took you a lifetime or multiple years to hone and develop now have to be slammed, jammed into a meaningful book in a weekend or at the most, 3 months?
Really?
Muses forbid, what if writing that book about your life’s work should actually take 6 months? A year. Two years. Gulp. 5 or 10 years. What if you could actually breathe and savor (b-o-o-o-o-o, h-i-s-s-s-s-s-s) the process of writing or working with a writing coach? Or angst through the process, but do it anyway?
What if writing is not so much about “getting it out as fast as you possibly can,” about the commerce, about the “productivity?” And that goes if you’re a writer first and foremost in your mind, or even if you are not primarily a writer, but an expert, a teacher, a coach, a speaker?
What would happen if you did “waste” precious moments of time – a lot of them – in daydreaming, in flights of imagination, in staring out your window doing nothing, but being present, waiting for the words to come, facing down the silence, letting it envelop you, opening to the muse, letting go of the reins of big time control, so the writing can write through you? What if you let the process transport and transform you, have its way with you?
What might happen is that the writing that flowed out of you might be about art and timelessness and rhythm, that it might bring forth new ideas, stories, meaning, consciousness that shine forth in those combinations of words, language, character that excite, thrill, dive deep into the heart and soul. You might experience the music of the writer’s voice, the music of written words, of their patterns, of sensory explosions and delights, of poetry. Writing this way has as much to do with transporting, transforming the reader as any ideas or thoughts about speed.
The question I have for you who have fallen for the lure of the write a book in a week or a month is what do you lose, what have you lost when you try to squeeze yourself into that tight little box of “fast writing” your life’s work, your inspired idea for a novel? When you live your writing life conjuring tricks to speed demon your way through the book.
Does it make a difference? Does good writing matter? Does it transform you not only because of “what” it says, but “how.” The latest neuroscience research says, Yes. There’s a fabulous recent article in The New York Times, “Your Brain on Fiction” by Annie Murphy Paul. (Read the full article here)
“Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters,” writes Murphy. “Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life.
“Metaphors like ‘The singer had a velvet voice’ and ‘He had leathery hands’ roused the sensory cortex, while phrases matched for meaning, like ‘The singer had a pleasing voice’ and ‘He had strong hands,’ did not,” she says. “…Reading great literature…enlarges and improves us as human beings.”
So, what if good writing does matter?
Hey, I am not saying, if you’re not a great writer, don’t write your book. Or have it ghost-written. You have no idea how many “well-known” experts’ books that transform us are ghost-written. I am not saying that if your book is competent and idea-driven that it cannot or will not still have a profound impact.
Or if you do happen to write your book in 3 months that it can’t be great. It does happen. (more on that in Part 2)
But whether you are a writer or an expert writing a book, what would happen if instead of being focused on “how fast,” you instead lived and loved yourself and your creative center by honoring the notion that a book takes as long as it takes. Each book is written in its own time.
What do you think about all this? I want to know. Please share your comments, opinions below. What do you think about the focus on writing a book fast? How long have you been working on a book? Do you care about good writing or are you most interested in the ideas you want to convey?
And….stay tuned for Part 2 of this article in my next blog post. (Oh yeah, one was not enough.)
Are you ready to write your book — no matter how long it takes? Alissa Lukara, the author of the memoir, Riding Grace: A Triumph of the Soul, supports writers to write and complete their books in her online writing workshop, Writing Books that Transform Lives. Find out about the next session that begins June 4th. Early registration ends Thursday, May 31. Meanwhile, find out how writing can change your life by registering here for the free eCourse, Complete Your Book — Transform Your Life: 7 Key Steps on the Writer’s Journey. Registering for it automatically subscribes you to Transformational Writers updates.
Bravo Alissa. Oh hail to you brave teacher. Someone had to speak out about all this speed writing lunacy. You did. You not only echoed my own feelings, but, I’m sure, hordes of others as well. Hey-you writers who want to take your time and surrender to the writing muse (however long she takes to visit). Raise up your heads and sing for joy. No longer do you all have to feel ashamed because you can’t,or don’t want to, write your book in two weeks, or three months. Rise up from feeling bad about yourself. Take all the time you need. Stop and smell the roses-and the pages.
As for the others–well it’s probable that, in the future, they’ll be writing a book each day, But by then, they won’t even be called “books”.
Bravo again.
Jonah
Thanks Jonah, for your thoughtful, thought-provoking comment. This made me smile. I love that. A book in a day. To smelling the roses…and the pages — no matter how long they take to fill. Cheers!
I have been suspicious about the “writing your book fast” movement which fits well with the American need for getting a quick fix for everything. I interviewed an author on my radio show this evening who wrote his book in 10 years. and you can tell because it is thorough, original and enlightening.
By writing a book over time, you allow the depths of the subject rise forth and reveal itself in a process of synchronicity.
Thank you so much Kate. What you say is so true. And there is a difference when an author works on a book for 10 years. Well said. I like your website by the way. And I know Leonard Laskow here in Oregon, love Ramana Maharshi’s meditation.
hear, hear! Well said and so true.
I wish every author, and author to be, would read this insight. There’s room for books that come together quickly or are formula driven. But not to the exclusion of those books that dive deeper into the process…often times the looooong, drawn out process.
My last one took 7 years. The one before that, took four. I’ve been germinating this current novel for two years already. I have learned to trust the process of when my novel is ready to written, and when it needs to gestate. And I have learned it is not MY timing.
You hit this subject spot on, Alissa. As a published writer and an editor, I know that good writing takes time, patience, and a commitment to and a dedication of the written word. We can fall so easily into the “pleasure principle” of easy fast writing that doesn’t require a lot of soul searching or down right hard work. That’s the way of most everything in the US right now, as sad as that is. Thanks for saying the truth (and the obvious to some of us).
Yes, thank you for responding with more truth, Jaelle. This topic has been building/gestating in me for a while now. We get so used to doing things fast, having results now. It becomes an expectation. And writers, creative artists suffer when they can’t meet that expectation or try to fit themselves into a fast writing box that will never fit. Or maybe it will fit for one project, one book, but then the next one requires time and breathing and soul searching space and spaciousness.
Writing does take time. True.
*smile*
It took me four YEARS to write the first four chapters of my book. (I was teaching full time as well…) One summer I decided to “just write it” without worrying about going back to edit. It took me a month to rough draft it out. I ended up throwing out the first four chapters because they no longer fit. *shrug* By rough drafting it out without allowing myself to edit, I learned so much more about the whole story and the characters than I had ever planned in the beginning.
Saying that, it took another six months+ to flesh it out and feel like it was actually beginning to be a “living, breathing” book!
I also know, I will most likely read it someday when it’s published and be editing it again! Is it ever really “perfect”?
*smile*
I love this Trish. A great example of how there is no formula for one right way to write a book and any right amount of time. Writing it out without editing, like you did, I’ve experienced, is such an effective way to get the rough draft out. And it’s so interesting that your first 4 chapters no longer fit — and you’re willing and able to let them go. You’re an inspiration to me personally. I’m finding something similar with the novel I’m working on. Making peace with tossing the first chapters I wrote many (okay eight) years ago because they no longer fit.
And yes, in your case, I’m sure when your book is published, you will be editing it again. “Perfect” seems to be an ever evolving, elusive attainment. That said, perfect or not, holding that published hard copy of your book or seeing it digitized as an ebook and holding your Kindle is a grand event. Now, when I do readings of my memoir at events, even though I loved the published book and still do, I find myself editing “in spite of myself” and in fact, have marked a copy with the “tighter” version, complete with crossed out words and phrases. I’ve surrendered to the fact that books are never done, but done enough. Thanks so much for sharing.
Glad you are writing about this Alissa. I’m a member of the write-it-slow movement. Every word counts and there is no fast formula or recipe for writing the soul of a story. From conception to birth each book gestates as long as it needs. Compare the opossum (12 days to produce 20 babies the size of honeybees) to the elephant (400-460 days to give birth to a calf weighing over 200 pounds). Both have an important place on the planet, but which one opens our hearts with their emotions and is a symbol of wisdom and intelligence?
I love it, Lori. Maybe we can start a movement, the write-it-slow tribe, like the international slow food movement, started in Italy. What a fabulous analogy of the opossum and elephant. There is a place for all of it.
Can inspiration be forced? Can one’s inner muse be made to dance? I’m all for intuitive flow and following one’s inner muse. While I wrote my first novel in 6 months guided by my inner muse, my intuition, it has taken me 4 years ongoing to expand this into the trilogy I foresaw with pieces of the puzzle falling into place here and there. For some in our writers’ group, setting blocks of time in their schedule for writing seemed to work for them. They seemed to be able to switch gears into writing mode at that time. Yet, setting a writing deadline, a competition, can put such pressure on one’s writing that it likely does not come from the heart and soul, but from the mind. There would also be a concern regarding the quality of output in that case. Well said, Alissa. Thank you for providing such a supportive environment for our inner muses to fly in their own time and space…
I love these insights and awareness into your own creative process and its allowing, Selina. In my experience, so much beauty and wisdom beyond our mind’s knowing comes from following, allowing that inner flow. And for you, the books, the story have expanded in such an organic way. Thanks for sharing this.