Tool: Writing Takes Time
Writers have a far different relationship with their books than readers do, starting with the disparity in the time it takes to write a book and the time it takes to read that same book.
I’ve been thinking a lot about a throwaway line of Sharon Lee’s in her blog a few weeks ago.
"Re: being tired of a book in progress: Writing a book is an enormous undertaking; a stupidly complex project that takes way too long (NOTE: I do not speak here for the people who write 58 books a year and laugh while they do it. I am not them.). As with any other large, complex project, like, say, building a boat, there are times in the process when you just wanna throw your hammer out the window and walk away. Not because you think what you’re building is useless or dreadful (though there are those moments, too), but just because it’s taking So. Damned. Long.
As I’m currently working on revisions this hit me pretty hard. Sharon has been writing for decades. She’s working on book 30 in a series that she’s been writing since the 80’s. And she still thinks the process takes too long. In the next paragraph she says:
“Writers have a far different relationship with their books than readers do, starting with the disparity in the time it takes to write a book and the time it takes to read that same book” - Sharon Lee (blog post 1/12/25)
This is one of those thoughts that is blindingly obvious once you read it. Of course as authors we have a much different relationship with a text than a reader does. For one, the vast majority of readers will only ever read a text once, or maybe twice. I read even the shortest work I’ve produced dozens of times. And maybe still I’m not doing enough passes of revision. When I’m honest with myself, I think I am learning new things to improve at the same rate I’m improving so it just feels like I’m standing still. But it still feels like I’m getting nowhere.
Two, as Sharon points out, writing a book takes orders of magnitude longer than reading a book. And revising a manuscript into a book someone else can read and enjoy takes orders of magnitude of time above writing it. As newer writers, we enter the world of writing through reading. Which means our concept of how long it should take is skewed from the get-go. Especially when you can see the book you want to write in your head right there, waiting to come out. I think we subconsciously expect that experience to be similar to reading, and when it's not our inner reader gets grouchy, irritable, and throws a tantrum. Why is it taking so long?
I’m not sure I’ve got a fix for this yet. But I know that identifying a problem is the first step to solving it. Maybe the answer is time and experience. Maybe the answer is giving your inner reader something else to work on. Maybe the answer is that there is no anser and that writing just takes longer than it feels like it should, no matter if you're working on your first book or your 50th.
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Image credit: via library of congress. 8 o'clock breakfast coffee. The great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. , 1877. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003666820/.
