Recently, in an online writing forum, I was able to pose the following question to two experienced editors and a marketing guru:
How can I reconcile my pace as a writer, which is fairly slow and further hampered by ill health, with people who can crank out a book in anything from one to three months (which some authors can)?
The question brought up thoughts about how we define as success as a writer.
One of the responses was this:
When you sit down to write for your allotted time, be that every day or whenever you get to write, are you happy with the writing you achieve in that session?
Ultimately it is not about how many books or articles you can write, it is whether you fully utilise the time and resource that you have available.
For some people that might result in a book every few months and for others it might take years to finish and polish a manuscript. This is irrelevant.
What really matters is whether you fulfil your pace as a writer.
I liked this response because we can only measure up against ourselves. In the last year I’ve had health challenges that have affected how much I can work, but I have still written – to the best of my output. That is all I need to worry about.
What about you?
What is your potential writing pace? (That fits within your life, your other responsibilities and circumstances.)
Do you fully utilise that writing time and space?
If not, what do you need to do in order to achieve your best writing and output?
Leave a comment, ponder this in private, or ping me an email reply. It’s good food for thought, isn’t it?
Plodding gently
Cali xx
P.S. If you found this useful, please forward this email to other writers or share the article on your favourite social media platform or within Substack Notes. Thank you!
Photo by Isaac Wendland on Unsplash
I entered the fiction writing world at a particularly feverish stage of the indie publishing boom. Everyone was producing scads of books. Some could write a book a month. I just couldn't do it, though I did try. In the end, after a few cycles of burnout, I realised that I was just not a 2-3 books a year author. I doubt I'm even a one book a year writer.
I remember one indie author admonishing me: "If you don't get on this wave right now and produce like crazy, you're going to be left behind!"
She piled on the guilt further, saying that she was a busy professional with a highly demanding job (unlike me, she implied). What excuse do I have?
I think, in the end, I have to make peace with the fact that I am not a writing machine, even if I want to be. Some of us may be, but there's absolutely no shame to write slowly while honouring your health.
Great article....I have stepped out of the UK and basing myself now in Spain for 8 weeks to do some writing and have yet to get into a fixed rhythm ...but understand its about quality and using the time I have and when I am at my most creative which seems to be in the mornings.....also learning not to critique but to just flow into it and see the time as a gift.....