How Long it Really Takes

One of the major concerns I have heard from writers over the year is the complaint about how long their writing takes. People will designate themselves “slow writers” and lament their progress to date. If you’ve been around my newsletter awhile, you’ll know that I say: there is no such thing as a slow writer.

I chafe at the answer “it takes however long it takes” because it doesn’t quite help the anxiety of a writer. Instead, I offer that we write at the pace demanded by the project. Since many of you are academic writers, the pace demanded is deliberate. Academic writers need to strike a balance between the research, the reading, and the writing. As many of you already know, that balance is delicate. Even in other genres, writers can romanticize how long a book takes, suggesting for instance that the longer gestation period is a marker of quality, or that the shorter gestation period is a marker of brilliance. These writers also carry their fair share of superstitions as well. More than one person has suggested putting a poetry collection or an academic book in a drawer (literally and figuratively) for six months. Then, they claim, you’ll be able to tell whether it is worth publishing.

Let us discuss the practicality of why certain projects will take longer. The answer is “life.” If your life includes partners, friends, children, organizations, teaching, volunteer work, chronic illness and/or upheavals like moving, grief, new illness, or new relationships, then your time is cordoned off from writing. When I was scheduling my life during the onset of a new illness, I would begin each week with grand plans to write or move projects forward. I would then be waylaid by conversations with doctors, in line at the pharmacy, waiting in doctors’ or technicians’ or phlebotomists’ offices, or stalled by my body’s limitations. Sometimes the interference in the schedule was enough for me to say Screw it and not write or read at all.

There’s no shame in not writing when the physical schedule is too full. There’s no shame in not writing when the emotional schedule is too full. There is no shame in not writing. Period.

As some of you may know, I am currently at work on a creative non-fiction manuscript. It is shaping up to be a collection of interconnected essays. I found myself writing about a particularly difficult issue. I wrote what I knew, then I went to the library and found some books on the subject. I scootered to my house with about a dozen books. These will take time to read. That essay will require the time it takes to read those books, digest that information (given the topic), and synthesize my thoughts. That essay will also require a heavy, artful edit.

At first, this caused me some anxiety. OK. OK, panic. How was I to write while I was doing all this reading? How do I schedule the reading so it does not interfere with the other writing? Am I reading too much? When do I stop reading? How do I know when it is time to start editing? How do I know what to include from what I’ve read? Is this a question of academic writing versus creative non-fiction writing? Who am I going to get to read this manuscript? Shouldn’t I know more? What the hell am I doing writing this book?

Here’s the thing: I can only answer the first two questions. I write while I am reading by focusing my writing time on another part of the book. I schedule the reading just before a scheduled mental break (like lunch) so that I can breathe after reading about difficult subject matter and I read at least a chapter a day. This way, the book continues to be drafted while I am also learning information that may be incorporated into the draft. For the other questions, I can only play those by ear. Certainly, the last questions are the result of a wildly panicking brain and do not constitute some sort of insight.

This is my big advice: deal with the practical concerns first. Your schedule. Your obligations (and what to discard or lessen). The needs of the project. Keep being consistent.

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