I like being busy, but I had hoped to have my usually lazy summer so I could finish up my middle grade novel. No such luck. It doesn't help that although I can write non-fiction any time, anywhere, and do it in a flash, when it comes to fiction, I am glacially slow. I am beginning to feel a little desperate, not only about ever finding time to do this, but also about ever finding the peace and quiet I need to concentrate.
Then I saw this little guy on my walk yesterday morning, and I remembered—in writing, speed doesn't count. What matters is that you keep adding to your story, one line, one word, even one syllable at a time.
4 comments:
Nancy, what a beautiful snail. I'm right there with you ... trying to juggle the WFH with the novel. But school is finally in session, so there is that quiet time. A season for everything, right?
This should be my motto.. a very wise saying indeed. Life gets in my way and the novel gets shoved to the wayside. I also understand that one needs a larger "brainspace" to write a novel where your imagination has to run wild and where you need to plant yourself in the situation. In my case, I imagine I am sitting by the beach, smelling everything around me. My living room turns into Max's bedroom where trees start to grow. But it's different with non-fiction. I simply put on my teacher voice and - voila! - it's written.
Vijaya, I don't think I'm as good a photographer as your son Max. I took this with my iPhone because it was all I had on me at the time. But I'm so glad you have a bit more breathing room now that he and Dagny are back in school, so you can juggle this WFH project with your novel. It's good to know that I have company in this! And you are so right—to everything, there is a season.
Susie, it's the same with me. My years as a newspaper reporter trained me to write fast, and in the midst of chaos. But I do feel that need for "headspace" when I'm working on a novel. When we write a work of fiction we are creating it out of thin air; it takes a lot of concentration and effort to keep that world spinning nonstop.
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