[winner] Guest Post: Not So Fast

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I think it’s safe to assume we’ve all heard about not comparing ourselves to other writers. And for the most part, I think I do an okay job. Oh, sometimes, the envy bug bites and I think, If only I could write something that amazing. But I shake it off with reminders that just like I can't tell that author’s story, the same is true for me—no one can tell mine.

What I want to talk about today though, is comparing not the story, but the speed. When I hear of writers hammering out a draft in a month, I want to pull out my hair. Or maybe pull out their hair. Yes, I know, that’s low of me. ‘Cuz the fact of the matter is that I am a slow writer. I am the tortoise in this race. Except…is it really a race?

Sometimes I feel like it is. I have tons of story ideas rattling around in my brain. They all want to be told, all want their time in the lime-light of my computer screen. But here’s the thing: It takes me a year to get one story out. And that’s completely written and only so-so revised.

I don’t want to be sixty and writing a story that I conceived when I was twenty-five. And despite the urgency of telling myself this, I can't make my brain compute the words any faster. Oh, I can get better at time management skills (I can, I can!) but any attempts to dash words onto the page for the sake of speed just results in a steamy pile of word blubber that needs extensive revision time. Trust me, folks, it’s not pretty. Nor readable.

I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that it's okay if I'm a tortoise and not a hare. This is my style, the way I write. I need time to find the right combination of words to show that snarky interaction between characters, yet with an undercurrent of attraction. To find the best words to describe the belly-flipping fear of being thousands of feet in the air with the hard, hungry ground waiting below (pretty sure when I get done writing my aerial acrobatic novel, I'm going to be terrified of heights).

All this isn’t to say that I don’t want to become better at writing more quickly. I do. My goal is to eventually work that year down to six months with practice and determination. Because even if the tortoise isn’t quick, it never stops moving forward. It gets there, friends, and that's what is important.

Leandra Wallace is an IN girl w/a love for vanilla in her pop, old buildings, ampersands, and sparkly things. She can be found blogging weekly at www.leandrajwallace.blogspot.com and on Twitter @leandrajwallace.
Twitter-sized bites:

.@leandrajwallace talks coming to terms with her writing speed on @Ava_Jae's blog. What do you think? (Click to tweet)

Just how important is writing quickly? @leandrajwallace discusses coming to terms w/ her process on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

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