{"id":6054,"date":"2015-06-29T20:18:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T01:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=6054"},"modified":"2015-06-29T20:18:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T01:18:03","slug":"in-praise-of-slow-writing-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2015\/06\/29\/in-praise-of-slow-writing-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Slow Writing (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-content\/upLoads\/snail.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6056\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-content\/upLoads\/snail.jpg\" alt=\"Snail\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-content\/upLoads\/snail.jpg 800w, http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-content\/upLoads\/snail-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2013\/09\/16\/in-praise-of-slow-writing\/\">I&#8217;m a big fan of slow writing<\/a>. I love that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pulitzer.org\/citation\/2015-Fiction\">recent Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner<\/a> (Anthony Doerr&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2014\/12\/30\/my-favorite-books-of-the-year\/\"><em>All the Light We Cannot See<\/em><\/a>) was a book that took 10 years to write. A previous winner, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pulitzer.org\/citation\/2014-Fiction\">Donna Tartt&#8217;s <em>The Goldfinch<\/em><\/a>, took a decade as well.<\/p>\n<p>(Right now, some NaNoWriMo writers are thinking, &#8220;Damn, I&#8217;m slowing down! I want a Pulitzer!&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>(In fact, if you want to watch a wonderful short video featuring Tartt talking not only about <em>The Goldfinch<\/em>, but hear her reveal what happened when she tried writing a book in one year, watch this:)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RmZ_92v9D_E\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Donna Tartt Video<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Some of my favorite points from the video:<\/p>\n<p>About the struggle of writing&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;You have to understand, that as a writer, there&#8217;s no one coming in at the end of that day saying, &#8216;Wow! That&#8217;s a great passage you just wrote.'&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When asked about how many years she has invested in the three novels she&#8217;s written:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Well, so, it&#8217;s been 30 years. They&#8217;ve been a decade each.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When asked how many books she can write in her lifetime:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I guess not many if I keep going at this devastatingly slow pace&#8230;Five would be good. I&#8217;d be happy with five.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When asked if she feels that&#8217;s prolific:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve tried to write faster, and I don&#8217;t really enjoy it. I don&#8217;t enjoy the process of doing that. I&#8217;ve tried to speed up &#8212; I thought, &#8216;Well, I&#8217;ll try to write&#8230;&#8217; I made&#8230;it was a mistake. I thought I&#8217;ll try to write a book in a year, and I just didn&#8217;t enjoy it at all. It wasn&#8217;t fun for me&#8230;No fun for the writer; no fun for the reader.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When asked about the &#8220;Good Life&#8221;:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Well&#8230;the idea is that &#8212; well, there&#8217;s several (there are many) &#8212; definitions of the good life. Is the good life to be happy oneself? Is it personal happiness? Is it making other people happy at the expense of one&#8217;s own happiness? &#8230; For me&#8230;I think the two great salvations: Love and Work&#8230;&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some odds and ends:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;What&#8217;s important for me as a writer, really, is solitude. It&#8217;s not so much reclusiveness as &#8212; as just a need to be alone when I work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Writing a book is one level deeper than reading a book. As much fun as it is to read a book, writing one is one level deeper than that.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Amen!<\/p>\n<p>Finally, when asked if writing has lived up to her hopes, dreams, and expectations:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;My wildest dreams&#8230;better, happier &#8212; yes!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong>Donna Tartt is Not Alone<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I can&#8217;t say it enough: listen to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infiniteguest.org\/tiny-sense\/\">A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infiniteguest.org\/tiny-sense\/2015\/06\/the-all-questions-edition\/\">recent episode of the podcast<\/a>, (an all-questions episode &#8212; you owe it to yourself to listen!), Jess Walter talked about how books take time. (Some background: it took Walter over 14 years to finish his most successful novel, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jesswalter.com\/beautiful_ruins__2012__117721.htm\"><em>Beautiful Ruins<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>When discussing the hardest thing to get into the heads of new writers, Walter said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I think that&#8217;s the hardest thing for any writer, and the hardest thing to explain is patience&#8230;Time is a huge part of the creative process, and we don&#8217;t want it to be. We want to be able to write a book in two days, but it takes time to rewrite&#8230;&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong>There&#8217;s No Shame in Slow<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There&#8217;s nothing wrong with writing a couple books a year. Many writers make a good living writing two or more books a year. But&#8230;many of those writers tell others that writing quickly is the key to success as a writer.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll agree that if one treats writing as a workaday pursuit, that the more is often the merrier. But the notion that one <em>must<\/em> crank away to make money writing simply isn&#8217;t true. In fact, with <em>All the Light We Cannot See<\/em>, Anthony Doerr has made more money in one book than most will make writing many books a year. Donna Tartt is not hurting, either.<\/p>\n<p>True, the odds are slimmer that your <em>one<\/em> occasional book will rise above so many others, but it happens. (And let&#8217;s be realistic: <em>most<\/em> writers don&#8217;t make a living writing fiction.)<\/p>\n<p>So if slow is your pace and success your goal, you&#8217;re still in damn good company! (I&#8217;d argue even <em>better<\/em> company than those who hurry.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a big fan of slow writing. I love that recent Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (Anthony Doerr&#8217;s All the Light We Cannot See) was a book that took 10 years to write. A previous winner, Donna Tartt&#8217;s The Goldfinch, took a decade as well. (Right now, some NaNoWriMo writers are thinking, &#8220;Damn, I&#8217;m slowing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6054"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6062,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6054\/revisions\/6062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}