It Takes as Long as It Takes
I just finished reading Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. It's about how (brace yourself), if we live to be 80, we get only 4,000 weeks of life. Cheery, right?Â
The point of the book is not that we should, therefore, be working more and striving more and managing our calendars more, but, in fact, we should be doing the opposite. The sooner we realize that we'll never actually get everything done, the sooner we can enjoy the life we have right now, today.
There's a lot to chew on in this book, so I'll focus on one quick bit so you can get back to watching holiday movies. It's this: things take as long as they take. When you read a book, it takes as long to read it as, well, it takes you to read it. It might be a fast read or a slow read, but if you're going to read it, it's going to take some time. Similarly, and important for our purposes: it takes as long to write a book as it takes to write it.Â
This September, when I moved into my writing shed and my kids were all in school, I felt like I had to catch up on all my projects and get them written as quickly as possible. My first goal was to revise a middle grade, and I was hoping to get it finished by the end of the year. It took me weeks to reread the old version. Well, ok, that was fine, so I was a little slow getting back into the swing of having my days free. Plus I was writing some (possibly procastinatory) picture books too. Then I started my usual revision hack, which is to read (or reread) a writing craft book and apply it to the novel I'm working on. Except it wasn't working. I worried something was wrong with me. Or wrong with the book. Maybe I'd forgotten how writing works? Maybe this book was not actually salvageable? I finally finished reading the craft book in November, and then picked up the book that helped me revise a middle grade this spring, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors by Alexandra Sokoloff. And you know what? It wasn't me or my book that was the problem, the issue was that the first craft book I chose didn't apply to my project (for the record, it was Into the Woods, and I'm sure it's a fine book, it just didn't work for me).Â
And so now this week, I am finally at my computer, logging my deep work time, and rewriting this book. I won't get it done by December 31. But...who cares? That's fine. Publishing is slow at the best of times, and this year it has been a sloth in molasses. I can take my time. I mean, come on, I wrote the first draft of this book in 2013. Six more months or one more year or four more years until I get it to a good place aren't going to make any difference. I'm going to keep moving forward, yes, but I'm going to enjoy it. And if I have to take a break from writing to watch a movie about how authors can definitely buy Scottish castles, then that's fine too.
Ok, one more tidbit from Four Thousand Weeks I can't stop thinking about: the etymology of the word "decide" is from the Latin "to cut off." That "-cide" is the same root as in homicide. When you decide to do something, you are cutting off other possibilities. Like, if you decide to buy a house on Maple Lane, you are (for now, at least) cutting off the possibility of living in an apartment on 17th Street. If you decide to work on one book, you are not, right now, working on the other book. So go all in. Don't distract yourself from the fact that writing a book is, you know, really hard, by surrounding yourself with half-finished first drafts. Pick one and finish it. And give it the time it takes to get it done.
Happy holidays and happy new year, everyone! Thanks for being here with me.
Thoughts and Links
George Saunders has a new Substack newsletter called Story Club! You may remember that I was completely inspired by his latest book to start reading short stories more deeply and free-write them into picture books. So far I am loving his newsletter, and look forward to using it for writing inspiration. It does cost money, fyi.Â
Last month I had foot surgery to fix my bunion. Ugh. I know. Feet! They're weird! So I won't say much about it. I'm really glad I did it. My foot hurts way less than it did before I had the surgery, and my bone is still healing (ugh, ugh, I know, sorry). I'm happy to talk about it if you also have a bunion and are wondering about surgery. Or you can click here to see the x-ray of the before and after of my foot.
I recently watched the show Hacks and I loved it so much. I recommend it if you're interested in funny women writers working so hard to be seen for who they are.
I got the F&G (folded and gathered --Â advance --Â copy) of my 2022 picture book with my friend Ruth Chan, Rick the Rock of 214. This book might be my favorite of all my picture books so far. And the cover! Wait until you see it. Wait until you feel it. It's the fanciest cover of any of my books. (Note that the cover on my website is a fake placeholder cover -- the real cover is awesome.)
I'm still thinking about this tweet thread from Wendy MacNaughton.
I got my COVID vaccine booster yesterday, and I had been led to believe I would be sleepy and flu-ish afterwards, and had planned on watching that Brooke Shields Christmas Castle movie I linked to above, but so far I feel completely fine (except for a sore arm) and so instead I'm sending you this newsletter (and writing a chapter) (and then maybe watching the movie). Get vaxxed and boostered, please!
