Oh, the Irony

As I get closer to finishing the draft of the novel, as I know more and more about my characters, as I have fewer and fewer doubts about what will happen next or how the characters would respond, I find myself slowing down. I don't think it's any kind of a block or fear of failure or any other psychoanalytical bs. I think as I near the end, it feels like a good-bye. And I've been living with these characters for two years now, longer if you count the time the idea was in my head but not yet on paper. So it's hard for me to let go, even though this is just a draft and after it's finished, the real work will begin. So even though I'm months away from truly being done, it still feels like the beginning of the end, which is why I'm slowing down. I guess. Still, no matter how much I drag my feet, I should be done with the draft by the end of September. (Knock on wood. Hope I didn't just jinx myself there.) In fact, if I were writing at the rate I was earlier in the summer, I would already be finished.

I've been thinking about productivity in terms of writing, probably because I read several writing-related blogs and some of those are written by successful, published novelists. And I think that publishing one book a year, while probably optimum for sales, is not so good for the writing. I think it is very difficult to write a serious book in a year and damn-near impossible to do it year after year. Some stories are gifts. William Faulkner reportedly wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks, but that kind of thing happens once (twice, if you're lucky) in a lifetime. I think your brain needs time to recover after writing a book. And if you push yourself to produce another one too soon, you're bound to produce some derivative stuff. I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule and some people can effortlessly produce masterpieces in six months but I think those writers are rare.

And when I say "serious" I don't necessarily mean "literary." I read all kinds of fiction--genre, literary, whatever. If it's got a good story, I'll read it. When I say serious, I mean a writer's best effort, not which section the novel will find itself placed in a book store.