Hello voracious readers,
Are you a slow writer? Never mind writer, what about your day to day? This post is a little more personal than my usual essays. Ever since my indie author journey started I’ve branded myself as the Slow Writer because most of the time I feel like the tortoise in Aesop’s fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare.”
You don’t have to be a writer to know that life has drastically sped up. 
Technology has made everything faster and crazier, and it doesn’t help that I’m in my ??’s (What? Did you think I would give away my age ;))
Some days I feel like I can keep up with social media. I post, I create, I share, I hashtag, and I believe in my heart I can do this, until fatigue settles in, and I’m not having fun, but it’s not just social media. The physical act of writing has also changed.
I’m part of writer groups, and some writers are turning out books every three months. Granted, they’re more like novellas around 50 000 words, but still… My novel is only 75 000 words and it took me three years!!! I know not all authors are created equal. I read somewhere that Stephen King turns out books every four months, and George R. R. Martin every ten years, but neither of them count because they have established careers. (She says with a petty moan.)
I’m talking about the competition between the average author. Since Amazon, the little guy can be anyone from the small indie book stores, the small indie press to the small time writer, and the pressure to keep up is real.
There is no way I can produce three to four books a year. I might churn out one book a year, but I would sacrifice quality over quantity, but that’s not the only sacrifice. For the past fifteen years, I’ve been working towards becoming a successful published author. In fifteen years, the industry has drastically changed and I’ve slowly changed with it. Why?
Because I didn’t want to sacrifice my life. I’ve raised my kids, I’ve earned my MA in screenwriting, and I’ve taken family vacations. I did projects with my kid’s school and an entire life of stuff in between. My career wasn’t the only objective. It wasn’t only about work and social media. I admire this generation of young adults because they created the jobs they wanted, and that takes guts and imagination, but unfortunately many have lost something in the process.
Such as the “fast food” movement gripped the 50s, I feel the “fast life” has gripped the 2000s, and I wonder if it’s worth it. I’m not the only one to think that, check out this article in the New York post https://nypost.com/2014/01/04/societys-addiction-to-faster-living-is-destroying-us-doctor/
It outlines the repercussions of living life in the fast lane.
I want to start the slow life movement, not sure exactly what that will look like, maybe lazy strolls in a park. Does anybody remember what it was like to be bored? I remember my mom used to sit on the front porch in the summer evenings while I played outside. Nobody does that anymore. We rush from one thing to the next and time slips away like a lover in the night. Okay, that sounds way more exciting than it should.
The worse part is the guilt of not being able to keep up, of not being where I want to be, and it’s soul sucking, but then I watch my family and I don’t know what I could have done differently.
I don’t have the answers, and to constantly be ON is exhausting. There’s no doubt, there’s an Eat, Pray, Love thing happening here. It’s odd because I wrote a collection of short stories and it’s only now I realize they were about this? You can check them out here on bookfunnel.
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ddcx5i0c41
As I was scrolling for cute tortoise pictures, I found this one gliding in the water. Maybe it’s about finding the right rhythm for you in the right environment, and that’s has to be enough.
Anybody else struggling with this fast-paced life? Let me know in the comments how you deal with this in your daily lives? I’d love to know your tips and tricks.
Meanwhile, I think I’ll go eat pizza. 😉