Taking your time (but not too much)

Many years ago, sometime after dinosaurs but before Justin Bieber, writers worked in isolation. They came up with an idea, plotted the book and wrote it – maybe in mere months, maybe over several years. Then, in happy ignorance of what any other writers in the world might be doing, they sent it off for consideration.

With the arrival of the interweb, however, all that changed. Being online brought many advantages for the would-be writer – a wealth of information and advice, a greater degree of access to publishers and agents, a hitherto absent sense of community. But it also brought one serious disadvantage: the newly connected writer could compare him/herself to other people.

I'm sure you know how it goes; most of us have been guilty of it at one time or another. My online writer friend has just published her first book. And that guy I did NaNoWriMo with last year has signed with an agent. X has a wildly popular blog, Y has an amazing website, and Z has ten thousand Twitter followers. I'm failing as an author and as a human being! I need to catch up!

Thinking like this is easy to fall into, but it's ultimately unproductive. We're not in some kind of global race to see who can achieve the most the quickest. What matters is the quality of the final product: the book itself. If it takes you a year to write a decent book then there's no point rushing to publication after six months. In fact, it does you much more harm than good.

Fine, so that girl you met in a writer's forum can go from blank page to completed novel in the time it takes you to come up with a sketchy plot outline. So what? She's not you. Work at the speed you know has the best results for you. Making sure what you've written is as good as it can be before you start submitting or self-publishing will have much more positive consequences in the long run than trying to sell something you rushed through in a vain attempt to keep up with some idealised schedule.

Of course, 'taking the time to get it right' can become an excuse in itself – and that's where the other half of my title rears its head. There has to come a point when you know, deep down, that any further editing you do will only be changing, not improving. Any further work on the book after that falls under the heading of procrastination. I've written about this before, so I won't say anything more about it here except Stop. Just stop. You can't make it any better; steel yourself and take the plunge.

So what's the optimum length of time to spend on a book? you may be wondering. The golden mean between rushing and lingering? Well, that's the point: I can't tell you. It's different for every writer and every book. But if you keep on writing, you'll know it when you find it.

Write Every Day: tip of the week
OK, so you've decided to have a go at writing every day, but you're finding it difficult to get started. Maybe you're used to only writing at weekends, or you can't seem to get more than a sentence on the page without thinking That'll do until tomorrow. If that's the case then here are a few suggestions.

• Write at an unusual time. Keep a scene at work and add to it in your lunch break instead of Facebooking/Googling/whatever. Or, if you usually write in the evening, try getting up half an hour earlier instead (I know it's a lot to ask, but you might even like it).
• Write in an unfamiliar place. I usually type on my laptop, but recently I've found more inspiration – and liberation – in writing longhand in a notebook. That way I can pick it up any time, anywhere, without having to make the conscious decision to go up to my office/spare bedroom and switch on the computer.
• Stop before you're finished. This is an old trick. Stop writing while you've still got some ideas in your head (though you may want to jot them down in note form if your memory is as sieve-like as mine). Then you won't be faced with a blank page and that awful feeling of not knowing where to start the following day.

I'll be posting tips and suggestions like this on the blog every week, so do drop back in next Sunday!

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