The Art of Writing a Novel Slowly

Alright, I thought. Writing is about working harder and faster than everyone else. It’s about overwhelming the world with the sheer volume of words you can churn out. It’s about hitting wordcounts and it’s definitely about making fun of anyone that mentions “writer’s block.” ... I loved writing and I was doing what they said you have to do if you l... See more

I wrote in the woods and on the scrap pile and in the loft of the barn. My stories were full of nature because that’s where I wrote. Being in the woods, being myself, and writing words down didn’t seem like separate concepts.

But I don’t think obsessive hustling makes good literature, or good writers, because writing is only the second part of the work. Most of the work is just existing. Writing, like, I suspect, any creative art, is just an attempt to transcribe infinity. And you have to sink into infinity slowly.

There’s a difference between hard work and hustle, and it’s mostly a spiritual one. Hard work can be done for the love of the work itself. ... Hustle is greedy and grasping. Everything is a means to an end. Nothing can be labored over for its own sake.

But I don’t hate writing, and I don’t think most writers do either. They hate that an art form that’s all about noticing and feeling has been turned into just another hustle job full of quotas and shame.

With children and with works of art, there’s no recipe that will take the place of dwelling alongside and knitting your beings together. There’s no success or failure, pride or disappointment, that will justify or invalidate those years of dwelling.