Writing at a Snail’s Pace
A lesson as to why consistency is more productive than speed
It’s February and I hope that your goals are still feeling inspirational and achievable. One thing I’ve learned is that achievement goes to those who are consistent. In writing, sometimes it’s hard to be. Life happens and before we know it, that dream of writing a novel or a book in a year goes from glee to glum. I want to catch you before that happens and encourage you with a few facts and a fable.
Pokey, but Productive
British researchers recently documented that snails move at a pace of one meter per hour (3.2 feet) and travel about 25 meters (just over 49 feet!) in 24 hours. While it seems like a trivial distance, it’s huge progress for a creature synonymous with slowness. If you need to hit your goals, remember the snail. It’s easy to become discouraged when we can only make the time for a few words a day, and sometimes we even put writing off waiting for the perfect storm — a quiet house, a flickering candle and several hours to peck at the keys. This method seems romantic, but it’s a deadly kiss.
Betrayed by Parkinson’s Law
It’s no surprise that many who set goals don’t achieve them. On January 1, the monumental task seems small compared to the amount of year left to achieve the goal, but by August, the stress has set in. You have less time and more panic. This is called Parkinson’s Law — work expanding to fill the time available for its completion. The molehill becomes a mountain. I’ve been there. I’ve tried writing books many years unsuccessfully. Even last year, while I did finish my book, which I’m now editing, I didn’t finish it until November 30, and that’s largely due to the motivating pressure of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). Writing the last 50,000 words to my book in a month taught me a value lesson about sizing up goals.
Simplifying the Process & Getting to Done
One of my favorite fables is “The Tortoise and the Hare.” It goes like this (as recounted by StoryArts):
There once was a speedy hare who bragged about how fast he could run. Tired of hearing him boast, Slow and Steady, the Tortoise, challenged him to a race. All the animals in the forest gathered to watch.
Hare ran down the road for a while and then and paused to rest. He looked back at Slow and Steady and cried out, “How do you expect to win this race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?”
Hare stretched himself out alongside the road and fell asleep, thinking, “There is plenty of time to relax.”
Slow and Steady walked and walked. He never, ever stopped until he came to the finish line.
The animals who were watching cheered so loudly for Tortoise, they woke up Hare.
Hare stretched and yawned and began to run again, but it was too late. Tortoise was over the line.
After that, Hare always reminded himself, “Don’t brag about your lightning pace, for Slow and Steady won the race!”
Let’s take a lesson from the tortoise. Even if you’re moving slowly, you’re still moving. Let’s break it down even further:
- One a Day: Writing one page per day on a book seems small, until you do it for an entire year and have 365 pages.
- 500 Words at a Time: Don’t have time to write a page? How about 200 words? At that rate, you’ll write 182,500 words in a year, more than enough for your first novel.
- NaNoWriMo in a Year: If you’ve ever participated in NaNoWriMo, you’ll know that novel length for winning the program is 50,000 words. That’s roughly 137 words per day. Want to hit the bottom shelf of what literary agents consider novel length? Aim for 220 words per day.
You don’t have to build Rome in a day, especially when you can break the bigger goal down into easily achievable chunks. Be consistent like the tortoise and plod like the snail and hitting your goals is a sure thing.
Originally published at www.chrisjonesink.com on February 5, 2015.
