ef·fi·cient/iˈfiSHənt/Adjective
1. (esp. of a system or machine) Achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.
2. (of a person) Working in a well-organized and competent way
Recent stats:
- five days to write acknowledgements (721 words)
- four weeks to wade through one picture book stanza (14 words out of 517)
- three years to write, rewrite, and edit one verse novel (13,989 words)
Do you find the “system” of writing efficient?
No definitely not. It’s taken me even longer to write and rewrite one book. I think we do it because we love to write.
Caroline, one of the things that’s annoying about writing for me is how inefficient it is. No matter what I do to streamline the process, it still involves much backtracking and rewriting. All on the faith that it’s going to make a stronger book.
Oh good, I’m glad I’m not alone. I am completely inefficient. This comment took me ten minutes. 🙂
Efficient? No, no. Definitely not.
More like spewing out chunks of words onto the page (for months on end). I do not think that is really “minimum wasted effort.”
Love this.
*sigh* This made me laugh…and then cry. Most days I think I write efficiently, then I sit down to edit and realize…well…I wasn’t as efficient as I originally thought.
Definitely not with this book I’m working on!
Thank you for the reminder that efficiency is not the goal!!
Amy
No, no, and no! Writing is most definitely not efficient. I guess it’s a good thing we love it anyway, huh?! 🙂
We’re creators. Someone can read our books in a few hours or less, while it takes us years to get them that way. Not fair, huh. Is MAY B. in verse? Hope so. Love verse books. I read All the Broken Pieces yesterday in an hour. Made me think about exactly what we’re discussing here. BTW, All the Broken Pieces is awesome.
Sometimes, it feels efficient, but usually not. You can’t force creation or the creative process, no matter how much we all wish we could.
Uhm, well, I haven’t even figured the ‘system’ out, let alone figured out whether it’s efficient. My gut says no, though! 😉
Great post, Caroline! Whew! Now I don’t feel so bad that it’s taken me more than 2 years to write a 36,000 word MG novel. And I’m only halfway through my first major revision.
Efficient? Hardly.
Looking forward to reading MAY B.
I don’t mind that writing isn’t efficient, because it’s all about the process for me. But I sure wish editing were efficient!
Wahoo! I’m your 300th follower! I feel special. 🙂
I’m not very time-efficient with my writing, but I think it’s because I write extremely slowly. But…I just can’t write well when I do it fast!
Glad there are others out there who can relate. Caroline, great name and great number!
I just wrote a post about how “efficient” writing has been for me. Those words come slow, but when they are right they taste so good.
Sounds about write, Caroline.
😉