Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Writing is Not Efficient

16 Comments

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?

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Filed Under: the writing life

Comments

  1. Natalie Aguirre says

    November 10, 2010 at 11:44 am

    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.

    Reply
  2. Andrea Mack says

    November 10, 2010 at 11:53 am

    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.

    Reply
  3. Liesl says

    November 10, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    Oh good, I’m glad I’m not alone. I am completely inefficient. This comment took me ten minutes. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Stephanie Cheryl says

    November 10, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    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.

    Reply
  5. Valerie Geary says

    November 10, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    *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.

    Reply
  6. A.L. Sonnichsen says

    November 10, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    Definitely not with this book I’m working on!

    Thank you for the reminder that efficiency is not the goal!!

    Amy

    Reply
  7. Shannon O'Donnell says

    November 10, 2010 at 3:47 pm

    No, no, and no! Writing is most definitely not efficient. I guess it’s a good thing we love it anyway, huh?! 🙂

    Reply
  8. Tracy Edward Wymer says

    November 10, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    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.

    Reply
  9. Sara B. Larson says

    November 10, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    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.

    Reply
  10. Debbie Curran says

    November 11, 2010 at 5:09 am

    Uhm, well, I haven’t even figured the ‘system’ out, let alone figured out whether it’s efficient. My gut says no, though! 😉

    Reply
  11. Joanne Fritz says

    November 11, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    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.

    Reply
  12. Ali says

    November 11, 2010 at 4:59 pm

    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!

    Reply
  13. Caroline Tung Richmond says

    November 11, 2010 at 10:50 pm

    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!

    Reply
  14. Caroline Starr Rose says

    November 12, 2010 at 12:02 am

    Glad there are others out there who can relate. Caroline, great name and great number!

    Reply
  15. Jessie Oliveros says

    November 12, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    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.

    Reply
  16. Sam Van Eman says

    November 16, 2010 at 12:10 am

    Sounds about write, Caroline.

    😉

    Reply

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