This is a lonely time for people who want to do things the slow way.
Attention spans are short. Our chaotic, social-media driven world rewards brevity and simplicity. Purity tests are rampant; shades of gray are in short supply.
What if you want to write a blog post instead of a tweet?
What if you want to labor over a beautiful literary novel instead of cranking out a book a month to please Amazon’s algorithms?
It can easily start feeling like you’ve somehow been thrust into an onrushing, frenetic mob that you scarcely have chosen and feel powerless to escape.
A maximalist world
Right now it feels like the world is pushing, pushing, pushing for more. More content, more eyeballs, more pageviews, more clicks. We romanticize overwork, demand maximalism, let ourselves be provoked by minor outrages.
Algorithms are mining the reptilian recesses of our brains to hijack our attention. We’re bombarded by influencers who try to strip the ugliness from life and end up looking like horrific cartoons themselves (and yet we still take quiet note of their success).
Is it possible to actually slow down, calm down, and do what’s important but time consuming?
Well, yes. It is. But it’s harder than it should be.
Quality takes work
There’s still an appetite out there for quality and nuance, though I wish there were more of it.
It’s still worth pursuing dreams, even though it feels sometimes like they were primed for a different world.
Quality, now, takes work. Not just to produce it, but increasingly to consume it.
You have to strip away your distractions. You have to rebuild your attention span. You have to step away from screens and get outside and let your eyes adjust so you can see objects in the distance.
It’s always been best to go against the tide, and I believe that now more than ever. Heck, I’m still blogging, even though these personal corners of the internet have long since peaked.
I still believe there’s a place for quality. And more power to everyone who chooses this path, but I’m not about to go crank out books to chase some algorithm that can be changed on a whim.
In a flash in a pan, chaotic world, we need quality and meaning more than ever.
Hasn’t it always been true that anything really worth doing took more time?
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Art: Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Albert Bierstadt
Amy Shepherd says
Oh, thank you so much for this.
I see far too many writers cranking out a book a month thinking that is the only way to reach people. The algorithms! THE ALGORITHMS! *eye roll*
A quality effort is being kicked like a naughty dog in favor of the quick chihuahua-read. (ha ha ha…that was a pretty lame analogy) I’d like to think somewhere out there are readers still appreciating a book that took decades or longer to write…where the effort and prose can be digested and not scoffed at for being ‘pretentious’. People claim to love ‘the classics’ but have little time to read them unless they are on Audible and will be read TO them. NO effort on their part to hold an actual binding and feel the paper under their fingers. I’m ranting. Sorry.
This blog post speaks to me, Nathan. I truly hope there are enough folks with like-minded intentions still kicking around the writer’s world.
Alanna Peterson says
I couldn’t agree more! I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, since I decided to publish a novel I’ve been working on for years in serial format. I’m constantly second-guessing myself, wondering if anyone is willing to wait a week to read the next chapter in this age of bingeable, on-demand content. As you mentioned, creating and consuming high-quality material takes a lot of time, which is becoming a more precious resource than ever. BUT! I do feel that its relative scarcity makes thoughtful content stand out a lot more (case in point: this blog!). And I am grateful to everyone who continues to create it, despite all the challenges. So–thank you for this post!
anny rusk says
I really needed this today.
Some setbacks in submission world, and wondering whether trying to up my social media presence, ala jonny sun, who I’ve met and is a lovely guy, would help. Of course I can’t MAKE anything happen. Still playing around with my voice for online. Have a theme that runs through my books, transforming fear, and not sure the instant oatmeal society we live in will invest in it online. It’s not cute and fluffy. I try to add some sugar to the oatmeal, but not growing up online, a part of me prefers IRL.
So that’s a long winded way of saying this post is perfect for those of us who want to make a lasting impact with our work, and not just be a flash in the pan. Keep on keeping on, Nathan!
Adrienne Moore says
Bless you for this post. As someone who has a decade of writing effort behind her and no published novel to show for it–yet–I deeply appreciate hearing these sentiments from someone other than the voice in my own head. Your blog has been a good writer-friend to me for years, and I want to say–thank you. For all your posts, and this one in particular.
David Kubicek says
Thanks for this, Nathan. I’ve always believed that a good story depends not only on what you say, but how you say it–and that takes more time than knocking out a book a month for Amazon. It’s great to hear someone other than myself express that sentiment.
JOHN T. SHEA says
Wow, Nathan! A MANIFESTO! Which I agree with. Likewise all the comments. Only a few days ago I read a post by an agent saying she auto-rejects any book the author took a long time to write because she believes such authors are only writing for themselves rather than for readers and will never have a writing career! Just imagine the list of famous books she would have rejected.
debora Ewing says
Wait, wait…you aren’t addressing the right question:
Where is the audience? We are here, all five or six of us. There are more or nobody would know the names of Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The press for instant gratification comes from the audience and the marketeers – “will it sell?”
So we can craft literary genius; I have faith in us. How do we find the people who want to read it?
Jennifer Eaton says
This really spoke to me. I have readers who sit up all night finishing my books, and then ask for more. Well, that book you read in a day took months to write!
Most people get that, but there are so many Indies cranking out a book a month, and finally making a living writing, that I feel woefully behind.
J. Keller Ford says
Thank you so much for this. I take my time on writing. Some prolific authors tell me to quit procrastinating but I don’t see it as procrastinating. I see it as allowing ideas and plots to percolate. Maybe I’ll never be famous or be a bestseller (I hope to at least be the latter), but I want to write on my time…not Amazon’s or someone’s algorithms. Like Jennifer, sometimes I feel “woefully behind”.
Rusty Biesele says
To produce a quality book, give up the idea of NY Times best seller. Massive best seller means least common denominator in terms of writing so that the book can be mass read and writing that offends the least. If you look at those who have written award winning Literary Fiction, for example, you find they frequently they didn’t earn 4 or 5 stars on Amazon but maybe 3.5 stars. For me, I only worry about doing the best writing I can and just let the cards fall where they may. I also try to make the presentation and design of the book exceptional, so that those few that buy the book will want to keep it forever, like a family heirloom. It makes it a total adventure, learning about design, art, and about the art of printing itself: learning the capabilities of a good offset press. It’s surprising what can be done, if you lift your sights beyond the dump words on paper self publishing presses. As someone said, the real challenge in the end is to find readers that like in depth, high quality material. You need to find them where they live, so to speak, and that place is unlikely to be social media. It is an intensely difficult problem, one whose solution whole publishing companies are built on. Don’t let quickie self publishing companies distract you with the idea that spamming (paid for and free) is the gateway to success. Sadly, if you go the traditional publishing route, many publishers and their agents are not worried about high quality. It takes a very careful search to find the ones that do. That search might be as hard as finding the readers themselves.
Robin Constantine says
This landed in my inbox at the right moment. Have been struggling with burn out for a few years due to this. (The thought of cranking something out every month makes my head spin – people can really do that?) I’ve found filling the well – reading, getting outside, hanging out with my family, staring into space – is just as important for my writing as daily word count. I’m finally learning to make peace with the slower pace that feels more natural to me. It can be challenging though. Nice to know there are others who feel the same!
Tricia Lynne says
Nathan,
I’ve read your blog posts for years. Don’t stop. There are many of us out there who read but don’t necessarily take the time to comment. I read every one of your posts. I love them. I find them inspiring, honest, hopeful and filled with information that I can use for my writing and my burgeoning career. Thank you so much!