“In our rush-rush world, if we allow ourselves to slow down our lives and
our writing process, we’ll discover that we’ll connect — or reconnect — with our most profound work.” Louise DeSalvo, The Art of Slow Writing
Slow cooking and slow writing: While the ingredients are different, the idea behind them is the same: to create something savory and soul-satisfying by taking the time, making the time, to let flavors or words ripen and reveal themselves. As Louise DeSalvo says so well in The Art of Slow Writing, the real goal is to “become our truest, deepest, most authentic writing selves.” This takes time, intention, invention, revision.
In her search for the wellsprings of creativity, Louise DeSalvo studied the early and later drafts of well-known authors, and read their journals, interviews, and letters. I find it inspiring to learn that Hemingway rewrote The Old Man and the Sea 19 times or that John Steinbeck spent many years gathering material and reflecting on it before he sat down and penned The Grape of Wrath.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in crafting my novel, it’s this: building a world takes time. With every revision, my characters have deepened and my story arc has strengthened. The gift of time is a gift I’m giving myself — and my story. We’ve earned it — together.
We all need courage and faith in ourselves to survive the stages our work goes through as we shape it and reshape it. And we all need the strength to find a new path when our original vision seems to melt away and we’re left with something altogether different.
Slow writing. Sl-o-o-w writing. I like the way this sounds. It reminds me that anything worth doing is worth doing well. And most of the time, this takes time. I remember reading about John Legend’s response when a studio executive worried that his album was taking too long to finish. Legend simply said, “You can’t rush creativity.” Write on!
