Today’s world hurtles at breakneck speed. I’m almost certain that other people thought the same thing in previous decades and centuries, but today’s world is different. Information is at one’s fingertips. People expect to gather information within seconds, not days.
That speed has produced a sense that production should follow the same course. I wish I could remember the article – I forgot to save it – but it said that most contemporary authors are expected to write multiple novels within a year as well as to maintain a blog or author a chapbook. I can understand why; I, too, have reached the conclusion in the first or second book in a trilogy and have wished that I didn’t have to wait a year to read the next part. Another part of me cringes at the pressures placed upon contemporary authors. Stories take time. They take time to be discovered. They take time to write. They take time to revise. They take time to edit.
While businesses do have to be more conscious of time, I fear that the same malady affects them. They’re afraid of missing out on something, so they rush. They don’t take the time to understand what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. They simply launch, often before they should. They keep adding things – a blog, social media, speaking engagements – without analyzing why they’re doing those things or why those things are important.
My own experiences are a case in point. I didn’t know what I was doing when I first explored the entrepreneur route. I wasn’t necessarily rushing, but it took two years of floundering and making mistakes before I realized that my story was and is Write Right. Would I trade that floundering or those mistakes? No. I needed those two years; however, I also know I would have benefitted from having someone in my life who could have helped me to understand what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it.
Now that I have taken the time to understand my story, I’m better prepared to share and pursue it. I don’t have to be in a rush. I don’t have to add things because someone says I should. I know my story, and I don’t have to rush the telling of it.
Photo: Dead Air (CC BY-ND 2.0)
I would agree about not rushing through stories. You might miss out the significant details while rushing through it. But taking too long might be a problem too. Often I see that when I take too much time to finish an article it becomes “more boring” in my head!
Hajra I suppose I was thinking of the “story” in its entirety. All the little details – the blog posts, the podcasts, the videos, et cetera – often do need a time table. It’s too easy to worry those sorts of things to death. That’s what I would call “fiddling.” You’re prolonging the publishing for no logical reason. 🙂
Good for you Erin Feldman .
KDillabough Thanks! Now to get the concept to sink into my head…I’m always thinking I need to be doing more.