On Spending Time With Your Work

I am writing a book. I must tell you, it is an experience like no other.

I know they are all words. This essay, a short article, a long column, a book … all are nothing but a bunch of words woven together in a narrative that the writer wants to impress upon you.

But a book stands out among its peers. It is not just a bunch of words. It is a huge bunch of words. Also, it will be out in the world in a physical, raw form and that demands a special responsibility on the part of the writer.

Naturally, writers end up spending more time writing books than they would on writing the same number of words elsewhere.

As I do that – spend more time writing the book – I am experiencing the sheer joy of spending time with my work and letting it evolve.

On some days I would find myself composing in a supreme flow and produce a few hundred words. It would make me happy and content and let me sleep well. After a few days I will read those words again and realize what I missed. I would realize the abrupt jumps I made to conclusions and see the absurd sentences I used to make those jumps.

It would pain me and pleasure me at the same time to redo the work I did with diligence earlier.

I have also found that forgetting about the book in between can also benefit in unexpected ways. On some days I would get busy with life and then when I am back to writing, I would connect my recent travails to the story I am weaving.

I wonder if spending more time on your work is the secret ingredient to making it great.

I am not sure.

I have seen the advantages of moving fast and getting things done when I was running a company. Peter Thiel has said that ask what you can do to achieve your ten year goals in six months. It might sound preposterous but I have seen firsthand the value in this quote.

We writers like to romanticize procrastination. We revel in our work narcissistically to the point of making sure that it never sees the finish line.

It is this dichotomy of slow and fast that troubles me.

Am I being deliberately slow and losing time?

Maybe good is good enough?

Maybe it isn’t?

I don’t know.

All I know is that when I spend time on my work I am happy. I feel absorbed by the process. I feel time around me slowing down and I feel I am in a different universe where it is just me and my words.

Maybe that’s worth something.