(Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things by Catharine Bramkamp
Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “(Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things.” Enjoy!
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The last time I moved fast, I shattered my knee cap.
In U.S. culture, fast and furious is always privileged over measured and mediated.
Clearly, being first often equates with success; the first to patent an idea, the first to publish a scientific theory, first to try a new move.
Speed wins the race.
One of the fall outs from the Amazon culture is we can have an item within days, sometimes hours of ordering. It’s natural that over the years we have conflated writing a book with ordering a book.
Books arrive overnight. We should write them just as fast.
Some authors do write their books that fast.
Danielle Steel publishes an impressive three books a year.
Younger genre authors publish more frequently than that.
Writers who enjoy fast turnaround often work in a specific genre.
They work within their own world, which in turn, the reader is familiar with. And once established, it’s relatively easy to churn out five to six (sometimes more) books a year, lighting manuscripts one after the other like a chain smoker: Cindy finds love in the Bookstore. Mandy finds Love in the Flower Shop. Teresa opens a Bookstore/Flower Shop and finds love.
The books are exactly what the readers want, no more, no less. These series books, many of which are eBooks only, are, in some cases, so massively successful they earn their authors enough money to open their own Flower Shop/Cafe/Bookstore. And jolly good for them.
James Patterson dominates best sellers lists not only through world building but committee management.
He thinks up the plot and hires relatively unknown authors to write up the book drafts. Another team researches, graphic artists create the covers, the publishing team crafts the back copy and launches the marketing campaign.
Patterson in turn, puts that unknown author’s name on the cover, right below Patterson, giving credit where credit is due, which can be a great career boost for the author.
All just fine, but do not make the mistake as you survey a used bookstore shelf packed with copy after copy of James Patterson and despair that you can’t publish 31 books a year.
You are not a committee. You could be, but you aren’t. You are you. And you have my permission and support to write your book at your own pace.
A book takes as long as it takes.
(Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things
Most of my clients aren’t working to create a system, they aren’t writing genre fiction.
They are working on recording a unique expression of themselves, of their story, of a character that reflects all truth they want to say out loud but need a story to do it effectively.
Those novels and memoirs take longer to create. And that is okay.
Sometimes you have an idea for a book but the character takes his or her sweet time before starting to speak.
Sometimes you must wait out an elderly relative before you can write that memoir.
Sometimes you get 50,000 words into a novel and one morning realize that the Muse led you astray, and the whole thing needs to be tossed. Or even ritualistically burned (true story).
If you are writing something unique, now is the time to embrace process.
And process is slow, steady. If you try to write too fast you will lose the very reason to write at all: living in your zone, experiencing the day as a creative, spending hours in joy.
Writing is a process, it’s about the doing. The goal is to spend days and weeks and months immersed in a world of your own making. This is your art, and it won’t end when you publish.
What I have learned over publishing 27 or so books is that no one cares when I finish or even what I finish.
They care even less about when I publish. When I tell someone I’m a writer, they don’t ask about the finished book (likely because they aren’t really readers) but they are fascinated by the process.
They want to discuss how I’m writing:
- Do I use a computer or write by hand?
- Do I write in the morning? If so, how early?
- How on earth am I able to rise that early?
- What do I write in my journals?
They are hungry for information on how to express this particular art. They want to know about the how and the why. The finished product? Meh.
You are a writer
While you are writing your book, you are a writer. You are envied because you have an interesting and absorbing project.
Writers travel to interesting locations. Writers research in picturesque libraries. Writers can legitimately spend hours staring into space.
How much better can it get?
The win is your process. Enjoy the process and take as long as you like.
I know a writer who is having so much fun traveling and researching he may never finish his book. And he does not care.
You (Don’t) Move Fast: Break Things
The myth of moving fast is inescapable.
Impossibly Young Author writes book in under three hours, sells a million copies in seven and and a half minutes, buys the Barbie dream house and lives happily ever after.
Except… what she will be asked, forever after, is not – tell me about your published book, but tell me what you are working on now.
Fast is currently a thing, so was smoking.
It may be healthier to just take your time.
Want more?
Pre-order your copy of Out Loud – An Adventure in Writing for Women, launching January 2025.
About Out Loud – A Writing Adventure for Women
When do we write our truth? Now? Or now?
Out Loud is a lighhearted, intelligent guide to help you start your novel or non-fiction book.
If you are an expert in your field and want to share your knowledge or if you’ve always had a dream to create a marvelous character who jumps off the page, this is for you.
And if you’d like tips to court your muse and write for your own joy, we got you.
Come on a writing adventure, indulge yourself.
As Joan Didion commented, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.”
Come do the same!
Sections include:
- The Adventure
- Charting the Course
- Messing Around in Boats
- Navigating Rough Waters
- Here be Dragons
- The Pirate Code
- Journey to the Center
- Ithaca
Welcome aboard!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.
