Sunday, August 17, 2008

This Will Take Time

In today's Pop Culture Conveyorbelt world of lazy-susan entertainment, I'm often left with a debilitating sense that I'm not productive enough. Just flipping through an Entertainment Weekly at the check-0ut stand leaves me bewildered by how much is being published, filmed, recorded and sold. It's daunting. But none of the good books are being written at the break-neck pace at which the stream is issuing forth. It's hard to remember that it takes months to hone a book, and that's the process at its fastest. From concept to printed-book-in-store is usually at least two years. It sounds like an eternity to someone like me who has not been agented or published. But it is a necessary eternity, and one that should be used wisely. I've made the mistake of submitting work that was not typo free--and I got rejected immediately. I've learned to let something sit for long enough to forget what I've written, and then the mistakes jump off the page. I keep telling myself, 'slow and steady pressure.' We'll see if it works.