Writing Fast vs Writing Slow

My critique partners and I have a running discussion. Which is better? To write slow and get the words right before going on to the next scene, story or sentence? Or to write fast, just getting the words, and hopefully the skeleton of your vision, onto the page? They’ll be telling you their perspective later. For now you get to listen to me.

I’m a mass of conflicting perceptions at times. Okay. Most of the time. That is why I really need my critique partners, not just to critique my writing (which I just realized we haven’t done in MONTHS!), but to help me think through and process all my conflicting perceptions. This issue of writing fast vs writing slow is a biggy one for me. And, as I’ve come to realize is true of most life issues, is not an either/or proposition. Both options are valuable and necessary at various points in my life. They are really just two different sides of the same coin. I need both in varying degrees. I really do need to push myself to write. Sometimes I need to set a timer and write whatever comes to mind, even if it is ” I don’t know what to write” over and over. But I can’t sustain that intensity forever. This is where I stumble. I try to maintain that level of output for too long a time and burn myself out.

When I start lagging in the output of a forced “word-run”, I’m learning that is a cue for me to stop. Not stop writing. Stop forcing myself to write new stuff. Concentrate instead on what I’ve already written. I work to get the scenes and stories and articles I’ve pulled out of my head into more than the rough form in which they arrived during my writing race. Analyze and rearrange words. Search through a thesaurus (visual thesaurus is great!) to find jus the right word (and discover a whole new line of thought which improves the message). Layer emotion and action into a dialogue-heavy scene. In other words, edit and polish and, sometimes, write even more, but at a slower pace.

Eventually, though, I realize I am massaging already written scenes and stories so much they are in danger of losing every bit of life they had. That’s when I know. It’s time to stop. It is time to call it done. Or to set it aside (forever or for just a short time) and to go on to other things. And it’s time to re-enter the “word-race” for another sprint. Or dash. Or marathon.

So while I am a huge fan of writing fast (which is why I LOVE NaNoWriMo, our topic for next week), I’m not sure it’s best all the time. I need both. I need to just push those first thoughts out of my fingers, through the keyboard and onto the page. After they are there, though, I need to rearrange, add to and develop the story or article into a polished piece of art. Or at least try.

What about you? What are you doing now? Is it working? Or would a change make it better?