Good writing takes time.
“Words not only convey something, but are something,” observes Frederick Buechner. They “have color, depth, texture of their own, and the power to evoke vastly more than they mean.”
Good writing needs time for the texture of the words to develop, for the momentum to build, word upon word, sentence upon sentence, scene upon scene, story upon story. A little air between sessions at the writing desk allows for each day’s work to be greeted with a fresh eye and a full tank. Allowing the words to live there on the page for a while without being rushed off to the next stage too soon can help the writer when he comes to the pages again.
Time is the actual currency of the speed-worshipping age in which we live and write and have our being. And time is the currency with which we write our sentences and stories.
Hurry is not a proper posture for a writer.
– from “Dancing on the Head of a Pen” by Robert Benson
