Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in less than a month. Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel took only two months to write, and William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying was written in six weeks, the same length of time it took Charles Dickens to write A Christmas Carol. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, was written in just three weeks.
So why has it taken me over three years to write my book?!
Nearly every day for the last year, I have worked on my book, a travel adventure memoir about when I lived in Paris and got to participate in a bunch of adventures (that readers like you challenged me to do).
In the last six months, I rewrote the first three chapters eight times. These weren't just revised drafts. I actually started from scratch and wrote entirely new chapters eight times. My editor jokes with me, saying I should publish a book of just former first chapters.
While I feel like my latest version will probably be the final, it's hard not to feel dissatisfied with it when I re-read it and want to start again. As I attempt to focus on revising the later chapters, it's scary to think, “I may have to rewrite the first chapters and start fresh all over again.”
In the midst of these endless revisions, I often think, “What's wrong with me? Why can't I just finish this book?!”
This Is the Process, Not a Pitfall
A few days ago, I finally listened to Malcolm Gladwell's new podcast, Revisionist History. I listened to every episode—and I highly recommend them all—but the one that changed the way I think about my creative life is called “Hallelujah.”
Gladwell talks about a theory of creativity by economist and art lover David Galenson, who says there are two types of writers and creatives:
Type 1: Conceptual Innovators
Conceptual innovators execute a concept. According to Gladwell, they:
- Peak early in life, doing most of their best writing right out of the gate
- Make a plan before they start and then follow it
- Usually write very quickly
- Have “specific ideas they want to communicate,” and “can articulate those ideas clearly”
Examples:
- Margaret Atwood, who says she never suffers from writer's block.
- Jonathan Safran Foer, who began writing after taking just one creative writing class in college, and then published Everything is Illuminated when he was just twenty-five.
- Jack Kerouac, who took seven years to research and take notes for On the Road, but then wrote it in a month on a single roll of typewriter paper.
- Ian Fleming, who took eight weeks on his first James Bond novel, but then shortened that to six weeks for each book thereafter.
Type 2: Experimental Innovators
The second type of writer is called the experimental innovator. According to Gladwell, they:
- Do not have a clear, specific idea
- Work very slowly, with endless iterations
- Are always unhappy with their work
- Write with trial and error, trying to figure out what works
- Take a long time to understand what they want to say—sometimes as long as a lifetime
- Often peak much later in life
Examples:
- Ernest Hemingway, who rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms forty-seven times.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, who rewrote The Great Gatsby for the rest of his life, long after it was published.
- Mark Twain, who took seven years to write Huckleberry Finn because he kept rewriting the ending.
Which Type of Writer Are You?
Are you the early success who has clear ideas and a solid plan for bringing those plans to life? Or are you the “tortured novelist,” the experimental innovator who writes draft after draft, suffering all the while?
After you figure out which group you belong to, the trick is to avoid comparing yourself to the other type. As an experimental innovator, I have to work very hard not to compare myself to the conceptual innovators and wonder why I can't write a book in just a few weeks.
On the other hand, if you are an experimental innovator, you might find this freeing. It feels good to know you're not crazy, that your endless drafts aren’t procrastination. They’re part of your process.
I rewrote the first three chapters eight times because I couldn't help it. I'm an experimental innovator. I can’t help feeling unsatisfied. I can't help rewriting again and again. I’m looking for perfection, but I have no idea what that will look like when I find it.
Rather than thinking I'm doing something wrong, I need to embrace the process, give it more time and energy, not less. I need to keep experimenting.
And you? Which type of writer are you? A conceptual innovator? An experimental innovator? Let me know in the comments below.
PRACTICE
Conceptual innovators spend more time planning. Experimental innovators spend more time trying new things in iteration after iteration.
Today, I want you to do the opposite of your usual bent. That means, if you are a conceptual innovator, take an old practice or some other section of your writing and create a new iteration. If, on the other hand, you are an experimental innovator, take fifteen minutes to plan out a new story idea without writing your story.
Write for fifteen minutes. When you're finished, share a small section of your writing in the comments section for feedback. And if you share, be sure to give feedback to a few other writers as well.
Enjoy getting out of your usual comfort zone, and happy writing!
I think I am the second type. I have been writing a historical novel for the last ten years….still writing and changing. The instructor in a writing workshop I took told me that the writer who started is a different one now…you have changed in ten years a lot ..so Dita, finish it..wrap it up and let go… And that is what I am praying to accomplish.
Joe… I guess if you write long enough you experience both processes. I have an unpublished novel for which I found early notes going back to when I used a typewriter! And I’m reworking the story this summer. But I learned some writing chops as a screenwriter, a discipline that requires a detailed outline, as you know. If the outline works, the script can be written in a month. Both processes I find rewarding, and add up to the life of a writer, which I am blessed to be living. Cheers.
Fair point PJ. I have certainly done both. I don’t know whether the economist who observed this pattern would agree, but what you’re saying fits my experience too.
I’m a conceptual innovator. I see no point in practicing experimental innovation.
I’m an polisher. I twirl the story around in my brain until it’s all taken shape, then sit down and write it. I believe I could do a short novel in six weeks of uninterrupted writing. But then I’d polish it for five years after. So I guess that makes me Type Two.
Here’s my fifteen-minute short story, involving a character I’ve already created on my blog. After I’m done my fifteen-minute exercise I’ll likely edit for half an hour.This is the one writing block I have: knowing how long it’s going to take me to finish something, I put off the starting.
When Ernie opened the door, Winnie gave him her most cheerful smile. “Brought you a casserole for your lunch, Ernie.”
“Why, that’s right nice of you, Winnie. Want to step in a minute? Just made some fresh coffee. I can’t cook to save my life but at least I’ve learned how to make coffee and heat things up in the mike. Someday I’ll master boiling water and making macaroni.”
She took a deep breath. “You know, Ernie, we’ve known each other a long time, so I’m not going to beat around the bush. “Have you ever thought of getting married again?”
“Oh, yeah. I started thinking about it a couple of weeks after Barb passed and I’ve been thinking about it every day since. A fellow gets so lonely, you know.”
Winnie’s cheeks turned a bit pink. “Well, maybe we…you and I…”
Ernie swiftly added, “But I know it’ll never happen. I’d never find a woman crazy enough to marry me. Not with all my bad habits. Barb often threatened to get her an apartment downtown where she couldn’t hear me snoring every night.”
Winnie shut her mouth and stared at him a moment. “Well I’d better be getting along. I’ll take a rain check on the coffee. Hope you enjoy this casserole.” She shoved the dish into his hands and headed back down the sidewalk.
Ernie carried the dish to the fridge, setting it beside the ones Agnes Jones and Phoebe Harmer brought around yesterday. Then he took out the beef stew and lemon pie Francine Miller dropped off this morning; they’d do nicely for his lunch. Sometimes it paid not to know how to cook. He chuckled. But a fellow sure had to have his wits about him.
Great story. Very well written. I smiled at the ending.
Thank you. This isn’t the end, though; I added a part where Ernie lands up in hot water when he tries to be cute in retelling this conversation. You can find the whole story, Winnie Plays Monopoly, at christinegoodnough.com
Christine, I dropped over to your website and read the story. Oops, Ernie. I’d say Ernie’s in hot water which he set to boiling. Not the kind of hot water he expected. Excellent, well-written story. Love your website.
Thank you. You can read another Winnie and Ernie story here:
https://christinegoodnough.com/2017/04/26/winnie-and-the-genie/
Love it. Nothing better than being dumb as a fox.
Thank you. I wrote a second bit and posted the whole story on my blog yesterday as Winnie Plays Monopoly. Readers seem to be liking it. You’ll find it at
christinegoodnough.com
Omg, you are exactly like me. I can finish something in a preferred amount ( a several weeks) but because I an interrupted a lot in life, like studying. I don’t got much time. Sadly.
Also, I love your short story. Really funny!!! Love the characters as well.
Glad you enjoyed Winnie’s casserole “flop.” 🙂
Welcome!!
I would have to say I am a mixture of both. My next book, coming out late August, took seventy days to write. I put it down for six months because I had other books that needed editing and publishing, which is the real mud in the pond. Outlining and getting the book on paper is a snap. It is the polishing and waxing, (the editing and re-writing), that takes time. You know, in this competitive world the final product has to look its best. When writing fiction, each product is unique and requires its own nurturing.
Regardless of whether it’s experimental vs conceptual, that sounds normal to me. Fast first draft followed by endless revision, a pretty standard process amongst the authors I know.
I’m an experimental innovator. BTW – I LOVE that description!
I’ve had an idea running around in my head for a while, so here goes:
David told me for years: “You can learn to love them.”
My reply was always “Not a chance. They look evil and smell bad.”
Then we went to the Texas Hill Country for four days. We rented a little cabin near the Sabinal River, near a beautiful area call Lost Maples State Natural Area. It was indeed beautiful – and totally off thee grid. No TV, marginal wifi, and no phone service. The nearest town was a half hour drive. And it was a tiny place. For a bigger town, it was a forty five minute drive. And, to get to the “big” city, with grocery and hardware store, we had to devote an hour.
What is there to do in this lovely place? Read, go to the park and watch birds from the bird blind, eat, sleep, and actually have conversaations. With a still-recuperating left knee, I couldn’t really hike, so that was out. Besides, it gets pretty hot in Central Texas in late June. And I sweat really easily.
Our salvation was that the owners of the property have chickens. Although I love birds, chickens are not my favorites. I first encountered them at a county fair in Ohio. They had beady little eyes. And they smelled ungodly awful. I wrote them off my favorites list.
When we learned we had chickens as next-door neighbors, David was thrilled. He’s always wanted to have some. Suburban neighborhoods have deed restrictions that prohibited them. Fine by me.
On our second day, the chickens came to visit. Even with their beady little eyes, I had to admit they were kind of fun to watch. There were two roosters and four hens.
One of the roosters was the alpha – and a big bully. But, he was very protective of his three hens. I named them Henry VIII, Hortense, Henrietta,and Honey. Henrietta was the independent one. She’d go off on her own in search of bugs – or whatever – leaving Henry, Hortense, and Honey to go their own ways.
The other rooster was definitely the inferior, even though he was much more handsome than Henry. I named him John. He shepherded one hen, a beautiful grey girl who I named Jessica.
We’d bought black oil sunflower seeds to feed the birds – as in songbirds – but ended up putting them out for the chickens every day. They came to like us, since we fed them.
After years of saying how much I disliked chickens, that trip taught me to learn to like chickens. Although, when you don’t have much else to do, you get your entertainment where you can.
This post brings me much relief. I’m mostly an experimental innovator. Only on rare occasions am I able to execute a piece of writing as soon as innovation strikes. I’ve been working on my novel for over three years and have written only about 37,000 words. I got stuck after the climax. I first considered rewriting it from scratch but may keep it and write two different stories. I’m also working on two short stories. After reading this post, I feel less crazy and frustrated. I just need to remember it as I work on my projects.
For my fifteen-minute exercise, which took over an hour as I could not think of an idea, I composed this on my computer, rather than my preferred method of handwriting. Making the switch to conceptual innovator was difficult, and I did not do it well.:
Janelle sat up straight in her chair and began typing on her laptop.
Russell,
In our 12 years of marriage, I have worked a full-time job and cared for the house. I love our beautiful home and enjoy keeping it sparkling and in good working order. I earn a good salary and contribute to our daily expenses as well as our vacations and other extras we like. We have discussed the need for a housekeeper and cook who can help me as you do not provide any care for the house. Your contention that no one will clean and cook as well as I is a compliment that I do not take lightly. However, I deserve some time off and some relaxation.
I now resign as chief cook and house cleaner. I have hired a housekeeper who will be here Saturday for orientation. She has agreed to a wage of $20.00 per hour, four hours per day, and four days each week, excluding weekends and holidays. I will pay her bi-weekly out of my salary. She brings with her fifteen years experience with a solid reputation. She will be in charge of cooking, cleaning, and harvesting vegetables from the garden to use in food preparation.
I am in the process of hiring a pool service and a lawn care service.
I am no longer open to discussion, argument, or debate. If you want to take over the household management duties, you may do so. I will continue with budget management and gardening.
Sincerely,
Janelle
She printed the letter and placed it on Russell’s computer.
Now, wait for the explosion — or the acceptance. Your writing is very well done, gives us a great picture. Not sure what reaction it will provoke. That’ll be Chapter two. I could actually see this letter starting off a novel. 🙂
Thank you, Christine. You have given me a great idea. I will consider developing it and see where it goes.
Glad to help. 🙂
I’m definitely a Experimental Innovator. Takes forever for me to finish one chapter.
To my chagrin, I am the experimental type. I outlined and then wrote 130 pages of my newest WIP. I was clipping along faster than ever before. Then two weeks ago I decided to try to rewrite it in present tense. Everyone told me it would be too difficult and I would need a lot of talent. This just egged me on to restart in PT. My first efforts weren’t great. When I finally found out what it takes to write in PT, I started to feel really satisfied with my work. But how long will this take …?
I really enjoy writing in present tense. As you have learned, once you get the hang of it, it flows.
This was a great post, really learnt some things with it.
Strangely, I think the I’m the first. Seeing that when I began, I never get writing block, only that I either lost interest or simply had no idea how to deal with it.
And whenever I have a concept, as long as I have figured out what the story is about, how the characters are, the specific themes that I wanted to deal with the story, I can nail it down pretty quickly. The only reason why I took a whole year to finish the first novel was because I was writing three works at the same time, and it was a massive work.
It looks like my post was lost. Fortunately, I saved it as a Word doc. Someday, I may exercise my experimental innovator muscles and “clean it up.” I am definitely an experimental innovator. I’m really good at finessing things I’ve written.
So, here’s my contribution:
Four Days in Texas The Hill Country. Or How I Learned to Love Chickens
David told me for years: “You can learn to love them.”
My reply was always, “Not a chance. They look evil and smell bad.”
Then we went to the Texas Hill Country for four days. We rented a little cabin near the Sabinal River, near a beautiful area call Lost Maples State Natural Area. It was indeed beautiful – and totally off the grid. No TV, marginal wifi, and no phone service. The nearest town was a half hour drive away. And it was a tiny place. To get to a bigger town, we had to devote forty-five-minutes. And, if we wanted to go to the “big” city, with grocery and hardware stores, we had to drive for an hour. All one-way distances.
What is one to do in this lovely place? Read, go to the park and watch birds from the bird blind, eat, sleep, and actually have conversations. With a still-recuperating left knee, I couldn’t really hike, so that was out. Besides, it gets pretty hot in Central Texas in late June. And I sweat very easily.
Our salvation was that the owners of the property have chickens. Although I love birds, chickens are not my favorites. I first encountered them at a county fair in Ohio. They had beady little eyes. And they smelled ungodly awful. I wrote them off my favorites list.
When we learned we had chickens as next-door neighbors, David was thrilled. He’s always wanted to have some. Suburban neighborhoods have deed restrictions that prohibited them. Fine by me.
On our second day, the chickens came to visit. Even with their beady little eyes, I had to admit they were kind of fun to watch. There were two roosters and four hens.
One of the roosters was the alpha – and a big bully. But, he was very protective of his three hens. I named them Henry VIII, Hortense, Henrietta, and Honey. Henrietta was the independent one. She’d go off on her own in search of bugs – or whatever – leaving Henry, Hortense, and Honey to go their own ways.
The other rooster was definitely the inferior, even though he was much more handsome than Henry. I named him John. He shepherded one hen, a beautiful grey girl who I named Jessica.
We’d bought black oil sunflower seeds to feed the birds – as in songbirds – but ended up putting them out for the chickens every day. They came to like us, since we fed them.
After years of saying how much I disliked chickens, that trip taught me to learn to like chickens. They still had beady little eyes, but they didn’t smell bad.
I guess when you don’t have much else to do, you get your entertainment where you can.
I am glad that I’m in good company as an experimental innovator. allthough I think that my work is neither experimental nor innovative it is just the way it is.
Haha. I relate to that!
Thank you!, experimental innovator here 🙂
*hi five*
I’m definitely an experimental innovator. My current WIP has been brewing in one form or another for 6 years. I’m finally working on an iteration that I feel confident I can see through to completion. Here’s my 15 minutes. Reviews are always appreciated!
Phoenix Erinyes is the most famous witch in the world. The author of several bestselling Neopagan books and an aggressively anti-Christian new commentator, Phoenix has settled into a life of celebrity in England with her girlfriend Ivy. But Phoenix’s world of comfortable notoriety is upended by the sudden death of her mother, sending her to the backwoods American town she swore she would never set foot in again. Her homecoming is less than warm. Dogged by past sins and her present day infamy, Phoenix must navigate a hostile church congregation, childhood enemies, and her estranged father. Her only ally is Alondra Valdez, a small town journalist with big ambitions. As one strange coincidence after another prevents her from leaving, Phoenix begins to wonder if the gods have a higher purpose in bringing her home.
Hi! You have no idea how much I wish I could have my first book done in a matter of weeks.
One factor I didn’t see in here is…time. I’ve planned my story to death, but I am a single mom, and I work full time. I’ve been working on my series for about 6 months now, but I really only get the “time” to write it every other weekend when my son goes to his father’s house. So, hearing that people can get their books done in a matter of weeks is amazing, but it really becomes discouraging for me because mine is taking so long, and not due to planning. Are these all cases where the authors don’t have other jobs? Or children?
Keep in mind, the experimental innovators I mentioned had been writing for many years. Mark Twain was already a famous author by the time he set out to write Huck Finn. And Keruoac was embedded in the Beat poet scene and spent time with people who were already at the cutting edge of American literature. All that’s to say, you shouldn’t have the expectation that you can finish your first book in a few weeks while juggling normal life. Keep working on it, keep pushing yourself, don’t give up, and it will happen.
Great! Thank you, Joe!! 🙂
Conceptual.For example before writing a short story, I hunt for a plot which is very familiar to me. Then I weave the entire story in my mind.Then I begin to write.While writing an article, though I follow the topic, I write as my mind travels upon the topic.
I’m a mixture of both types of writer, though I mentally write the story each time I do manual work and my brain is free to create. My trouble is over editing and not knowing when to stop and of finding someone to read and review my book. I have five unfinished stories in my PC,but I won’t delete them because I want to finish them, one by one, someday.
Well, I am both. At sometimes I am one of the other.. I can quickly execute things effectively. But the only problem I am struggling with is staying down writing. Which gets a little boring, if the chapter is re-written several times when the plot is not right. Other than that, its great.
My novel: Untold Secrets: Diary of a Greek Queen. (Have Already Started Writing On It, Thankfully)
The last thing Greek history ever wrote, about a lost queen was that she nothing but a legend, in a great poem.
Now in Hungry, three teen Hungarian boys find something they least desire. A dead women. She was found in an underwater cave the boys saw underwater. Little did they know that they uncovered something more than just a crime scene. History has been re-written.
The Hungarian police arrive investigating the scene. Observing some of her clothes, which seems centuries old. They do a dna test and find she is of Greek origin. They contact the authorities and see if they have a missing person. They say no. Later they carbon-date her and find she is at least 1,200 years old. The Hungarian secret service, take over and investigate the scene. They call in a very famous ancient homicidal professor, Dr. Jean Gaston Reymond, a re-owned 35 year old french-man. Apart from him, they have an Italian archeologist, Marianna Gorges to aid him.
They both work together uncovering the case. First finding the dead women may be of royalty, as she has a Greek dagger, which has a seal if the lotus flower and the setting sun. Apart from the dagger, she had was also a key, a mysterious tattoo, a ring relating to powerful Ancient King of Corinth, Greece, and a few other items.
The first thing the couple does is search the cave she was found. Luckily, they were able to find a chest in the cave’s wall. Once they opened it, they found something they least expected, papers and papers bound together.
They carefully take the artifact back to the lab (where the queen resides sorry forgot to add that in). Sadly, mist if the ink has swayed away, but a few words were able to be read. They wrote down what they saw, and tried to encrypt the words. They later find out that this is her diary. And that her fate was worser than expected.
What they were able to find out, was that there was trouble happening in Greece, and something really evil. All they know from the text, was that there is something hiding in her palace in Greece, regardless if the situation. At the same time, Jean knows a man, who is able to encrypt tattoo markings asks him what it is, he told him, that it was a sign if royalty to the city if Argos.
After they find out what they are looking for they begin to pack to look for her palace. They find it, in the forest hidden from everything. It was hard to find, but with the given clues, from the letter they found it.
They venture in the ruins of the temple. Which was almost destroyed. They look around and find many things, dead bodies from different centuries, a crashed plane, rare flowers growing everywhere and intact pieces of art. They then were able to find her room. They try to see where the the clue or letters are hidden. But find nothing until, as they were leaving accidently, set a trap loose, the trap in turn almost killed them. But broke down. They looked to see what triggered it and they find a lotus flower with the setting sun. It then git Jean. The whole place was a minefield. But was able to pass, and find a box with some more letters and a clue.
They head off to where the next clue leads them, to a village lost, there they find the second. Which led them to the third a cave near Argos. And finally an underground library. Where they solved the case. But, trouble lurks. The man Jean asked about the tattoo, foiled him. And wants the finding to be him. He tries to kill Jean, but fails. Luckily the Hungarian and the Greek secret services interrupt and save Jean.
I do both – sometimes the ideas flow and voila other times its painstaking slow in comparison.
I am more like stephan king I put two characters in a situation and write from there this article has got me thinking I have never really compared my self to any writer I sometime find it more easy to think of a situation put the two characters and let them tell the story this article has given me something to think about
In my experience writers are as diverse as human beings are. Most writers I know have aspects of both. Attempts to slot them into certain “types” never seem to hit the mark. In the end, we have do do what works for us and spend less time comparing ourselves to others. You do you, writers.
Fair enough, Holly. How specifically do you feel this didn’t fit you and your writing experience?
I defy categorization 🙂 I’ve done either, or neither. And most writers I know do too.
My writing style is definitely more closely related to the second one, although not exactly the same. I tend to begin a story with a specific scene that has, for whatever reason, popped into my head and refused to leave. I try to build around that scene, then build around those scenes, and so on. At some point, I’ll usually go back and change scenes as I go so that they fit the story as it evolves. By the time I’m done, my story rarely looks the way I first envisioned it but I often find that I like it far more, and I don’t mind that this process is slow either. I’m not a professional writer and I write mostly for my own enjoyment. The idea of sitting down and planning beforehand is something I usually associate with research writing but I’ll give it a shot!
I am definitely an experimental inventor and so many times I thought I was doing it wrong even after hearing Steven King talk about how he doesn’t plan for his story before writing them.
For so long, I’d thought I was always on the wrong side but I can now proudly say that I am proud of the type of writer I am. It is just a process and I must follow it.
Thank you Joe for this article
I’m between the two types. I’m only seventeen and I’m two years into the novel I’m writing. I’ve only been seriously writing for four years now, and found that I jump from project to project like crazy and so have forced myself to focus on JUST THIS PROJECT. With nearly twenty thousand words, it’s working. I have a clear idea that I choose to execute, in the current case four neighborhood friends get kidnapped by a new video game… along with over 5000 other people. I pick a specific way in which to write that idea, generally from a specific perspective, and run with it. As I go, I find problems with what I have, and reread what I’ve already written a lot, criticizing it but also learning from what works, what doesn’t, and where I’m inconsistent. When I’m not stuck on writer’s block or neglecting my project, I can write a lot in a short span of time (well, a lot from my perspective, given that this is the farthest I’ve ever come on a single project).
This is also a similar division of writers as “plotters” vs. “seat of the pants” writers. Of which, I am mostly the latter, though I plan point A and point B, discovering as I go what’s in the middle. And getting ideas for that middle as I grow closer to the story, and planning that small piece, though how it will actually look and affect the larger body of the work I never know.
Surprisingly, I didn’t comment on this. Even though I thought I did. Anyway I am both, but more of an experimental innovators. In my drafts of a story. They all don’t resemble anything from what they could be related to. Also, my first drafts suck so badly. But the story or plot gets better. And this is all by doing it conceptually. So I am both, but mostly more of an experimentalist.
I don’t really plan or revise my stories very much. Mostly, I just write them. Occasionally I’ll rewrite stuff if I don’t like how it went, but I’ve learnt to be cautious about doing that, because it often kills my story outright. Mostly, I have a general idea where it’s going, and then I see where it takes me.