Year of Writing Faster

After reading Claudia's blog, I'm trying to decide if I want to write faster. I certainly don't want to write slower. But after so many years of writing, I think I've come to a kind of organic rhythm with my writing.

When I was younger, I was sure that given enough time, I could just sit down in the morning and write until dinner, with lunch and coffee breaks. This has never, ever, proven to be true, no matter how much time I had. Even when unemployed or underemployed, it just doesn't happen. I can, in fact, make myself sit down regularly and write - but rare indeed is the day when I can spend more than a couple of hours doing it.

I'm talking about really writing here - not sitting at my computer, checking my email, reading Salon, dropping in on the New York Times, seeing what's happening at Inked In and Linked In, trying to remember how to open my Facebook page - but really sitting down and focusing. I am sorry to say, I don't have that much focus in me. On a good day, I can write five pages. On a VERY good day, I might write seven or eight. A few times in my life, I've sat down and written a fifteen page short story, or ten pages of libretto, a whole scene, all in one day. But often, it will be one or two pages that comes out after a couple of hours of work, and I'll know, by the end of the day, that that's all that's emerging.

But I think I've learned to live with it. Although I still have my fantasy, that if I had a REALLY long time off, I'd get more writing done. I'm just not sure I believe it anymore.