{"id":11998,"date":"2022-08-15T06:38:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T13:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=11998"},"modified":"2022-08-10T19:40:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T02:40:29","slug":"dont-rush-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/dont-rush-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Rush It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Morgan Baker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Rush It\u201d by Morgan Baker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t like being late \u2013 to classes I teach or the airport to catch a plane. My anxiety meter goes haywire if I haven\u2019t given myself the time to organize before school or when I\u2019m packing to go away. Will I need my swimsuit? What about those shoes?<\/em> I allow extra time wherever I go, which means I\u2019m usually early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My stepfather once told my daughter as he drove her to a summer job, \u201cYou\u2019re on time if you\u2019re ten minutes early.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve taken that to heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my daughter and I went to a wedding in Montana a few years ago, we were excited about the event, and to see the big sky landscape we had heard so much about. I didn\u2019t want to feel rushed or anxious, so I allowed for plenty of extra time to get through security and find our gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We watched planes taxiing to other gates from the rocking chairs we sat in. For three hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when it comes to my writing, I don\u2019t follow my own advice. I often rush it. I think I\u2019m done way before I really am. My husband, a former journalist and editor, reminds me frequently to slow down, think the piece through, whether it\u2019s an essay or a profile I\u2019m working on. Wait,<\/em> he says, before sending it out. <\/em>There are always opportunities to expand or transform my writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t always listen. Often, I already have a good sense of what\u2019s working and where I need more, but instead of figuring out the fixes, I get jittery and eager and I send off the piece to trusted readers and editors, hoping they won\u2019t notice the holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only do they notice, they fall in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I encourage the writers in my workshops to take their time. Sit on your work for a day or two, or more,<\/em> I tell them. If it\u2019s a timely essay, sit on it for a few hours. Wait and see how the work matures over time. Then revisit and revise. Don\u2019t rush. Wait before taking a bite of the cookie that\u2019s just come out of the oven. Don\u2019t burn your mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spoke with a writer recently who has a book of essays out, and she told me some of the essays took her years to write. Years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t have years.<\/em> I want to get my book of essays out now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a problem solver. I like immediate results. I can usually fix someone else\u2019s challenge, edit their work, or find their lost car key. Helping myself is more perplexing and time consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when I linger on my pieces, like waiting to bite that hot cookie, it\u2019s always worth it. I might remember another aspect of the topic I want to add in, or recognize a theme I didn\u2019t see before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been working on a collection of essays for, yes, years, and I thought I knew their purpose. but recently, I realized I was going in the wrong direction. There was a theme in my work I hadn\u2019t seen earlier, a theme that tied my shorter pieces together from two separate projects. I am now going to select, toss, and revise. Because I\u2019d taken my time with the essays, the theme had time to marinate before it jumped out at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I\u2019m eager to get going. But I need to heed the yellow light ahead and slow down, take my time, let the pieces simmer, blow on them a little so they\u2019re not so hot and I can hold them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I rush to pack, I might forget the shoes I need, or my bathing suit in case there\u2019s a pool. Sometimes I have to unpack and repack to make sure I have everything I need\u2014editing my suitcase like I edit a book. I repack, rolling my clothes instead of folding them. They take up less room that way, and there is more room to add and substitute items. Just as I can revise once more, allowing for expansion and transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Don’t Rush It”<\/a> first appeared on Brevity\u2019s Nonfiction blog on June 6, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan Baker<\/strong> <\/a>has written for\u00a0<\/em>The Boston Globe Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The Bark, The Bucket, Talking Writing, Cognoscenti, Motherwell, <\/em>and several times for the\u00a0<\/em>Brevity Blog.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan\u2019s debut memoir will be out in Spring 2023 (Ten16 Press).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband and two dogs where she teaches at Emerson College and facilitates writing workshops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDon\u2019t Rush It\u201d by Morgan Baker I don\u2019t like being late \u2013 to classes I teach or the airport to catch a plane. My anxiety meter goes haywire if I haven\u2019t given myself the time to organize before school or when I\u2019m packing to go away. Will I need my swimsuit? What about those shoes? I allow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[126],"tags":[1740,1839,1822,1190,1528],"class_list":["post-11998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-write-2","tag-brevity-blog","tag-brevity-nonfiction-blog","tag-morgan-baker","tag-writing-freely-just-write-writing-prompts-the-write-spot-blog","tag-writing-teachers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-37w","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12000,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11998\/revisions\/12000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}