Tortoise or Hare?
Should you care?
The Hare & the Tortoise
A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.
"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.
"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."
The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.
The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.
The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.
The race is not always to the swift.
From the Library of Congress The Aesop for Children
Do you race through your writing? If so, is the experience exhilarating or exhausting? Authors are encouraged to write more, publish more. We are told this is the key to selling more. If our readers love us, they ask when the next book will be out as soon as the new one is out.
Gone are the days when most authors published a book a year, maybe two if their publisher was willing. A Christie for Christmas was a catchphrase for mystery fans. And many authors still choose to publish once a year, or even less.
On the other hand, some authors publish two, three, four, even more books in a year. The competition is fierce and you want to keep your name before the reading public.
But while I am not exactly a tortoise, I’m not a hare. When I first envisioned becoming an author, my plan was to publish one book a year. That might mean writing more than one, because publishers can take a long time to accept, edit, and publish a book. I certainly never expected to write a book in six or eight weeks, even though there are books that “promise” you can write a novel in thirty days.
I admit to envy when friends tell me they have published a ridiculous number of books in a year. Inadequacy at that point makes me commit to writing a lot too—although I limit myself to long short stories (5-15 K words). I’ve had a lot of them come out this year. That’s good for my productivity but not so good in other ways.
I have no new novels out this year.
I feel frazzled by the deadlines.
Sometimes I’m too exhausted to work.
My enthusiasm waxes and wanes.
Next year, I’m committed to another raft of stories. At least one of them is a novella, so longer than the stories and published in a series rather than an anthology. But I have so many ideas for books that I’ve been undercutting myself.
For 2026, I’ve committed to one novella. The goal is to get back on track with my partially written semi-cozy mystery, the fourth book in the Global Security Unlimited series, and the second book in the Murder in the North Country series. Will they all come out that year? I doubt it. Maybe two books a year for three years? No promises.
If you are a hare, love being a hare. Go for all the gold.
But if, like me, you are more of a tortoise, don’t beat yourself up. Appreciate what you’ve accomplished and keep moving forward. You’ll get to your goal in the end.
Here’s what I will have published by mid-December. I have a story in each of these collections. I was born in the Year of the Rabbit and 2024 was my Year of the Hare. But my ambition now is to slow down so that I am represented by one of the auspicious animals. And that is the Black Tortoise—Xuanwu—god of the north, often associated with the winter seasons well as the color black and the element of water.
What are your goals? Do you feel that you have to do more? Or like me, is slow and steady the way to go?
Sharon — I write like a herd of turtles in a jar of peanut butter.
I'm jealous of people who write so fast. I'm definitely a tortoise. Actually a slow tortoise. But I'm trying to get faster.