{"id":5575,"date":"2019-09-17T15:27:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/?p=5575"},"modified":"2019-09-17T15:27:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:27:51","slug":"fast-and-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/birthmarked\/fast-and-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast and Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"African<\/a><\/p>\n

Twice lately I\u2019ve come across a certain African proverb, first in Cory Booker\u2019s comments during last week\u2019s Democratic presidential candidates\u2019 debate, and a couple days later in a New Hampshire coffee shop<\/a> on a tip jar. The proverb states, \u201cIf you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m finding this wisdom resonates with me. Since I first heard it, this adage has already applied to running errands and marriage. I\u2019ve decided that it also applies to writing, at least for me.<\/p>\n

On the surface, I write alone, so one might expect that I write fast. In truth, I write slowly. It is taking me close to two years, for instance, to turn this novel into a respectable draft, and I\u2019m still not there. Sometimes I struggle with that. On a deeper level, however, I\u2019m trying to go far. I\u2019m trying to write something of value, something that matters. It is my life\u2019s work rather than a foot race, and when I look up from my computer, I quickly see that I am not alone. My family supports and encourages me every single day. I have friends who drag me out to lunch and ask how my writing\u2019s going. My agent respects the garbled messiness of my process and believes in me. All of these people take me seriously, and laugh with me, too, sustaining the journey.<\/p>\n

One way or another, we\u2019re going far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twice lately I\u2019ve come across a certain African proverb, first in Cory Booker\u2019s comments during last week\u2019s Democratic presidential candidates\u2019 debate, and a couple days later in a New Hampshire coffee shop on a tip jar. The proverb states, \u201cIf you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birthmarked"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5578,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5575\/revisions\/5578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}