Are you good at writing, but take along time to write?

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I've always had "above average" writing skills (according to my parents and teachers), yet it can take me up to a week just to write a paragraph of an essay. Part of this may be due to limited interests, but I'm not quite sure. Does anyone else have this problem?

I'm above average in writing according to my teachers but I finish fast when there's a writting exam (I'm the first to finish most of the time)

Always, but generally because I have impossibly high standards for anything I do write. I tend to delete a lot.

Same here! I edit obsessively, until I get what I think is the right balance between content and concision.

(...even in things as trivial as a facebook message )

This is an interesting subject.

I've been really successful in my academic writing, but I think my process is very different from most others.

I draft everything in my head. So, when I start writing, it usually goes pretty fast, but the actual process started days and days before.

As an example, I had to do a research proposal this term. The whole thing--actual research, lit review, annotated bibliography, research design, writing--took about six weeks to do. BUT, I didn't start writing until the Thursday before it was due (on the following Tuesday).

I produced about 16 pages by Sunday afternoon. Then, I took a break, proof read my work Monday afternoon, did some VERY small revisions, and submitted my work via Safe Assign (anti-plagiarism screener) by Monday evening.

I also had to do a Bio-psycho-social assessment of a fictional character and then develop an intervention plan and an evaluation of my interventions. I did Karl Childers from the movie Slingblade.

First, I read the assessment tool, so I'd know what to pay attention to. Then, I watched the movie and took a few notes. After that, I didn't do anything (but think about it) for about a week. Finally, I started writing. I produced the assessment and intervention plan (about 9 pages) in one day. Then, I did the evaluation/follow-up (about 7 pages, with tables, graphs, etc.) in another day...

So, for me the actual writing process goes really fast, but it does take a lot of prep-time.

I don't know if this counts, but I can be an exceptional writer. The problem is that I'm rarely inspired to do much of it, and I often run out of steam after a few "chapters." The most I've managed would be "short stories."

Yes. I'm always complimented on my academic writing, but writing has always been an excruciating process for me. I can't even tell you how torturous writing has been for me in the past, as it would involve me writing about it. It's gotten easier over time, with lots more writing. But one of the core issues is my ability to process information, as basically writing is all about the prioritisation of information, and sometimes I don't know how to prioritise information, and all the time I don't know how to organise information in the most effective manner. So, I struggle with that a hell of a lot. At the level of the a sentence, I know how to make a good-sounding sentence. But, at the level of the structure of a piece of writing, I struggle a hell of a lot. The fact is, I don't know what I want to write or how I want to write it until I write it, so I'm always in a process of revision. Writing. Oh my God. It's the organisational skills, I just lack them. I just cannot work out how paragraphs ought to connect with one another, and in which order, etc, etc, and one paragraph can potentially link up to so many different other paragraphs (i.e. one idea can potentially link up to so many different ideas), that I can't choose and I become stuck. So, in short, YES, writing takes me forever and I struggle SO MUCH. But, academically, everyone always thinks my writing is great.

I am great at writing!

Yes. I have been told by a number of my professors at college that I write very well. Though my tendency to think things through before writing, writing, reflecting, and repeat tends to make so that I take about twice as long as average to write things.

I've been told the same, and I too use a very long time to write anything, be it school work when I had it, or PMs, letters, email, forums posts, you name it.
Despite getting very good grades in Norwegian and English, I was always the last to finish tests and tasks. I remember doing a simple boring task once and my teacher asked me to help the guy next to me. I pointed out that I wasn't done yet, which surprised her. Finding it easy doesn't make me quick.

If it's not simply a formulaic response, then it'll take anything from hours (if it's fairly short) to months, depending on how long it is and how much I can copy from similar things I've written earlier.

It takes me time to formulate it and I'm often at a loss for what to say. I also use a long time polishing it.

In addition I do much worse when I write stuff I don't really care about (as often was the case in school), and I'm not good at translating. It's so boring and I never find good terms, while free writing is so much easier.


It's the same for me too. I have SO many stories I started, but gave up on or put away "for now". I was always writing stories until I turned 20. I still have books full of stories I started but didn't finish, and ideas for stories that never grew out of the idea phase.

Yeah, I'm slow if I have time to take. I don't have any pre-writing organizational skills to speak of, so it has to happen on the fly. Predictably, when I write it's a little disjointed, but the point is clear if the reader even remotely pays attention.

From what I'm told I write pretty much how I talk, so the micro piece of it isn't a problem, but structuring any written thing is a bear... In any case, post grad school, I've realized that it doesn't really matter because nobody pays attention to actual content of literally anything, which is f****d but apparently that's the way it is.

Those who write well but are slow to produce anything should take heart: Marcel Proust, the author of 'À la recherche du temps perdu', one of the world's most influential and longest novels, wrote painfully slowly and died before the final part of his work was published. He also took years to correct the proofs.

Many writers work slowly. I have often spent whole mornings moving a comma from one end of a sentence to another.

I do take a long time to write, and to me this counts as sucking at it. I too like having high standards, mainly because I've always been pressured to lower them.

i am not good at writing but i can write question marks rapidly

Actually I write a lot. I was pretty good when I was a child or an adolescent and I wrote in my native tongue (Dutch) but now I am an almost 50 years old adult and write English and Dutch pretty well. My writings should be without errors, and that is possible in Dutch and sometimes there are errors in English writings. If I see an error (in a forum message) I try to remove it (it is often possible). I also write very well in Esperanto (the language that I speak fluently but did not learn at school).

My handwriting looks like printed letters and therefore it is very easy to read. Connecting letters to a word (without taking the pen from the paper) was a failure and then I "print" the letters. Nobody complains about my writings; nobody says that I write illegibly; it is just very easy to read.

I'm great a writing, but for some reason I type much faster than I write.