Tortoise or Hare?

When it comes to writing are you...
a tortoise or a hare?
a snail or a sailfish?
molasses or lightning?

I'm more of a snailish tortoise crawling through molasses.

I'm slow and always have been when it comes to writing. When I was in college my roommate and I were both English majors and were sometimes in the same class. If we had a paper due and were working in our dorm room together, we'd both sit down with our notebooks and start writing. My roommate would put her pencil to paper (this was before the days of laptops) and before I knew it she'd have a full page written while I agonized over the first paragraph trying to get it just right. She'd have hers written in one night and it would take me days. And yet we both received high grades for our work. We simply had different methods.

Even in my journal writing or when writing a letter to a friend (no email or social networking back then), I'd try to choose just the right words. Then I'd edit it and write it over. Imagine writing a rough draft for a journal entry? Yes, I can be a bit peculiar...er...particular about my writing, no matter what it is.

Sometimes I wish I could write faster. I marvel at those authors who can whip out a first draft of 80k in three months or less. That's Speedy Gonzales fast! And so not me. But that's okay. I accept that about myself. I'm never...well, I don't think I'll ever...write a novel in a month (hello? why did I sign up for another nanowrimo). Could I be more disciplined? Sure. But I'll still sit and ruminate over an idea, a scene, the right word choice. I'll still write a chapter longhand, let it sit overnight, then type it in Word while I edit along the way. It works for me.

So what's your method? Do you write fast or slow?