I hate talking on the phone. The phone is so intrusive and I rarely conduct any business on it. I’ve worked with editors for years without ever talking to them on the phone or meeting them in person. Emails are great for communicating with hermit writers. But today I re-discovered the the power of a simple phone call.
Usually, if I have a question with something I’m working on, I fire off an email and wait for a reply. But this morning’s dilemma required an instant answer. So, I did something extremely radical. Something unheard of around here. I picked up the phone and called my editor.
This may not seem a big deal to you, but to me it’s a very big step. And it taught me that the a simple phone call can save you more time than a dozen emails.
I’m a writer who rarely says no. I can usually work with rewrites, comments or suggestions and often they make the work much better. But it turned out that my editor shared my concerns about a proposed changed. Right then we put a plan into motion to fix the problem.
The plan was perfect for me because it involved me not writing anything more for the day. And that saved me an afternoon of struggling with the change, trying to make it fit and waiting for an answer via email from my editor.
Instead, the good old phone provided an instant answer and gave me the afternoon off. Not bad for an old technology that I hate to use.
I’m still a hermit and I still love email, but I think I’ll try that phone call thing again soon.
