Logistics and equating time spent

It's really difficult to equate the amount of time spent on one project in a musical endeavor with the amount of time it takes to write a comparable piece of literature. This is what I'm facing now with this project. With regard to an essay or short story or collection of poems, it's one person writing (unless it's a collaborative work) on one piece of literature. I've written lots of short fiction, tons of poetry, and many essays in my time here at Miami. I've also written and recorded a lot of music, most of which I've done alone. The problem is, when one speaks of a musical piece, one usually means someone writing, possibly playing one of the instruments, another engineering, another playing another instrument, someone else mixing, another mastering, etc. This equates to a large number of man-hours (though I am loathe to use the gender specific term "man" hours, saying "person" hours just doesn't quite cut it) per minute of song.

My dilemma I guess is not the content but the execution and delivery of the piece. I was initially considering two songs, but as the time approaches it looks like I may only have time to do one. Instead of a chapbook I'll have a cd single in hand to display my work. Here's what I've decided to do thus far...

I've written the lyrics, which usually take the least amount of time since I'm always writing poetry of some sort, so the lryics are usually done first. Then I have to decide the melody and chord structure, which is the foundation of the piece. After that, I decide the instrumentation. Now we get into the grit a wee bit. I this phase, I have to think of how I want the song to sound and I hear it in my head, then I listen for the various instruments to ring out and make themselves known. I start making notes (no pun intended) and constructing a list of instruments. I consider the logistics of the piece, can I play this instrument or do I have to learn something new for this song. Once I had to learn enough of the oboe to lay down thirteen seconds one track. Then I have to arrange them in a logical manner so that I can hear the layers unfold, which is a truly remarkable evolution to witness. After all that is done, the tracks are laid, God's in his heaven and all's right with the world, I have to begin the mixing.

Mixing involves making sure all the sounds are at the correct volumes and EQ's are set so that no sound masks any other sound. this is a painstaking process that usually runs about one to three hours per minute of song, depending on the piece. After that is the mastering. Mastering is truly one of the least understood aspects of music making, that is, one might think that making sure the volumes are set, the eq is good, everything has been normalized, it's mastered, right?

Nope.

Mastering takes twice as log as mixing, usually, and involves re-eq-ing, sequencing the pieces (not in this case, since it's but one song) and making sure all of the correct things stand out at all the correct times. This is the part I enjoy least, but it is the most essential. Bad notes are bad (that's why they call them that) but the most important? Fie! I say. Bad notes and other dinky faux pas of that ilk are mere skid marks on the undershorts of the music industry that can easily be covered and contained by the tweak of a knob hither and/or yon. But, get a piece in which the vocals can't be heard for the drums, or the guitar can't be heard for the tambourine, and POW! you have one ruined piece of blood, sweat, and tears staring at you from the monitor through which you have the nearly undeniable urge to launch your fist.

The content is fairly straight forward with undertones of zigging and zagging throughout. It's about the power of questioning authority. Questioning one's faith. raising questions that are not, Not, answered in the song. This brings up the power to question, the power to change, the power to evoke answers through the clever use of asking questions, and the power to evolve through the ability to ask ourselves, is this the right thing for me? How do I feel about this question? What is that twinkling in the corner of your sparkling eye?
Essence incorporeal or reflections of a lifetime passing by?