My second novel in that same series has been in progress for years. My youngest daughter reads Slate and once sent me an article that so touched me that I have it pinned on a bulletin bar inside the same closet where my manuscript resides. At least I can see it each time I open that door.
Author Susanna Daniel wrote an article in Slate in July, 2010 titled, "What Took You So Long? The quiet hell of 10 years of novel writing."
The article begins:
There is surely a word—in German, most likely—that means the state of active non-accomplishment. Not just the failure to reach a specific goal, but ongoing, daily failure with no end in sight. Stunted ambition. Disappointed potential. Frustrated and sad and lonely and hopeless and sick to death of one's self.
Whatever it's called, this is what leads people to abandon their goals—people do it every day. And I understand that decision, because I lived in this state of active non-accomplishment for many years.
At the time she wrote it, her first novel had been accepted for publication. By now it's been out there for a few years. She cites another writer who took his time and lost hope: Junot Diaz, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, also took 10 years to complete it. Neither Daniel or Diaz worked on that novel all that time. They put them down for long stretches of time, to have a child or enter a graduate program. But they answered that siren's call, which usually for me comes in the middle of the night, the call to come back and finish your story. Your characters are waiting for you.
I visited my daughter Meg the summer she gave me the What Took You so Long? piece. We were watching TV and talking. I said, "I feel like I have so much to say and no one is listening to me."
She was 20 years old at the time, and I was floored by what she said in response: "Mom, that's what writers do. They write all the things in their heads that no one is listening to."
That was four years ago. I've been helped tremendously by bloggers and other writers I've met when I decided to go for it. Procrastination is a problem. Less a problem than a detour is the non-fiction craft beer book I'm writing. For that project, I am grateful, as it may mean income coming in from my writing. It'll be at least a year til I see it, but it should flow in and help out.
I work on writing every day, and setting up this blog helps. I either write here or in my other, food/beer-related blog or even in the novel.
Daniel ends her piece with this:
After I wrote the last sentence, I printed the whole mess and got out my red pen, and the relief of having a complete draft was overwhelming. I had more writing energy than I'd had in years. At this point, no matter that the sky was falling in publishing-land, I was certain that I would see my book in print.
I'm keeping the faith that this will also happen to me. Finishing even a first draft is the biggest event, and I know I can do it. I even have the last scene written. It's finding the balance between the fiction projects, the beer book and blogging and some freelance articles that have come trickling in. But the most important thing is to push past fear and doubt and start clacking away at the keys.
Read Susanna Daniel's touching piece here:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2010/07/what_took_you_so_long.html
No comments:
Post a Comment