Sarah, this was just what I needed to hear this morning. Or, read, I guess. As someone beginning her third year working on a memoir and getting closer to 60 every day, I take comfort in being reminded that I'm not alone. I try to remind myself that if I do the work, everything else will follow. Or not. But at least I'm doing it. And so are you.
Let’s hear it for slow writing. I don’t do vomit drafts because ugly writing discourages me. If I can write one true paragraph that makes me proud, I can write another. Some of these true paragraphs will eventually have to go, but they serve a motivational purpose.
What a timely newsletter. I know that I can quit at any time but somehow never realized that I can tell myself that. One of my favorite books, "The Leopard" by Giuseppe DiLampedusa was the only book he ever published. I'll never forget my mom telling me, when I was in my 30s, that it was the kind of a book that would take an entire lifetime to write. Some books are like that.
I loved your review of Still Life, which is one of my favorite books. I truly hope that you publish your book about Emily Sargent and John Singer Sargent. I look forward to your newsletters, as they are very interesting and inspiring. Thank you.
Thank you for this, Sarah. I spent decades sure I couldn't write the memoir I just finished. So could I say it took me forty years to write it? A different kind of slow writing, but I think it counts.
I love all of these insights from writers who are in the thick of it - thank you for all of the wonderful quotes. I'd love to attend the AWP conference someday...also, beautiful pics of NH!
This is great, Sarah, and very encouraging to us late bloomers as published writers - and it's definitely associated with growing confidence in later life, so there are some upsides to getting older and wiser. Love the idea of a writing journal too - you are your own manager and agent, essentially.
Hi Sarah - As someone who is on year six of writing my first novel, I really needed this! Thank you for sharing these writers' stories. I always enjoy your newsletter!
Thank you Sarah! I definitely needed this message today and will hold on to this advice and inspiration as I keep working on my memoir (4 years in, but who's counting?!).
It was great to finally meet in person at AWP! As I go about my slow writing, the people I've met and call friends in this writing community keep me going.
Thanks for this account of your time out at AWP, Sarah, especially for those of us who knew about it, would have been interested in (and also a bit scared by) the abundance of offerings, but couldn't go. Just a couple of days ago, I received a very welcome "green light" assessment of my manuscript, which has been oh about five years in the making. Still more questions and decisions and work ahead, but getting a thumbs up at the right moment can keep us hanging in there, sort of like a marathon runner believing that much of the race course, at least, has been completed, and that the remaining miles might just be within our reach.
I'm a proud member of the slow writers. The novel I'm currently pitching took over a decade to finish and the manuscript I'm focused on completing now I started writing in 2015. :) Thank you for sharing about your experience at the conference and all those writers and their books!
Thanks for sharing these gems. The poems/stories/novels people write are so precious. When you consider everything that has to happen for them to be written/published, it seems like a miracle any exist at all! ✨
Thanks, Amy! Yes, patience is key, it’s a long process (marathon not sprint etc.). That’s a good question re novel length. I think the conventional wisdom is not longer than 80,000-90,000 words for a debut novel, and the exceptions are either for more literary works, or maybe some historical fiction. I didn’t have to think too much about this because my novel that sold (Wrong Kind of Woman) came in around 80,000 when I showed pages to my agent, and the previous one (the historical one that didn’t sell) came in around 85,000. But one bit of advice that I’d heard and ignored was: don’t query too soon. I queried too soon with the historical novel, thinking it was probably finished, when it wasn’t, and wasted my chance with a bunch of agents. But when is it finished? That’s a whole other question that’s hard to answer!
Sarah, this was just what I needed to hear this morning. Or, read, I guess. As someone beginning her third year working on a memoir and getting closer to 60 every day, I take comfort in being reminded that I'm not alone. I try to remind myself that if I do the work, everything else will follow. Or not. But at least I'm doing it. And so are you.
Let’s hear it for slow writing. I don’t do vomit drafts because ugly writing discourages me. If I can write one true paragraph that makes me proud, I can write another. Some of these true paragraphs will eventually have to go, but they serve a motivational purpose.
What a timely newsletter. I know that I can quit at any time but somehow never realized that I can tell myself that. One of my favorite books, "The Leopard" by Giuseppe DiLampedusa was the only book he ever published. I'll never forget my mom telling me, when I was in my 30s, that it was the kind of a book that would take an entire lifetime to write. Some books are like that.
I loved your review of Still Life, which is one of my favorite books. I truly hope that you publish your book about Emily Sargent and John Singer Sargent. I look forward to your newsletters, as they are very interesting and inspiring. Thank you.
Thank you for this, Sarah. I spent decades sure I couldn't write the memoir I just finished. So could I say it took me forty years to write it? A different kind of slow writing, but I think it counts.
I love all of these insights from writers who are in the thick of it - thank you for all of the wonderful quotes. I'd love to attend the AWP conference someday...also, beautiful pics of NH!
A fantastic post, Sarah! Inspiring and so true.
This is great, Sarah, and very encouraging to us late bloomers as published writers - and it's definitely associated with growing confidence in later life, so there are some upsides to getting older and wiser. Love the idea of a writing journal too - you are your own manager and agent, essentially.
Hi Sarah - As someone who is on year six of writing my first novel, I really needed this! Thank you for sharing these writers' stories. I always enjoy your newsletter!
Thank you Sarah! I definitely needed this message today and will hold on to this advice and inspiration as I keep working on my memoir (4 years in, but who's counting?!).
It was great to finally meet in person at AWP! As I go about my slow writing, the people I've met and call friends in this writing community keep me going.
I love this, Sarah! (she said, as she began year four of working on her own third novel...)
Thanks for this account of your time out at AWP, Sarah, especially for those of us who knew about it, would have been interested in (and also a bit scared by) the abundance of offerings, but couldn't go. Just a couple of days ago, I received a very welcome "green light" assessment of my manuscript, which has been oh about five years in the making. Still more questions and decisions and work ahead, but getting a thumbs up at the right moment can keep us hanging in there, sort of like a marathon runner believing that much of the race course, at least, has been completed, and that the remaining miles might just be within our reach.
I'm a proud member of the slow writers. The novel I'm currently pitching took over a decade to finish and the manuscript I'm focused on completing now I started writing in 2015. :) Thank you for sharing about your experience at the conference and all those writers and their books!
Thanks for sharing these gems. The poems/stories/novels people write are so precious. When you consider everything that has to happen for them to be written/published, it seems like a miracle any exist at all! ✨
Thanks, Amy! Yes, patience is key, it’s a long process (marathon not sprint etc.). That’s a good question re novel length. I think the conventional wisdom is not longer than 80,000-90,000 words for a debut novel, and the exceptions are either for more literary works, or maybe some historical fiction. I didn’t have to think too much about this because my novel that sold (Wrong Kind of Woman) came in around 80,000 when I showed pages to my agent, and the previous one (the historical one that didn’t sell) came in around 85,000. But one bit of advice that I’d heard and ignored was: don’t query too soon. I queried too soon with the historical novel, thinking it was probably finished, when it wasn’t, and wasted my chance with a bunch of agents. But when is it finished? That’s a whole other question that’s hard to answer!
These are beautiful moments! Thanks for sharing. Let's stay connected https://substack.com/@makepurethyheart?r=1zorpg&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile