Twelve years of writing
A magical Christmas Eve story
This is a First Readers post, an occasional update on a book idea I have about the human experience of illness.
Hello, dear friends!
I’m here with a long-overdue update on the book I’m writing — OK, honestly, not so much writing as sending letters to agents and waiting and waiting. (I know, thrilling!)
But first, a story:
On Christmas Eve, I was roaming the shelves of my favorite local bookstore, looking for those final elusive gifts. The store was as busy as I’ve ever seen it, and people were buying — there was a constant line. Each time someone reached the front of the line, there was a usual question:
Are you a store member?
Yes, answered one man. I’m _____ [muffled].
Oh!!! The bookstore owner was at the counter, and she gasped. I heard you lived nearby! I love your book. I recommend it all the time. Would you sign a copy?
Everyone in the bookstore perked up. Who was he? What book had he written? There was an author here!
The owner dashed to a shelf and picked up a large hardback book with gold lettering: Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide.
It was apparently a mystery, a “fiendishly funny” Hogwarts-Spy School-like trianing ground for murder, but only people who deserve it. I made a mental note to add it to my reading list.
As he signed it, another customer in line started asking him questions:
How long did it take you to write it?
He looked up from the book: Twelve years.
And the one before that, he paused, that also took twelve years.
He chuckled.
By way of explanation, he added: I’m a musician.
TWELVE YEARS.
When I was back home later, I looked this lovely fellow up, of course.
He’s a playwright, musician, singer-songwriter, Tony Award winner. (This little Hudson River town is full of creative people.) He had a lot occupying him between book publication dates.
And: TWELVE YEARS.
Dear friends, it’s been 6 months since I told you I had an idea for a book, and I thought it had been slow going. I was a little embarrassed I didn’t have a bigger update for you.
Here’s the 2023 recap:
I finished the book proposal. Yay! That took a while.
Then I wrote a query letter.
I searched for agents in my genre, who were open to queries.
I sent the query letter to 11 agents, a few at a time.
One declined.
One asked to see the full proposal and passed.
The rest — who knows if they even read it? No answer is its own answer.
And then came the holidays, and the book fell off my to-do list.
That lovely author in the bookstore gave me an unexpected Christmas gift: a great reminder that these things take time. Sometimes, a LOT OF TIME.
Yet there he was, signing his own book in his local bookstore, all the customers buzzing, after TWELVE YEARS of writing this marvelous book.
Do you have a project, a dream, or maybe a health-related plan that got started in 2023 (or 2003), but didn’t get to the finish line last year?
Here is my message for you (and for me): Great getting started! Yay! That’s worth celebrating.
And: Most things worth doing take a lot of time
Most things worth doing take more time than you think they will.
Most things worth doing take more time than they seem they should.
And … we can’t control everything. We can do what we can do.
This goes for creative projects, for nurturing your health, and for so much more.
January, of course, is the quintessential month for trying again — or for picking up a different path.
January is a perfect month for reflection and hope.
I have loads of dreams for 2024, but I honestly haven’t thought much about how the book idea fits in. It feels like I’m not in the fun, creative part right now; I’m in the grind.
The next step is to send the query letter to another 11 agents. And then another 11 after that. And work on making the proposal stronger.
But also, I’m realizing, writing this to you, it’s probably time to start writing the book itself. That would be fun. That would be illuminating.
How are you thinking about your 2023 dreams in 2024?
Are you abandoning them, pushing them ahead, changing them in some way?
I’d love to hear.
One last story from Christmas Eve:
I had finally picked out a few books and was standing in line when the front door tinkled open yet again. A woman bundled in a coat walked in, and the woman in front of me raised her hand to wave, and called out eagerly:
Dar! Dar! Hello!
Dar?
There is only one person I know in the world with that name.
That person is a folk musician. I listened to her albums over and over again as a teenager. I went to her concerts, sat on a blanket on a summer evening with friends, and listened to her wise lyrics. She is one of my music heroines.
AND IT WAS HER.
Dar Williams was standing in the same bookshop, chatting away with another customer.
If you don’t know Dar, she’s a singer-songwriter and author of several books, including How to Write a Song That Matters, which I had already spied on a table in the bookshop.
It felt like a magical Christmas Eve.
I wonder: How will 2024 surprise us?
What are your 2024 dreams and plans?
I’m wishing you lots of happy surprises this year and the patience to stay on a path you choose.
To our journeys,
Brianne
Read the past issues of First Readers:
p.s. Here’s a little Dar music for your weekend:
What a magical experience Brienne. I hope you do start writing your book, for the joy and for the world. I’m about 40k words into my first draft, written in dribs and drabs over 168 days so far. Thank you for sharing this story.