The Making of a Novel: Courage to Tell Your Best Story

I had the pleasure of speaking at an author's luncheon today at the Huntington Beach public library. This is a big, beautiful library that is thriving in the midst of a cultural sea-change, and it was a delight to be among all the book-loving Friends of the Library.

My fellow guest author was Diane Dixon, whose debut novel, The Language of Secrets, came out last year to great acclaim. It was a hot book club pick, and generated a ton of well-deserved buzz. Diane herself is smart, poised, funny and rocks one of those chic short haircuts that always make me want to lop off my mop of curls. She's a great lunch companion.

I first met Diane at an author event last November. At that time, she was hard at work trying to finish her second book. She was on a tight deadline, and that deadline was looming. When I saw her today, the first thing I said was, "So book number two is a done deal?"

"Oh," she said, "Well. Um. No."

Turns out that hours before her book was due -- hours -- Diane decided that it wasn't good enough. It was good -- fine, I believe is the exact word she used -- but it wasn't good enough to be the companion to The Language of Secrets. Book #2 was already on the schedule, which is to say that people were counting on it. Meetings had been held, strategies adopted to introduce it to the public. Still, Diane called her editor. She told this editor that she wouldn't be sending her book. She wouldn't be sending anything. She was starting from scratch to write something different. Something better. The silence, Diane said, "was profound."

In a week filled with floods and shootings and all manner of life-and-death courage, I held my breath while Diane told me this story. She had exhibited what seems to me to be the definitely of writerly courage. It made me want to come right back home and stand up for my own novel-in-progress in that same "nothing will shake me from telling my best story" way.

 

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Comments

[ChangeAgent007]

02:08 AM on 01/19/2011

I'm glad I don't have to work within a deadline at this point. Maybe I'll do what Stephen King does and write a few spares, stash them away for a rainy day when the writing isn't flowing well.

I have so many great stories rolling around in my head, I find it hard to believe that I would ever feel the way she did, but then I'm not on a deadline. Maybe I would feel differently if I was.

[Patricia Benesh]

02:43 PM on 01/17/2011

We all get those "nagging" thoughts in our heads--and many times ignore them for too long. It would be interesting to know when Diane first had the dreaded thought and what triggered it.

[Dan Walter]

06:55 PM on 01/16/2011

The book I wrote with the "nothing will shake me from telling my best story" attitude was not fiction. The fact that it was a true story made me very determined to tell as true a story as I could tell and I broke some conventions, I think. There is something to be said for integrity, and although it was very difficult at times, I'm glad I remained unshaken.
(http://collateral-damage.net)

[dahpunkster]

03:32 PM on 01/17/2011

sometimes you have this character waiting on a couch in your brain for you to write a story about them and they refuse to leave.

[Jennie Nash]

09:29 PM on 01/19/2011

Integrity is a key ingredient of any story. I applaud your actions! I was once accused (by a library book group!) of writing scenes that took place in Costco and Subway because I might get a kick-back from those stores. While on the one hand I thought it was hilarious -- how awesome would it be if it were true! -- on the other hand, I was deeply offended. I write with as close to 100% integrity as I can manage. I don't think there's any other way.

[emmacunningham]

02:13 PM on 01/14/2011

There's perfectionism and then there's professionalism, and both are important. By this point, the publisher has likely spent quite a bit, in terms of employee time and money, on Diane's book. Is it really fair to scrap it with no notice like this?

While writing is an art, it's also a job, and I'm not sure that it's fair to let down people who have been counting on you.

[phxazlaura]

10:57 AM on 01/14/2011

I honestly think this can cut two ways. Perfectionism kills creativity. What if we all scrapped our work at the 11th hour to begin again? Nothing would ever get published.

[Jennie Nash]

12:14 PM on 01/14/2011

A great point and a scary one! It sounds like a premise for a novel -- no books ever get pulished!

[CropCircles]

09:35 AM on 01/14/2011

What has been said here in reference to novels (fiction) applies just as much to non-fiction. You can write the same thing fifty times and fifty ways and still feel that the words and sentences are inadequate to explain to the reader what you feel or what you wish to say. And sometimes the words and sentences will never come. You can only do your best and then start with the next thought or event and possibly repeat the process until exhaustion sets in.

[Jennie Nash]

12:14 PM on 01/14/2011

Whew! It can be exhausting, can't it?

[CropCircles]

04:35 PM on 01/14/2011

It can be exhausting. I had wondered about that many times until one day it occurred to me that the reason might be that most of the time I had to put my name on what I wrote. That meant that others were going to read it. If others were going to read it then it was going to be a reflection on me. Assuming that to be true, then what words I chose and how I used them had to be as precise as possible for the specific piece of writing. So --- I sometimes spent a lot of time on a single word or a single sentence making sure I was not going to be misunderstood. I would not be there for the reader to ask me what I meant. Needless to say, that took a lot of psychic energy. Hence, the exhaustion.

P.S. Even here I sometimes use the Preview Comment followed by the Edit feature to make corrections or changes before I let a comment go. Not always, of course, but sometimes I do.