Recently, the Book Writing World had the pleasure of hosting Thaisa Frank, and one of the many important things she said during her hour-long talk about writing and process and inspiration and writers’ block, was about time.
It was delightful to hear her speak about her own process and the state of chaos under which she has produced some amazing books like Heidegger’s Glasses and most recently, Enchantment.
She talked about the “germ” that would later take shape and form Heidegger’s Glasses, and how it took her more than seventeen years to make that idea into a powerful novel about World War II. Some of the stories that form the collection Enchantment, Ms. Frank said, took more than a decade to write.
These little tidbits are not just great anecdotes, but for me at least, lifelines right now as I struggle to write something new, as I try to fashion a new novel out of an idea that started eighteen years ago when I was starting graduate school in New York. The novel has been written in one form or fashion, but abandoned about fifteen years ago, and it was briefly revived in 2004 and then again, for NaNoWriMo in 2010.
All versions of my novel, titled “circa,” suck. And it’s sad to see so many completely written but completely unusable pages that will excellent kindling for the fireplace and serve no other purpose. But I still like the germ of the idea that made me finish two versions of this book – and now I just have to find the right “petrie dish” so it will grow.
I participate in Elizabeth’s advanced workshop class and these comrades are wonderful, dedicated writers who all happen to be moms and fully understand what it is like to wear the mom hat and the writer hat, simultaneously. I’m publicly apologizing in advance for what I wrote and turned in for this week. 🙂 Please note the word “rough” in “rough draft” comes first….
The morsel of gold in this big bag of iron sulfide is that I unpacked some more boxes this weekend and found my little black notebook, full of notes about “circa” and all of the things I had originally wanted to say – and it was nice to see my notes again, it was as though I were visiting an old friend.