I never forgot those words. They apply to everyone with a
dream. The only thing we know for sure is that we will age. What matters is what
we do with our years. There is no statute of limitations on a dream and no
rush.
I was in my late forties when I completed my Masters in
Writing. My first novel had already been roundly rejected and I saw that was like
training wheels on a bike – great for beginners but better stored in the shed.
I was in my fifties when the next novel attracted a serious literary agent, and
a slew of raves for writing, but no acquisition, and the agent gave up quickly.
So did I. Perhaps, I thought, time had run out.
Still hopeful, I gave up my businesswoman persona and spent
the rest of that decade as a journalist, and was nearly sixty when I started
blogging. Writing is writing, whatever the form, and I learned a lot, and never
gave up on fiction.
In truth, age is a writer’s ally. The greater the
experience, the more we have to say. More time to learn important truths, to establish
a more expansive point of view, to refine skills and find your voice, and infinitely
more stories to be told. The novel I will publish in January could never have
been written twenty years ago.
I would have loved to devote my life to fiction and I always
admired those writers who woke before dawn to knock off five thousand words
before getting a nutritious breakfast on the table for their children and
heading to work. I don’t have that sort of stamina. I had a husband and
children and turns out there is a shelf life on that time. Parents also needed
tending. Friends needed a friend. I wanted to take vacations at the beach and
save for retirement. I had a room of my own and carved out time to write, but
never enough time. Or was it determination? Courage?
Time is on your side whatever the obstacles in your path, as
long as you don’t let the calendar undermine your resolve.
I still make a living as a journalist and marketing writer,
so I split my days. Mornings, I craft articles, book reviews, newsletters, brochures
or grants. I work at home, the kids grown, husband gone. No distractions.
However writing, as you know, is a lonely job, so in the afternoons, I write
fiction at a café. I like the sense of camaraderie there, even if I rarely lift
my eyes from the screen. With a change of scene I also change my voice from the
expository to the novelist. Sometimes I use people at the next table for
character sketches; sometimes I borrow snippets of conversation. Sometimes I
read, which is never wasted time because I truly believe you cannot be a great
writer unless you read great writers.
I wrote a story while in graduate school in 1999. An
African-American nurse, a single mother with three children, tried to run three
times a week or so to stay sane. The only time she had to call her own. A
tragedy stops her in her tracks. I love to read short stories, but rarely write
them, although some years later, I wrote another story about a depressed girl
who takes up running, and I realized she might be the grown daughter of the
nurse. What might have happened to the nurse? To the other children? Their kindly
neighbor? Their father was Caucasian, so what challenges do brown people face
these days in the land of black and white? Who might they encounter on their
journeys? A novel was born. Many characters came and went, and direction shifted
many times. Years passed. But now, as Toni Morrison advised, I wrote the book I
wanted to read.
Age however crept up on me when I realized I had no desire
to waste time querying agents or praying for an editor or wading through the
labyrinth known as the publishing industry. No, I would rather be writing, so I
will self-publish “Colors of the Wheel” in January and the many friends and
colleagues I have known throughout this long life are rooting for me.
Hopefully, they will also spread the word.
If you don’t count the original story, six years is what it
took to get this book right. Six years! I might have had a PhD.
This post was just published today on women writers, women's books: http://booksbywomen.org/age-a-writers-ally-by-randy-kraft/
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