Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Beth Morris's avatar

Love this post so, so much Courtney. Thank so for sharing these "actual" timelines -- so illuminating and grounding for all of us to understand and consider in how we frame and value our own work. Love it all, and love being a part of this community - it's wonderful! Thank you.

And - I can very much relate to this "fermenting" process in my own work. As you know, Courtney, I've been working hard on my first full novel manuscript for almost three years now. BUT - I actually started it in 2009. I wrote about a third of what became the first draft way back then. And then it sat almost untouched for about a decade. I got married, I started working alongside my husband for our small family business, and then I had two kids with whom I stayed home full time doing all the domestic things for years to come.

Keeping a personal blog during my early parenting years was invaluable for me - both as a tool for my own processing, and in keeping my writing sharp and afloat. I wrote more than 50 essays in those years that I'm really proud of, though none of them were ever widely published. And I started reading a lot more - more and more each year. Reading to enjoy, yes, but also reading as a writer, ever observant of what worked, what didn't, what moved me.

In January 2020, after taking some local writing courses in recent years through which I connected with the person who is now my beloved writing coach/cheerleader/writing accountability partner, I committed to resurrecting and finishing that seed of a novel I'd planted and begun 11 years earlier.

I finished the full first draft in 2020, then I wrote an almost entirely new second draft, which I just finished this summer. I never ever thought I would almost entirely re-write my book from first draft to second, but - chapter by chapter- I did. It was incredibly daunting, took me over a year, but I can firmly state it is a BETTER book because I did. Why? Because I'm older and wiser, because I'm a better writer at 39 than I was at 26. Because (similar to Courtney's experience) I now share the real-life experience of marriage and mothering with my protagonist, along with countless other life experiences along the way that help inform my writing and world-view.

The second draft of my manuscript is now in the hands of a developmental editor and I hope to start agent queries this winter. I have faith in the fermentation process, and look forward to seeing where it takes me next.

Expand full comment
Mary B Hansen's avatar

This is just what I needed to hear today and maybe always. There is a chapter of a book I wrote in 2006 that my mind keeps going back to but something always becomes a bigger priority. You reminded me that maybe it is just not the right time and it will come, at some point. THANKS!

Expand full comment
22 more comments...

No posts