Blog Tour ???? – How Long Does It Take To Write A Novel?
I’m on a virtual blog Book Tour from December 1st to the 12th 2014.
Below is an excerpt from one tour page.
How Long Does It Take To Write A Novel?
By Mindy Halleck
Aspiring novelist often ask, “How long did it take to write Return To Sender?”
“TEN YEARS,” I tell them.
Then I get a look of horror, so I explain. There were a lot of reasons, but two main ones.
One was that I had cancer three times while writing my book. With each time I lost at least one year of recuperation time and the long bouts of NO energy or creative flow interrupted everything. When focused on my own mortality it turns out I’m not one of those authors who can create: some can, and I admire their stamina. I just couldn’t think straight and so lost a lot of time.
The other reason was it took years to research Korea, The Korean War, and The Korean War orphans who our US soldiers raised money to help and risked their own lives in doing so. I then had to write my protagonist, Theo Riley’s journals based on that research. I wrote his letters and journals for three or four years so I would know who he was, what he went through and how deeply he was wounded. It was a long process but one I needed to go through in order to create an authentic Korean War hero.
It takes a lot of energy and focus to write a novel and for many of those TEN YEARS I was focused on loving my family and staying alive. However, what I did create while really sick was one of my other characters who I adore, Solomon. He’s a Nehalem Indian Shaman (a healer) and a wise man who guides Theo out of his darkness. No mystery there; I needed a healer and a guide through my darkness and so unconsciously created one. It helped. Today I’m fine and starting work on my next novel. To Read an excerpt from Return To Sender, and the rest of the blog click here, ALSO sign up to win a $100 Amazon gift card while you’re there.
Mindy Halleck 