Sunday, November 1, 2015

Waiting Is—I Tell You—Hard


Over a month ago, I posted for the first time in ten months. My plan was to begin posting and reading blogs again on a regular basis. What I’ve learned in a rather long life is that plans “oft go awry”! What I hadn’t planned for is the time necessary for completing a memoir.

I began this memoir—one centered on my years in the convent—back in July 2014. I’ve now written four drafts of it. And as Wordsworth would say, “My heart leaps up when I behold” a completed manuscript!


Sister Innocence. Age twenty-three. 


This particular 74,000-word memoir originated with a request from an agent way back in June 2014. I’d sent her a query about my cat fantasy manuscript—The Gift of Nine Lives. While exploring my blog, she discovered I’d been in the convent.

The same day I e-mailed the query, she responded, asking me if I’d ever considered writing a convent memoir. If so, she said, she’d be interested in looking at it.

My friends in Minnesota call me “no-grass-grows-under-her-feet Ready!” That was never truer than with this memoir. I sat down at the computer and for two weeks didn’t even brew my daily shots of tea. By the end of that time, I had twenty polished pages to show her.

I pasted them into an e-mail and sent it to the agent. I never heard from her again.

Recently, I looked at those twenty pages and could see why she’d expressed no interest in pursuing the idea. The writing was amateurish. Wordy. Dull. A lot of telling and not much showing; a lot of explaining; a lot of philosophizing. A lot of boring detail. You got it—Lousy!  

Despite the agent’s lack of interest, a friend who knew quite a bit about publishing encouraged me to continue. “Dee,” she said, “you want to get published. A convent memoir just might get an agent’s attention. More so I think than your first-century Palestine novel. Or the one about Bronze-Age Greece.”

“But those two grabbed me. Doing something about the convent sounds boring.”

“It won’t once you get into it.”

“It’s ancient history. Who’d be interested?”

“Your blog readers liked your convent stories. I bet there’s lots more readers out there who’d read it.”

“But what about the novels?”

“Get the memoir done and published. Then readers will want more from you. That’s when you’ll get the novels published.”

“You think?”

“It’s worth a try.”

She was right. It was worth a try. And I did have some basic questions niggling my inquisitive brain. I’d been twenty-two when I entered the convent; nearly thirty-one when I left. Who was I then? Why had I entered? And more importantly, why had I left when so many stayed?

I opened myself to memories. Welcoming my summons, they came. With some came tears. With others, a great lassitude. With still others I felt the wonder of being young and in love with the idea of monasticism.

Next Sunday, I’ll write more about the months that followed. Today I’ll close by saying that nine readers—of various ages and background—are now reading/assessing the manuscript. I hope that before the end of November, I’ll know their thoughts. The big questions are, of course, does the story have an audience? Is the writing strong enough to interest that audience? Does it grab the reader?

In writing for all those months, I got lost in a thicket of words. I no longer have an objective view of what’s in that manuscript. I hope by the end of this month I will.

Waiting, my friends, is hard!!!!!

Peace.

35 comments:

  1. Waiting is indeed hard. As are the times when things are taken out of our hands.
    Good luck. I for one would love to read your convent memoir.

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    1. Dear EC, I do so hope that one day the memoir will be available as a published book. I'd love to autograph a copy for you! I'm eager to discover if the story and the writing grab the readers' interest. We'll see. I'll report in my posts. Thanks for your support. That makes all the difference in the waiting. Peace.

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  2. I believe we hoped it would come to this. There will be a line around the block for the book that will be published.

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    1. Dear Joanne, I am so fortunate to have people/readers like you rooting for me. I'm going to visualize that "line around the block"!!! Thanks for giving me the image! Peace.

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  3. I can't wait until it gets here!!

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    1. Dear Fran, I'll be picking the duplicated ms. up later this afternoon. I hope to get it in the mail to you tomorrow. Peace.

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  4. Waiting is indeed the most pain in the butt part. All those questions arise many a time though. Sure it will turn out great

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    1. Dear Pat, you've had so many books published that I'm just hoping your success will help me keep motivated. Thanks for the support. Peace.

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  5. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, Dee. I mean that for writing the manuscript and you, the beautiful person. This is where your heart was and possibly still is. This is your story and that of many who make a life choice too early or for reasons that they outgrow. Stay with this and all the answers will come to you.

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    1. Dear Arleen, writing the story brought back so many memories and helped me appreciate the "me" who was young and on fire with a desire to serve God and all creation. You do understand I know. Peace.

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  6. It's good to hear where you are in the process now. I very much know the pain of waiting. Hang in there. And I will be one of those in line to read your book someday.

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    1. Dear Deanna, thank you for your belief that the memoir will be published. I need to get to your blog to discover what you are writing about and what is happening in your life. Peace.

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  7. I smiled when I read that you started the memoir in 1914. You are one ancient writer, Dee! But I knew what you meant. I look forward to hearing more about your journey. :-)

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    1. Dear DJan, yes! there are days I do feel that ancient! I need to go back into the Dashboard and edit the post. Thanks for alerting me to the typo. Peace.

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  8. That's exciting. It's always a thrill to finish a manuscript and another thrill to complete a revision. Best of luck on telling your story.

    I spent a much shorter time at the Maryknoll Convent. I entered when I was 22 and left after eleven months.

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    1. Dear Nicki, eleven months or eight and a half years--no matter which--we were young and idealistic. Thank you for your good wishes. Peace.

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  9. Dee, I am so excited for you - and for me, too, as I look forward to your memoir emerging and for it to be published. You already have a large audience in your blog readers, both those who comment and many who don't, but read you none-the-less. Yours is a compelling story that I think will resonate with many and I think that this is the perfect time for it. Keep us posted, dear Dee.

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    1. Dear Penny, I so hope you are right about this being the "perfect time" for the convent memoir. Soon I will be contacting agents. I'm hoping they will be interested. There's a lot of work ahead, but I'm in this writing business for the "long haul." Peace.

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  10. It's wonderful to see you so happy and full of expectation. You can be a whirlwind and I feel it coming. You inspire me..... time for me to also get back to blogging.
    Best Wishes

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    1. Dear Manzanita, I do sort of feel like a whirlwind some days. But most of the time I'm simply a summer breeze, riffling a few leaves. I suspect you'll get back to blogging when your spirit moves you to do so. Life happens to all of us and for everything there truly is a season. Peace.

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  11. Hi Dee, The best news of all for me is that you ARE writing again... Even the last memoirs you wrote and sent in had to have made you feel good.. I am not a writer but I do love to write --and getting the words down is somehow 'freeing'.... I'm sure that with help of others, your new memoirs will be AWESOME..... So proud of you.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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    1. Dear Betsy, like you, I find writing both freeing and satisfying. Crafting a good sentence gives me great satisfaction. And having readers like you who encourage me fills me with gratitude. Peace.

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  12. Wow, good for you! I have enjoyed the reminisces on your blog so I'm sure the book will find an audience. Best of luck!

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    1. Dear Cynthia, I so hope you're right about finding an audience. I hope my readers will help me understand just who that audience might be. Peace.

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  13. While you're waiting shouldn't you be working on one of your other novels to keep yourself busy? They always say to start up on another project. ;) Very, very best of luck, Dee. *hugs*

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    1. Dear Rita, the project I'm starting on is the search for an agent. I need to craft query letters to them and find ones interested in memoirs. So that's going to take work. Thank you for wishing me so much luck. I do hope that all this happens. And thanks for the hugs! Peace.

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  14. Hell yes waiting is bloody hard and frustrating at the same time

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  15. Dear Jo-Anne, right on! Peace.

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  16. Hello Dee! Good for you to keep going. I always found your convent stories so fascinating. I'm sure you've got the right words to finish this project up!
    Peace to you!!

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    1. Dear Sandi, it's so good to hear from you. I need to get back to reading blogs and discover what's been happening in your life--beyond the getting together with your friends on that island each year! I'm wondering how school/teaching is going. Thank you so much for the vote of support. Peace to you also, pressed down and overflowing.

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  17. Dear Dee, It's so great to see a post by you. I'm just getting back to blogging regularly and it feels so good to visit everyone, to see how my friends in the blogger world are doing. I will write you soon, so much has been going on. Most of it good, but taking up my time. And I have also had some computer issues that make it impossible to send emails or write comments on blogs. Very frustrating, but I did nothing and after several weks the issues seem to have fixed themselves. Maybe they just got bored with being difficult.

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    1. Dear Inger, it's so, so, so good to hear from you. Like you I'm going to start reading blogs again and leaving comments. That was meant to happen this week, but once again life just piled one thing on top of another and so I'm now hoping that next Monday I'll begin.

      I'm so relieved that all is going well for you. And I'm eager to read your blog and find confirmation of that. Take care. Peace ever and always.

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  18. So sorry to have missed this, Dee. You posted when I was laid low with a very bad cold. I too think a convent memoir is wonderful idea. I was riveted by your convent posts and feel sure that when they are woven into a full memoir they will be of great interest to more people than you perhaps imagine. Good luck with the completion.

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  19. It hasbeen ages since I blogged or read blogs. Love this new adventure you have chosen.

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  20. I love your new adventure in writing. I've been away from blogging a long time now.

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