Writing a Novel Is Not for the Faint of Heart

I thought I knew what hard work was. I had spent years on fashion shoots where a roomful of people expected me to get everything right, and I had run a hotel where there was always something demanding my attention. Then I decided to write a novel.

Sixty Hours ’Til Sunset took six years and twenty-nine rewrites.

There were days when I sat at my computer for so many hours that I hardly knew what the weather had been like outside. I thought I had finished the book several times. Then I read it again and found a scene that needed more life, a character I had not fully understood, or a chapter that belonged somewhere else.

I cut pages I had spent weeks writing. I put some back. I changed one small thing and discovered that it affected a dozen chapters. At times, I wondered whether I was improving the book or simply making myself crazy.

The research could take me far from the page I was meant to be writing. Mackey McGill’s life spans decades, and I wanted the places and times he lived through to feel real. I would sit down to check one detail and look up hours later with three new questions and a desk full of notes.

Then there was the doubt. Would anyone care about Mackey and Dink as much as I did? Had I made their story clear enough? Was I ever going to finish? Writing is solitary work, and there is no one standing behind your chair to tell you whether the page you struggled over all day is any good.

But there were wonderful days, too. A scene that had resisted me for months would suddenly come alive. A character would say something I had not planned, and I would know it was exactly right. Those moments sent me back to the desk the next morning.

I kept going because Mackey and Dink would not leave me alone. With every rewrite, I came a little closer to the story I wanted to tell.

Twenty-nine rewrites may sound excessive. There were times when I thought so myself. But after six years with these characters, I’m glad I gave them the time they needed. I finally wrote “THE END”—and this time, I meant it.

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