How Long Does It Take to Write a Book?
When my dad was ninety-one, he asked me, “How long does it take to write a book?”
I told him, “Your whole life.”
I wasn’t wrong, but the answer is more nuanced than that.
That was ten years ago, when I was embarking on a new project about being outdoors, civil discourse, and belonging to the land—but I didn’t yet know the story.
A lot has happened in the intervening decade. I hiked The Long Trail in Vermont, the Chilkoot in Alaska; the Grand Canyon in Arizona; and the Boulder Mail Trail in Utah; I biked the Great Allegheny Passage. My dad died. My Long Trail partner died. I hosted a wedding reception for a brother and another for a daughter. I became a grandmother, a deer hunter, and the author of Reviving Artemis: The Making of a Huntress.
I hiked the Long Trail, from Massachusetts to Canada with a friend when we turned sixty.
The Sixties Are a Gift
As my optometrist said to me by way of small talk during my last exam with him before he retired, “The sixties are a gift.” I agree, but it’s more nuanced than that.
Sure, there’s a lot of freedom in maturity: knowing what you want to do; knowing what no longer matters; knowing that this won’t last forever. It’s this imminent expiration date that gives me clarity. Despite my great fortune of good health, I know that it’s possible but unlikely I’ll live another thirty years.
Whether or not I live to one hundred, what matters is that I’ve woken up this morning. It’s already a good day. The birds sang at dawn as I walked from the house to the word shop—my one-minute commute. I’m at my desk, where I write stories to entertain, educate, and irritate.
Telling Stories
Humans are a narrative species; we started telling stories before we could write. Now we tell stories in print, pictures, and pixels. Stories educate. It’s how we teach our children about how things work, about danger, about right and wrong, about the spirits beyond logic.
I want my stories to entertain and educate and yes, to irritate readers into a place of discomfort, as in the biological meaning of the verb: “to stimulate an organism, cell, or organ to produce an active response.” The brain is an organ; I hope that in addition to entertaining my readers, my stories will also challenge readers to think, to question, to respond.
Forthcoming from Sibylline Press November 4!
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Deborah Lee Luskin has lived in and written about Vermont for over forty years.