I recently interviewed novelist, Thrity Umrigar. A former journalist for 17 years, Thrity developed the daily discipline of writing and revised and re-wrote large parts of her first novel, Bombay Time, while working as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
Thrity states that she wrote Bombay Time two years prior to winning the Nieman Fellowship. She confessed that her decision write a novel, earn a Ph. D. in Literature while also working as a journalist was not something for the light- hearted to attempt.
Receiving the Nieman Fellowship, which is for mid-career journalists, provided the opportunity for her to return work on her novel.
Thrity explains that on reviewing the work 24 months after having written it, she found the draft plot heavy. This presented somewhat of an interesting challenge in light of the fact that what most drew her attention on this second visitation to the work was that of the characters.
On throwing out much of what she had written, Thrity went on to write what she describes as a more character driven book.
An agent approached Thrity during her stint at Harvard in Boston and asked what she was working on. Thrity told her about Bombay Time. The agent asked to read it. With the agent serving as reader, Thrity wrote full chapters at a time and forwarded them to the agent. The rest is history.
Thrity cautions aspiring writers that her experience in getting an agent is quite unusual. “I was extremely lucky,” she states.
While that much may be true, I wonder how many of us would be willing to throw out a large majority of a story we had written, never mind having allowed it to sit for nearly two years.
And let us not forget that this investment of time and writing was made by a journalist with 17 years of experience under her belt.
How long did it take you to write your first novel?
How many revisions and drafts did you go through before sending it out to agents or allowing anyone to read it?