Excerpt from a Chris Collins interview with E.A. Hanks about writing her book "The 10." Hanks describes a 10-year process (five years developing/selling the idea, five years writing), multiple moments of doubt (twice feeling ready to quit), physical and emotional strain, and decisive encouragement from writer Ann Patchett to trust her own vision and keep writing.
So what was that process like, writing that book? Like, how many times during that process did you find yourself, like, emotional, dude?
So the book took 10 years, which is ironic because it's called the 10. That's five years of kind of having the rough idea and trying to sell it, trying to find a home for it. And then once everything kind of finally came together and I had all the missing pieces, then five years of writing it. And I can't believe I'm sitting here with a finished book because the amount of times, not like everything from I don't know if I have the physical wherewithal to finish this book because my body hurts from sitting in a chair, you know, 12 hours a day on a deadline. So to. I'm in an editorial scrum of like, what is the nature of this book? What is it really about? Is it about my famous dad? Is it about my crazy mom? Is it about what I have to say about America and the places Interstate 10 goes through? Like, it was a real rabble rouser, like a peck and paw melee for what is this book about? And there were so many times where I thought, I'm not gonna win and I don't wanna publish something that isn't exactly what I mean to say on level. There were moments of, I don't think this is going to happen spiritually, physically, economically, professionally. There were so many times where I thought, you know, maybe this isn't going to happen and maybe I need to start the process of getting okay with letting this go.
Maybe that's the lesson I'm learning here, which is that you can put your bone marrow into something and it doesn't pan out. That's a brutal lesson. But if that's what's going on, I gotta get cool with that right now.
How many times did you hit that?
I would say, seriously, twice in 10 years.
What was the gap between when you hit it and when you went back.
Getting really vulnerable and asking other artists, what do I do?
Saying, I who gave you the best advice?
There's a writer named Ann Patchett who's an incredible writer. She owns a bookstore in Nashville called Parnassus Books. And I got to a point where I was just like, I don't. The most frustrating part was like, I built this arena. I laid the sod, I determined where the goalposts are. And now I'm realizing I might not be able to get there. So what do I do? Do I give back the advance and say, so sorry, here's another book deal. I'm not fulfilling Do I push through? Do I like, how do I navigate this? And Ann Patchett said, you know what this book is, and you know that you are 100% capable of fulfilling the brief that you set up. So just do it. Don't think about it, just do it. Just write the book that you intend to write and have faith that it will be so good that it is its own argument. And that's exactly what happened. I just kind of said, what if I just don't pay attention to what everybody else wants this book to be? And I hold true to my own compass. And, you know, there's plenty of. If Tom Hanks fans want to pick up the book to discover something new about the person that they really care about, Tom Hanks, there's something in there. There's quite a bit in there for them, but that's not all that's in there. And I think that Ann gave me permission to have faith in myself. And sometimes you need that from someone a little bit higher up the food chain to say, like, I see you. You're doing it. Keep doing.
