An Urgent (Fun) Challenge for My Readers

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I talked about the ritual and discipline that has characterized Isabel Allende’s writing for the past 43 years—during which she’s produced a bestseller roughly every 18 months. She is the most translated female Spanish-language author ever.

Isabel didn’t start writing until she was nearly 40. But once she started, the constraints she crafted—like starting a book every January 8th if the previous one was finished—powered her creativity. “Without the silence and the structure, I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she told me. I write about her at length in my new book, Inside the Box.

At the end of that post, I mentioned that I had asked Isabel if she wanted an advance copy of my new book. She replied1:

“Yes, but I can’t read it right now; I’m trying to finish a first draft of a novel and can’t be distracted.

Love you
Isabel”

So I was surprised to get another email from her last week:

“I am halfway through your book AND LOVING IT!!! Can’t believe the amount of research you’ve done and how you can turn this material—which could be very dry—into a fascinating tale. Congratulations!

Please watch the miniseries of The House of the Spirits in Prime video. Only 8 episodes. 5 are streaming this week and 3 next week. Much better than my book.

Love
Isabel”

I haven’t watched the series yet, but I’ve read The House of the Spirits, and I can’t imagine that a series could be better. Isabel is boisterous but humble. In any case, after I died and ascended briefly to writer Heaven, I returned to Earth and started wondering why Isabel was reading my book when she was in the middle of a new novel, having just started on January 8th. I write in Inside the Box about her incredible focus. What was going on??

She explained it in a subsequent email:

I started a novel on January 8th and gave myself a deadline to finish a first manuscript by the end of March. The reason is not important. My agent (who speaks Spanish) and my brother read it and liked it a lot. It still needs polishing, but it’s May, and I find myself without work until next January 8th. I am going crazy. I am getting rid of my clothes, replacing the furniture, walking in circles, reading compulsively, etc. ... Your book has been an inspiration: I need to give myself a task with boundaries. For example: write a novel set in Lima in the year 1610 about a cowardly Spanish soldier, an Inca maid and the Inquisition. Or a story set in 1810 in Ireland about a girl/witch expelled from her village who seeks revenge (maybe in the style of Stephen King). You get the idea. I can’t start writing until January 8th but I can start researching and planning.

I have total freedom to do whatever I want and at my age I have no obligation to keep writing. This freedom is lethal. HELP!!!

Love,
your PenPal

Right after that one came a two-sentence email:

Do you have an idea for me? Not the Inca maid or the Irish witch?

Well Range Widely readers, what have you got? One of the greatest living writers needs our help.

I’m going to come up with an idea of my own to pass along. If you have an idea you’d like me to share with Isabel, please leave it in the comments below.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this newsletter, I think you’ll love Inside the Box. It’s hot off the presses, and Isabel Allende loves it so what are you waiting for! If you’re an audiobook listener, unlike with Range, I narrated this one.

Finally, if you know someone else who will have ideas for Isabel’s next novel, please share this post with them.

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Until next time…

David