{"id":9910,"date":"2026-01-17T17:26:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T17:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=9910"},"modified":"2026-01-17T18:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:05:19","slug":"3697-days-and-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/3697-days-and-counting\/","title":{"rendered":"3,697 Days (and Counting)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For over ten years, or 3,697 days to be exact, I\u2019ve been work\u00ading on a nov\u00adel about teens in the 1980s. The nov\u00adel even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly became so long (over a mil\u00adlion words, and twice the length of War and Peace<\/em>) that I had to split it into nine books or episodes.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The result, Boda\u00adcious\u00adly True & Total\u00adly Awe\u00adsome: The Leg\u00adendary Adven\u00adtures of Avery \u201cAce\u201d Craig, An \u201980s Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Teen Epic<\/em>, dra\u00adma\u00adtizes the lives of Ace and his friends in a rur\u00adal-sub\u00adur\u00adban high school set\u00adting. (By the way, it\u2019s much bet\u00adter than I\u2019m mak\u00ading it sound; I\u2019m ter\u00adri\u00adble at con\u00addens\u00ading my mil\u00adlion-plus words into book jack\u00adet copy.)<\/p>\n

I wrote Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em> to be a sto\u00adry for and about my generation\u2014Gen X\u2014a gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion that has long been unap\u00adpre\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded, mar\u00adgin\u00adal\u00adized, and mis\u00adun\u00adder\u00adstood. I wrote it to give peo\u00adple my age an escape back to a sim\u00adpler time, a time when all of life was ahead of us and we didn\u2019t have the inter\u00adnet, AI, track\u00ading, and algo\u00adrithms in our lives. I wrote it to give the younger gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions (and future gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions) some idea of what it was like to be a teen in the mid-1980s. And I wrote it for read\u00aders, not critics\u2014for peo\u00adple who just want an enjoy\u00adable book that keeps them read\u00ading.<\/p>\n

For 3,697 days (with the excep\u00adtion of 47 days; there were a hand\u00adful of bouts with ill\u00adness and a few short vaca\u00adtions), I\u2019ve wok\u00aden up and writ\u00adten and\/or revised a cou\u00adple thou\u00adsand words, work\u00ading an aver\u00adage of 10 hours per day. I wrote the ear\u00adly drafts with pen\u00adcils or type\u00adwrit\u00aders,  and I iso\u00adlat\u00aded myself, stay\u00ading off the inter\u00adnet and only lis\u00adten\u00ading to music and watch\u00ading movies and TV shows from the 1980s. And, with the excep\u00adtion of my wife and Muse (who han\u00addled the busi\u00adness side of things and read the penul\u00adti\u00admate drafts of each episode to give me feed\u00adback) and a tal\u00adent\u00aded graph\u00adic design\u00ader Vic\u00adto\u00adria Heath Silk<\/a> (who designed the book cov\u00aders), I did all of the work myself: writ\u00ading, edit\u00ading, book design, type\u00adset\u00adting, proof\u00adread\u00ading, ebook cre\u00adation, pro\u00admo\u00adtion, etc.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I did all of this work in less than ide\u00adal con\u00addi\u00adtions, in ad hoc<\/em> work\u00adspaces, in spite of numer\u00adous envi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtal dis\u00adtrac\u00adtions. Even when I wrote in the far\u00adthest recess\u00ades of the base\u00adment gov\u00adern\u00adment doc\u00adu\u00adments room of Vas\u00adsar College\u2019s Thomp\u00adson Memo\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal Library, I still had to con\u00adtend with a cer\u00adtain annoy\u00ading woman nois\u00adi\u00adly pass\u00ading my remote cubi\u00adcle dur\u00ading her morn\u00ading \u201ccon\u00adsti\u00adtu\u00adtion\u00adal\u201d through the library. For five years, I lived next door to a woman (who clear\u00adly had OCD) who used a leaf\u00adblow\u00ader on her prop\u00ader\u00adty start\u00ading at 6:00 a.m. for hours<\/em> straight, and for the sec\u00adond five years I lived in a com\u00adplex where the only tools the build\u00adings and grounds guy knew how to use were a snow\u00adblow\u00ader and a leaf\u00adblow\u00ader. Despite these dis\u00adtrac\u00adtions (and many, many more includ\u00ading solic\u00adi\u00adtors at my door, pow\u00ader out\u00adages, bro\u00adken hot water heaters, bro\u00adken bones, and deaths), I kept going.<\/p>\n

I did all of this while bat\u00adtling depres\u00adsion and men\u00adtal ill\u00adness, often ris\u00ading at 3:00 or 4:00 o\u2019clock in the morn\u00ading, pray\u00ading and med\u00adi\u00adtat\u00ading, ask\u00ading the uni\u00adverse for the strength to keep going and guid\u00adance on what to write next, and bat\u00adtling the grem\u00adlins that told me dai\u00adly when I first woke, \u201cWhat the f\u2011ck are you doing, Orcutt?! Nobody\u2019s going to want to read this sh\u2011t! Nine books and 1.2 mil\u00adlion words about teens in the 1980s?! Who gives a f\u2011ck? Peo\u00adple are going to hate it. You should go back to writ\u00ading Dako\u00adta and Svet\u00adlana mys\u00adter\u00adies. All right, maybe a few peo\u00adple will love it, but there are going to be lots of critics\u2014especially with all the teen sex you have in these books. What are you, dude, dis\u00adeased? What will your loy\u00adal read\u00aders think? What will your moth\u00ader think? What about all the peo\u00adple who are going to write to you and com\u00adplain?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Every day, for 3,697 days, I bat\u00adtled these voic\u00ades, and every day I even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly ignored them and sol\u00addiered on. I was inspired to keep going by my wife and a cou\u00adple of great friends and rel\u00ada\u00adtives (they know who they are), but most\u00adly by two quo\u00adta\u00adtions that I framed and hung on my office wall:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt always seems impos\u00adsi\u00adble until it\u2019s done.\u201d
\n\u2014Nel\u00adson Man\u00addela<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThere are just cer\u00adtain human beings able to put one foot in front of the oth\u00ader relent\u00adless\u00adly, psy\u00adcho\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly able to do it, where\u00adas oth\u00ader peo\u00adple would fail.\u201d *<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There were many, many days when I want\u00aded to quit, when I want\u00aded to throw my type\u00adwriter out the win\u00addow, when I was sure I couldn\u2019t write anoth\u00ader word. But it was nev\u00ader in me to quit, and the words just kept com\u00ading. A mil\u00adlion and a half of them before I start\u00aded to cut them back.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I\u2019m not telling you all of this to puff myself up, to say, \u201cHey, look at how amaz\u00ading I am by work\u00ading through this stuff and fin\u00adish\u00ading this gar\u00adgan\u00adtu\u00adan book!\u201d I\u2019m telling you this because I\u2019ve been work\u00ading on some\u00adthing for over ten years, and now it\u2019s time to pub\u00adlish the books, and I\u2019m look\u00ading at what I\u2019ve done and I can\u2019t believe it. How can some\u00adbody work on one thing for 3,697 days? Where did this sin\u00adgle-mind\u00aded obses\u00adsion of mine come from? Am I more men\u00adtal\u00adly ill than I thought? Is the result going to be worth it? Will read\u00aders like it?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m encour\u00adaged by the ear\u00adly reviews of Boda\u00adcious\u00adly by pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal review\u00aders and read\u00aders on Net\u00adGal\u00adley and Library\u00adThing. About 80% of the review\u00aders have loved the book, about 10% have thought it meh, and about 10% have hat\u00aded it. But, of the read\u00aders who have loved it, the con\u00adsen\u00adsus is that I\u2019ve cre\u00adat\u00aded \u201ca time machine\u201d back to when\u00adev\u00ader the read\u00ader was a teenag\u00ader. One review\u00ader wrote a review so encour\u00adag\u00ading that I print\u00aded it out and post\u00aded it on a bul\u00adletin board in my office. A bold\u00aded sec\u00adtion reads,<\/p>\n

Guess what? Chris Orcutt has it dead on. He pegged my teen years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think the most dis\u00adcom\u00adbob\u00adu\u00adlat\u00ading thing going on here is this: after 3,697 days of work\u00ading, of mak\u00ading each sen\u00adtence, each page, each chap\u00adter, each book the very best I can make it; after a year of pro\u00admo\u00adtion, reviews, adver\u00adtis\u00ading, inter\u00adviews and more, it\u2019s out of my hands. I\u2019ve done all I can do, and that\u2019s a hard thing to accept when you\u2019ve been work\u00ading on some\u00adthing for one-third of your career and one-fifth of your life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done all I can, Dear Read\u00ader, and now the rest is up to you.<\/p>\n

The fate of Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em> is in the hands of Read\u00aders Like You: buy\u00ading the books, read\u00ading the books, review\u00ading the books, and spread\u00ading the word about them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done my very best, and now I have to let them go.<\/p>\n

-<\/p>\n

Boda\u00adcious\u00adly True & Total\u00adly Awe\u00adsome: Episode I, Bad Boy <\/em>is avail\u00adable at Amazon.com<\/a>, Barnes & Noble, and your local book\u00adstore.<\/p>\n

<\/a> (The LEGO mod\u00adel of the Space Shut\u00adtle above was built by my clever nephew Aydin Mahoney.)<\/p>\n

-<\/p>\n

* From Beyond the Edge<\/em>, the doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adtary about Sir Edmund Hillary and Tens\u00ading Norgay\u2019s sum\u00admit\u00ading of Mt. Ever\u00adest in 1953.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For over ten years, or 3,697 days to be exact, I\u2019ve been work\u00ading on a nov\u00adel about teens in the 1980s. The nov\u00adel even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly became\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,690,366,30,3,244,19,7,76,68,26,270,14,233,15],"tags":[637,692,124,691,693,661,649,94,695,265,96,155,694,381,302,221,355,392],"class_list":["post-9910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon-kindle","category-bodaciously-true-totally-awesome","category-book-promotion","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-craft","category-ebooks","category-fiction","category-personal","category-process","category-rewriting","category-typewriters","category-workspace","category-writingexperiences","category-writing-life","category-writingtools","tag-1980s","tag-ace","tag-amazon","tag-avery-ace-craig","tag-avery-craig","tag-bodaciously","tag-bodaciously-true-and-totally-awesome","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-decade","tag-kindle","tag-novelist","tag-orcutt","tag-perseverance","tag-typewriters","tag-writer","tag-writers-life","tag-writing-life","tag-writing-process"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9910"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9946,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9910\/revisions\/9946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}