Article: The Untelling is a novel...

The Untelling is a novel which I wrote three times before I finally got it right. Each time, I'd finish a draft, I would sit back and say, "That's it. I'm finished." But the story still gnawed at me. One thing I have learned about writing stories, if the characters are still haunting me, then I am not finished yet. Deadlines came and deadlines went, but the story wasn't yet complete, there was some clasp that was not yet fastened, some string left dangling. So I returned to my writing table again and again until the book was finished.

Sometimes I wonder if this novel was so hard to write because this time, the subject matter is family and the challenges of this story are questions of courage and forgiveness. For me, kinship has always been a baffling concept which has become more baffling as I have become a woman, contemplating the idea of my own family. Forgiveness has not been my strong suit either. I am not exaggerating when I say that I until quite recently, I still held a grudge against a second grade teacher who did me wrong. So, in order to write a book about forgiveness, I had to figure out how to forgive. To write about family, I had to embrace my own relatives. And to write about courage, I had to learn to be brave.

Aria Jackson, the main character of this book, is a black women whose life isn’t turning out quite the way that she had hoped. Writing her character was difficult. I kept wanting to take the easy way out—to make her an exceptional person, a role model on paper. But instead, I worked hard to be honest, to keep her true to what I know about human nature: that we are all vulnerable; that we lie and feel bad about it; and that many of the terrible things that happen to us are not our fault. Like all of us, Aria wants what she cannot have. She is more wounded that she would ever admit. But like all of us, she has the tools to change her life. The only question is whether she will be brave enough to try.

Originally posted on TayariJones.com