MOUNT DESERT, Maine — Writers who manage to get books published right from the start of their careers are the exception. Martha Tod Dudman, a writer who has lived for many years on Mount Desert Island, was not one of those outliers.
What kind of success did she have when she began writing stories with the hope of selling them?
“None,” she said succinctly. “I wrote two novels [while] living on an island off the coast of Maine that were never published. I kind of gave up on writing for a while, then went back to it when my children were very young.”
Her new novel, “Sunrise and the Real World,” is her fourth book, the story of a young woman who works at a residential treatment center for troubled teenagers in Maine—an experience that Dudman had herself. The book provides a good example of how important sheer doggedness is for writers. It took 10 years to finish it.
“I started it probably in 2011 and then put it aside and gave up on it,” she said. “Then I went back to it. It was in the back of my mind.”
At some point, there was a breakthrough, and the writing of the book, which had been such a slog, turned into a pleasure.
“When you’re inside the novel and you stop thinking about it, it’s like skiing downhill,” Dudman said. “You’re just in it and you’re just going.”