Dorothea Benton Frank is a New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including Sullivan's Island: A Lowcountry Tale, The Land of Mango Sunsets, and, most recently, Return to Sullivans Island. Though her novels most strongly evoke South Carolina's Lowcountry, she lived for many years in New York and New Jersey, and continues to spend part of the year in New Jersey. Before she started writing, she was involved with many nonprofit organizations, working specifically on issues related to arts and education.
About.com: Your name is so much associated with the Lowcountry. How did you end up in the New York City area?
Dorothea Benton Frank: Years ago I had a career on Seventh Avenue. During that time I met this fabulous Yankee and married him. His business is in the NY area so that’s why we’re here.
AC: How did you decide to become a writer?
DBF: I think that in the beginning I felt like I had lost my voice and was disappearing in the halls of motherhood, wifedom, and volunteerism. Writing restored me. And, I thought it might be fun. Crazy, right? Actually, large parts of it are delightful, such as getting out of my house to meet readers.
AC: Do you have a writing schedule?
DBF: Absolutely. I write almost every day from around nine in the morning until I can’t stand it anymore, which is usually around three in the afternoon. When it’s deadline time I write much longer hours.
AC: How much time does it typically take for you to write and edit a novel?
DBF: I could take forever but my publisher gives me one year.
AC: Can you talk a little about your process?
DBF: Sure. First, I write an overview and discuss it with my editor. That overview is around ten pages and it just covers what the basics of what the story is about, much like a review of a book already published.
Then I make an outline and discuss it with my editor, just to make sure we both feel like this is the story to write at that place in time. (In other words I would not want to tell a story about poverty in the time of the Great Recession. Rather I would want to tell one of hope.) We go over the arc of the story, who’s doing the telling and so forth. Then the grind of churning out that first draft begins. I rewrite as I go in case I drop dead no one will see my first draft, which, as I have been told, is basically firewood.
AC: Do you ever set books aside and come back to them, or do you usually write them straight through?
DBF: I don’t have that luxury because of production schedules. Once my editor and I have decided the overview is a “go,” that’s it. I write that story.
AC: What's the most important thing you've learned about writing?
DBF: That it can be so very powerful. I just saw Hamlet on Broadway last night and I told my agent, Larry Kirshbaum, this morning that it was incredible to me how Shakespeare’s words still sing across the centuries. And good stories bring people together to find common ground and heal, reminding us that, even in the worst of times, we are not really alone. Lastly, writing takes us away and we are entertained, informed, and hopefully a little bit richer for what we have read.
AC: What are you working on now?
DBF: I am working on a sequel to Plantation tentatively entitled Caroline’s Plantation: A Lowcountry Tale. If the Muse smiles on me it will be out in June of 2010.
Read more from the "How I Write" series.
