Author Lennox Randons’s bout with terminal cancer has pushed him beyond his creative limits. He shares his story here and it just may inspire you in ways you couldn’t imagine.
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In the late hours of December 16, 2010, an ambulance transported me from my home, along the snowy road paralleling the Cedar River, to the hospital emergency room. I was semi-paralyzed, in serious pain, and wondering what the heck was going on.
A couple of hours later, a physician told me that a CT scan showed I had innumerable tumors requiring emergency surgery. He told me and my wife to say our goodbyes because I would not survive the surgery.
Exactly two months earlier, Rob Cline and I had our first writing group meeting in my basement. We both had unfinished novels and I was convinced that together we could complete them. An earlier bout with cancer led me to refocus on writing because you never know when something kooky like cancer will strike.
Now that cancer had returned with a vengeance (maybe Bruce Willis will star in the movie directed by Quentin Tarantino), I knew I had to write like I was dying.
When I advise you, dear reader, to write like you’re dying, I mean for you to write with a focus and purpose. Beyond that, I mean for you to write well, because, hey, you’re dying and nobody wants to leave a sucky legacy.
Eight days after I was released from ICU (surgery averted), I again met with Rob in my basement, fresh pages in hand. Despite being under the influence of heavy pain meds, I cranked out four pages of brilliant first draft prose (my judgment of the quality of my work may have been nominally influenced by the aforementioned top-notch medications).
I wrote like I was dying.
My imminent death gave me a focus I’d lacked. More importantly, while I was putting words to page, I wasn’t dwelling on my death, but on the lives of the characters I was creating.
Cancer helps me concentrate on my writing, yet writing distracts me from cancer. Those sound like contrary propositions, but it works. You, dear reader, don’t have to fall victim to cancer to focus like you have cancer.
Two years ago, the local newspaper published an article about me and my writing group, which added a third member, Dennis Green, shortly after my ICU stay. The headline was “Writing on Deadline.”
Write as if you have a deadline.
That doesn’t mean to write fast, but just to write with a reasonable goal in mind. Despite the fact that I was dying, I took two years to finish my first novel.
Even then, I felt it was somewhat rushed, but I was approaching the median time when the first chemotherapy for my GIST cancer fails.I had to finish, because I didn’t want a posthumous release. I wanted to see how people responded to my work.
Your deadline can be a birthday or some other significant date. With that date in mind, you can plan and work accordingly.
With a two-year plan, you can break it down further by giving yourself a year to finish the first draft and another year to do at least two more drafts and a final edit. And without cancer whispering in your ear, the plan can be tweaked as needed.
Some writers have daily goals, but for me, a weekly goal made more sense. I need large blocks of time for writing the first draft. With historical fiction, that is even more so the case.
During the week, I generate ideas and do research, making notes and emailing ideas to myself if I’m away from my computer. I allow what I wrote the previous week to marinate and plan what I will write the next week.
Then, on Sundays, I lock myself away and im-merse myself in my fictional world for about six or seven hours. If I miss a Sunday, I find a way to make it up during the week.
As I mentioned before, writing like you’re dying doesn’t just apply to pacing. It also applies to quality.
If the tome you complete within your self-imposed schedule is not something you’re fully comfortable with leaving as your legacy—as the last thing you leave as representative of who you are as a writer—then take a little more time to polish your product.
You’re not actually dying.
My first novel, Friends Dogs Bullets Lovers, came out in the fall of 2012, and, because I thought I was going to die within the next year, I made it more autobiographical and less commercial than I would have otherwise. Nonetheless, I was satisfied with the final product and the legacy it would have left.
Somehow, I have beaten the odds and, though my first chemotherapy has failed and led to a major surgery, my second novel, Memoirs of a Dead White Chick, was released September 1, 2015.
I would have loved to feel I had six months or a year to expand the universe I created and polish what I crafted, but I am gradually dying. The chemo and the side effects from the chemo have caused me to drop fifteen pounds and my stamina is low.
Some days I’m strong enough to go for a very short bicycle ride and others, I have to use the electric cart to get around in the supermarket. I’ve learned to time outings around chemo and meals so that I’m not homebound, but there’s always some level of discomfort.
Writing and sharing my writing allow me to forget, albeit briefly, that death is looming. Maybe it’s even helped me extend out my time.
My books will allow a part of me to live on beyond my death, and writing like I’m dying allows me to be content with what I’ll leave behind.
Lennox Randon, a writer battling metastatic GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumors) cancer, is a graduate of the Houston Police Academy and the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Education. He has worked as a police officer, technical writer, and teacher. A native Texan, Randon currently lives in Iowa with his wife and daughter. When he’s not reading or writing, Randon loves bowling, tennis, scuba diving, snorkeling, skiing, hiking, and just exploring nature in general as his health allows. Randon’s new book, Memoirs of a Dead White Chick, is available now in paperback and e-book. As of this writing, Randon counts every new day as a bonus. LennoxRandon.com
A native New Yorker, Mrs. Knox relocated to Chicago in 2007 and founded RLM Media in 2008. RLM Media is a full service, 100% minority owned, media planning and buying advertising agency. Mrs. Knox has grown RLM Media to gross billings of over $13 million in 7 years by providing excellent customer service, complete solutions, and a team approach for her clients.
