I’m not Isabel Allende

But I can learn from her

Once I attended a webinar which was basically an interview with Chilean author Isabel Allende, an amazingly prolific writer. She has been called the world’s most widely-read Spanish-language author. Although we have very little in common, we do share one or two things.

One of those few things is that we have combined cultures and languages, specifically Spanish and English. Both of us were born in Latin America, though my parents were Canadian and hers Chilean. Both found “destiny” leading us to other countries, and I ended up back in Latin America when I married a Mexican. Her second marriage (1988–2015) was to an American, so we both experienced transcultural marriages.

We were both born in a year ending in “2,” but her birth year was 1942, and mine 1952. The fact that she still writes prolifically at eighty is an example!

Unlike myself, she was divorced twice and even married again in her seventies (2019). At seventy, I am not all that keen on finding a new mate, thank you.

We have both enjoyed translation work, but she was fired from one translation job when they found she altered some characters to “improve on” them!

Although (unlike myself) Allende’s most prolific writing has been in the area of novels, her daughter’s death at age 29 influenced her profoundly and led her to write a nonfiction book as a letter to her, Paula. My husband’s passing after nearly 37 years together led me to write a number of blog posts and articles about him, about grief, and about widowhood.

Whereas Allende writes in Spanish and her works are then translated into other languages, the majority of my blog writing is in English. However, for years I have also written many articles in Spanish, and more recently, a book for women over 60. When asked if I’ll translate it into English, I respond, “Perhaps, but it would be more an adaptation than a translation.” I focus on Latin American women when I cite statistics, for example, and use some Spanish sayings that don’t have equivalents in English.

Allende is a serious writer. My writing was mainly a vocation or hobby for most of my life. Only shortly before my husband’s death did I become the coauthor of a yearly devotional book (in Spanish), and after he died I retired. That meant more time to write, and now our team is finishing up our fourth book together. The pandemic also motivated me to write my own book, as mentioned previously.

Allende has won scads of awards. Although I don’t expect to win any personally, the first devotional book our team of four wrote won an international prize for Spanish Christian books in its category, based on sales, in 2020! It is still often in the “Top Ten.”

As a serious writer, Isabel is extremely disciplined with a strict writing routine, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m, six days a week. Discipline is definitely not a strong characteristic of mine, but when I was inspired to write my book Visión 60/60, I did make an effort to write almost daily. The general pause of the first pandemic year made it particularly feasible. The other projects I participated in made me work regularly to meet a deadline.

Although I don’t plan to be a full-time writer, Allende’s discipline should inspire me. In the above-mentioned interview, I learned that writing is so much her job that she gets nicely dressed and puts on her makeup before starting to work every day! I may not do so to such an extent, but at least I don’t write when I’m still in pajamas!

Whether we are famous or not, whether we write fiction or nonfiction, taking writing seriously is a lesson we can all learn from Isabel Allende!