Delayed gratification

One day you will read this

Welcome to the free newsletter of David (D. V.) Bishop, author of the Cesare Aldo historical thrillers set in Renaissance Italy. This time: all about patience…

24 September 2025

Photo by Planet Volumes on Unsplash

I started writing this newsletter in the past, 110 days ago to be precise on Wednesday 24th September, 2025. I am scheduling it to appear on Tuesday 13th January 2026 when (all things being equal) I am approaching the end of holiday in Aotearoa New Zealand. My thoughts will be turning back toward the Northern Hemisphere.

Typing all of the above is a little strange, akin to a message in a bottle pushed out into an ocean. I’ve no idea how many people will be reading this missive in the future, but that’s true of pretty much everything you do as a writer. Every fresh story is another message in a bottle, another tale told now to be savoured (or not) by future readers.

Being an author is an elaborate act of delayed gratification, in other words. Ahh, my inbox pings, demanding my attention. No, EE, I do not want an early preview for the new Call of Duty videogame. Such distractions are another part of the writing life, the siren call of something that promises quickfire excitement or engagement.

Most writing is not so instant. An author will spend hours, days, weeks, months or even years crafting a novel, chipping away at the block of metaphorical narrative marble in their hands, trying to bring forth a story they believe is hidden away there. The results can be frustrating or brilliant, promising or flawed, great or so-so.

It’s an act of faith, trusting that you have something to say and the means of saying this in a way readers find engaging, enthralling or at least diverting. It’s also an act of ego, believing your words are worthy of readers’ time, enthusiasm, effort and perhaps hard-earned money. Yet most of that happens long after you’ve left the story.

Today never knows

Photo by Neil Martin on Unsplash

The Beatles have a song called Tomorrow Never Knows, but it’s worth saying that today never knows either if you’re an author. Is my latest novel better than the last thing I wrote? Generally, we lack the perspective to judge this. That’s for editors, publishers, and readers to decide, often months or even years after your work is finished.

Most writers I know who’ve published more than one novel are always striving to make the next thing better than the last. That’s impossible to achieve, otherwise each book would be a constant improvement on its predecessor and eventually you would reach genius level writing. But better to aim higher than settle for adequate.

As I’ve said in a past newsletter, some novels get tarred with the brush of difficult circumstances in which they were written. Work or life outside the book intrudes on the drafting process, so all the author remembers is the stress and pain and challenge of those days, rather than the book that eventually gets published from that effort.

I’m feeling positive about the sixth Cesare Aldo novel, Shadow of Madness. My editor seemed to appreciate it, and having re-read the text while undertaking the structural edits of my manuscript, I think the book is in good shape… but I don’t know. Some readers may love it, others may not. On September 24th 2025, I don’t know.

A much wiser author than me once said that at a certain point, your writing has probably gotten as good as it’s going to be. Then the challenge becomes maintaining that standard, not becoming one of those writers who simply churns out book after book after book. Nobody wants to be a hack, so we aspire to improve.

What’s next?

As I type these words, I expect to be back in the UK before the end of January 2026. Soon after I will start drafting my next novel, but I can’t tell what that is yet. Why not? Well, it doesn’t have a title, for a start and in September 2025 nothing has officially been announced about what I’m writing next. So, that must remain a mystery.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

I know what I will be writing in 2026 and almost certainly in 2027 as well - but, again, it is not official yet so stays a secret. Think of this unnecessary tease as your own case of delayed gratification. I drop hints and you wonder what they might signify. The answers will be revealed in time. Until then, we must all be patient. Onwards!