Ten Years of Writing, and His Wife Started It With One Sentence | Francis DiClemente

Francis DiClemente spent ten years turning medical records, teenage confessional poetry, and a shoebox of photographs into STUNTED: A MEMOIR OF DELAYED MANHOOD. Diagnosed with a brain tumor at fifteen that left him physically underdeveloped while everyone around him grew up, the Emmy-winning Syracuse filmmaker walks Jo through the whole grind — the bad first draft, the query-letter void, and the decision to publish honestly enough to include the parts where he was the one being cruel.KEY MOMENTS- Ten years and a 450-page first draft he had to write just to learn what didn't matter- The month he lost building an index, because McFarland ships to libraries- Writing the scenes where he was the mean kid, not the victim- His sister's pre-college advice: everybody has something about themselves they don't likeTHE TAKEAWAYChill out — you're a little bit different, but you'll get through it. And don't be a wuss. The regret isn't the tumor or the years of looking fourteen; it's the drive to LA he talked himself out of.FRANCIS DICLEMENTEBlog: https://francisdiclemente.com/STUNTED: A Memoir of Delayed Manhood (Toplight Books / McFarland & Company)Jo's new book Scarlet Shadows available on pre-order now (Launches Oct 15, 2026!)As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running.Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell