I started writing Caput Mundi: the Head of the World in 2007, which will be out in 2026. That’s 19 years—it’s a very long time to stay with one story! If I knew from the start it would take this long, I don’t think I would have ever started. But the journey did stretch this far, and looking back, I can see why that time mattered and how impactful it was in shaping my story. Here are some of the lessons I learned along the way.
Look back at your old notes
When I first started writing Caput Mundi, I wrote with total freedom. No rules. No expectations. I was a high schooler with no phone and endless time to fill notebooks with ideas. Back then, I didn’t need to worry about logic or structure. I was just trying to build a world that felt exciting, wondrous, and magical—much like the fantasy books I loved at that age, like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. It was pure imagination.
Much of that early material never made it into the final draft, but in those early versions were ideas so spontaneous, weird, and so wildly out of left field that now I see them as gold mines of inspiration. Younger brains really do think differently, probably because they’re not weighed down by the logic and rules that make adult brains pick safer, more predictable ideas.
So, if you’re just starting, take advantage of that endless creativity. Write boldly and recklessly; write whatever you want. You don’t get this version of your brain twice.
And if you’re past that stage, go back and look at your old notes. You may find something incredible hiding in your ow handwriting. You can thank your younger self for that.
Focus on getting better, not getting published
When I entered the querying process for the first time, it didn’t take long for me to learn how naïve I’d been about getting my book published once it was done. Rejection letters dropped one after another. It was a brutal wake-up call, especially since I had grown up believing that failure meant I hadn’t worked hard enough.
Instead of improving my writing, however, I focused on making the book as “marketable” as possible. I darkened the tone, made my protagonists more rebellious; I adopted dystopian settings because they were on literary agents’ manuscript wish lists (keep in mind, this was the mid-2010s). I added trendy tropes like sibling rivalry, tragic pasts, and noble-born characters. I hoped at least one of them would be the magic ticket.
None of it worked.
And to no surprise, almost none of those additions survived future edits. Every trend I forced into the book eventually fell away because it didn’t belong to the story I actually wanted to create. Trying (and failing) to fit into a trend taught me something important: your work becomes stronger the moment you stop writing for approval and start writing for yourself.
Let your life grow between rewrites
I rewrote Caput Mundi more times than I can count. Openings were deleted. Characters swapped roles. Themes changed. Meanwhile, I was also growing through school, college, work, traveling and countless real-world experiences. Each new version of me brought something new to the page.
That said, I wasn’t writing all the time. It was a slow, on-and-off process where I wrote in pieces and chunks. What I do think was amazing to me is that every time I returned to do a rewrite, I recognized the fresh perspective I was bringing to the story. Even better, it was like I could pick out every shortcut, every character I didn’t understand yet, and every plot thread that I’d added “just because.” Over the years, all those artificial pieces fell away, and what stayed was what truly mattered.
You develop richer perspectives over time
Because I began writing this book as a teen and finished it as an adult, the book naturally carries both perspectives. And that turned out to be the key to developing a richer story.
Caput Mundi follows children who are trying to fix the problems their parents left behind, facing consequences for choices they never made. When I wrote this as a teen, the story leaned heavily toward the children’s viewpoint. Back then, I wanted escape, a world where kids could stand up to the “selfish” adults.
But as I got older, I realized adults don’t escape either. Instead, they trade kid problems for grown-up ones: jobs, bills, obligations, systems. Suddenly, my story wasn’t just about children vs. adults anymore. It became about finding your voice in a world that constantly tries to limit and wear you down.
That dual perspective only came with time. If I’d published earlier, I wouldn’t have had these layers of understanding. Time, in this case, became my greatest advantage.
You become a stronger person
Writing this book has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And it wasn’t just the creative process that was difficult—it was facing rejection, struggling with self-doubt, and the constant cycle of trying, failing and trying again that had my brain screaming, “Why are you doing this to yourself?”
But every time I returned to my manuscript, I felt a little braver. Writing forced me to face my fears, and most importantly, my craving for validation. Over 19 years, I became someone who could take a hit and keep going. That resilience became one of the best parts of who I am.
I’ve received hundreds of rejections from literary agents. But during those same years, I was challenging myself in other ways by traveling alone to Italy, Japan, and Australia; living with a homestay family abroad, applying to Harvard, and starting a food blog that eventually reached 1 million visitors in 2024.
None of these things were part of a grand plan, but I was actively trying to build an identity separate from my writing failures. I even joke with my sister about how my food blog began, because she was the one who suggested I step away from writing and put my energy somewhere else.
Would I have made those choices anyway? Maybe. But I do believe my writing journey has played a role in shaping who I am now and how I tackle new challenges. More importantly, every new experience, risk and adventure fed right back into my story and made it stronger.
Conclusion
Does a longer project always yield better results? No, I don’t think that at all.
Spending more time on something doesn’t automatically make it better. I know I spent unnecessary years rewriting early drafts, only to replace them with new plots and characters. There’s a lot I wouldn’t repeat if I could go back and do it again.
But time does give you something valuable, and it feels good to finally acknowledge that. It gives you clarity about what matters to you most and forces you to grow alongside your work. It made me stop caring about the what ifs: wondering if I should have written something else, or if someone else would’ve done it faster.
I’m glad I stayed with this book as long as I did—proud that I built a world and characters I truly care about, and that I didn’t let those characters down. I’m self-publishing this book, not because I gave up, but because I know I gave it everything I had. I realized my identity wasn’t tied to its outcome, but tied to the person I became along the way.
So if you’re somewhere in your own long journey, whether it’s year 2 or year 20, I truly hope you give yourself the same credit. You get to define what success looks like.
About the author
B.R. KANG is a 1.5-generation Korean-American, unapologetic foodie, Harvard alum, and constant daydreamer. Her debut novel, Caput Mundi, has been nearly twenty years in the making—rooted in what-ifs, countless revisions, hundreds of rejections, and a stubborn belief that good stories are worth fighting for.
When she’s not writing, she’s in the kitchen experimenting with recipes or exploring flavors from around the world. Learn more about her and her work at CaputMundiBooks.com.
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Cover artist Wilhelmina Craw’s Instagram
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This is beautifully written. Your blending together of your younger and older voices and the journey to publication is a story worth sharing. Thank you.
Thanks for reading and supporting indie authors!