As some of you may know, I’ve been working on a novel, off and on, for quite awhile. Lately it’s been more “off” than “on” but I’ve been feeling more and more like I need to get back to it.
The working title of this piece of fiction is Twenty Three Notes. I don’t have any thoughts of being published at this time. I know, mainly from walking through this process with Jared, how hard it is even for good writers to get published, let alone a scruff like me. But the whole point has always been to finish it and let whatever happens after that happen, even if it’s nothing.
I’ve written a Prelude, chapters 1 through 5, bits of chapter 6, 8, 12, and the Postlude. Chapter six has been the sticking point. I began writing it and just stalled. The last thing I wrote in it was a big, bold, disgusted “REWRITE THIS” at the top of the first page of the chapter.
Well, I pulled chapter six out this morning on the bus and began to read it. One of the conversations in it touched me and I started crying. Well, not “crying”, per se, but my eyes misted up. I’m realizing that there is some good in this chapter. Either that or maybe it’s just something I ate this morning 🙂 – in any event, it got to me. I think I’ll keep it. The fact that it was dialog that got to me was heartening, because good dialog is the absolute hardest part to write, for me anyway.
I also read the Postlude. Yeah, I started crying after reading that too. I realize that this isn’t about getting published or even really about anyone else ever liking this novel. It’s about finishing it, and in some way being able to communicate what’s in my heart, what I think God has put in my heart, that I’ve longed to communicate but have never been able to verbalize. Maybe now I can, through the fictional lives of these characters that I’ve created.
I hope I can get moving again on this. I need to.
Yes, you do.
And you are approaching the work the way every writer should.
I can’t wait to see the final product, man.
Hmm. I tried to trackback this post at MT, but it doesn’t look like it worked.
Anyways . . .
Linked to you, bud.
Hmm, I re-tried the trackback and it worked this time . . . You had set it up correctly so I’m not sure what happened the first time.
Strange . . .
Thanks for the link!
I’m intrigued that you have missing chapters as yet unwritten. So do I get to read your book for free, too? 😉
Well, I have target plotpoints that need connecting.
When I’m done with draft one I will give it to a few people to read (or to read as long as they can before they toss it in the trash in disgust 🙂
Also – my statement “When I’m done with draft one” can represent almost any amount of time!
Stop being self-deprecating. It’s not healthy. And I want to read it when it’s in form.
Can’t I just claim self-deprecation as one of my spiritual gifts? 🙂
You’re right Damon. I’ll try to stop. I need to start heeding my own advice.
Stir me into the pot of reading the draft also.
Could a complete stranger read your book someday? Me, for example?
🙂
Well, it depends on what I think of it once I’m done. I’ve got a ways to go. So we’ll see.
Thanks for offering!