The Beginning

In the beginning . . .the earth was without form, and void. While this blog is certainly nothing quite so grand as the creation of the world, it is a place that is currently without form, and void.

Early in October 2011 I had a crazy idea that immediately started burning a whole in my brain: I should write a book. An idea with some merit preceded the book writing and it ate away at me for a long time. Later in the month, early in the morning of a blustery October day, I sat in my office at work, scouring the internet for structure to help me with an undertaking that, at that point, was consuming me.

It was during that morning that I was introduced to National Novel Writing Month. Beginning November 1st of each year, participants are urged, prodded, and begged to produce 50,000 words in a single month; no small feat.

Well, being ignorant as I was, I started typing. I gave up sleep, exercise, and even food, and by the end of the month, I had 56,183 words on paper and the beginnings of a good story told in a very bad way.

So began the revision process. I've been revising those 56,000+ words for two and a half years. At one point, the entire novel was just shy of 100,000 words. I've done a lot of cutting and a lot of adding. Six major revisions have brought me to where I am today.

During the ensuing months and years, I have spent considerable time learning how to improve my writing. I'm still awful, but I'm making marked progress toward something. I have yet to write anything marketable; but I'm working every day to get better.

One week ago, I was listening to "The Narrative Breakdown." James Monahan and Cheryl Kline do a great job motivating me each week. However, last week they dropped a bombshell on my book. I've known all along that it was terrible. They helped me identify what it was.

With heavy heart, I stopped where I was in the revision process. My book was in need of a major overhaul. I realized that the all important inciting event was way too far into the book (roughly page 80 in a 240 page book).

Committed to seeing this thing through, I restarted the book. Today. That's right. I've dropped the big ax on the entire thing and I'm starting over. There's a big caveat. I will reuse a ton of material from version 6.0 (and 5.0). Version 7.0 is going to begin with a fresh perspective and a whole lot more action.

That leads me to the point of this post. As I go along, I would appreciate the input of those who read this blog (basically my mother, my wife, and the aforementioned Jason Chandler). From time to time, I will post snippets from the book here. I invite anyone to post comments. Please try to be as constructive as possible. If you love something, please tell me why. If you hate something, please do that same.

My ultimate, bucket-list goal is to produce something worthy of publication. I'm fairly certain it will never get published but I plan on collecting a lot of rejection letters in the process.

So, please check back often. I'll be posting the first part - the prologue - in just a few minutes.