Even when I’m old and wrinkled, lying in bed wanting to do nothing but eat candy and complain about everything, I’ll still consider one of the biggest surprises of my life as the one that happened nearly one year ago:
The shocking discovery that I was writing a book.
Writing a novel wasn’t in my schedule. In fact, a year ago, I barely wrote down my shopping list. Last year, with little reason and less warning, I started to write. The first thing I tapped out was a short story about…well that doesn’t matter. It was terrible; a real embarrassment to the tongue. It was about fifty pages long; maybe ten were good. Of the ten that were good, about three were great.
Two of those were amazing.
I remember thinking that, though the story was hideous on every conceivable level, there was some fuse tangled up in the filthy little mess that I wanted to spark.
So I did.
I lit it and let it burn for three and a half months, all the way until it detonated in the last week of December. My short story had grown into a five-hundred page behemoth. Wow, I thought. Now what am I going to do with all this?
Back in October, when I first realized that the first short story that I’d ever written was slowly morphing into the first novel I was ever going to write, it was the oddest epiphany, and one I’ll never forget.
I never planned on becoming a writer, but then there it was in front of me like a color you can’t argue with.
I took a break in January and wrote a handful of children’s stories, reading them to the children during daylight and to Daisy by the stars. They were fast, fun, and the total opposite of what I’d been doing.
In February, I picked up the novel and cleaned up the language. I tend to be wordy. It’s probably my biggest weakness as a writer, other than having a tendency for truly terrible analogies (I mean terrible, like – I should probably just wipe my hard drive now before I die and someone discovers them and then also dies, but from laughing at my idiocy – terrible). I added a couple of terrific elements to the draft while trimming it by a neat hundred pages. I finished the second draft on the last day of March and expected to begin the third on the first day of May.
It’s July and I’m just getting started.
Instead of starting to rewrite as soon as the April fell from the calendar, I did something I hadn’t yet done.
I read my book.
Reading and writing are not the same exercise. I needed to read my document – straight through, without stopping every two minutes to tinker.
Did I like what I read?
Sure, some of it. Some of it I hated, and some of it I thought was immature in an almost staggering way.
Some of it, though, I thought was fantastic.
Since I wrote the book on accident, I’d never given thought to an outline, so I’ve spent the last couple of months taking notes and gathering ideas. I started writing a couple of weeks ago and it feels amazing.
There’s an old Greek fable about a ship that sails off to War. The ship is gone for so long that by the time it returns, every sail and board have been replaced. Is the ship that returns to Greece the same ship that left? If it has the same frame, designed by the same engineer, and is sailed by the same captain, then I would have to say that it is indeed the same ship.
The second draft added to the story. The third cleaned it up. This one tears it apart sentence by sentence, then strings them back together.
I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s all finished.
Writer Dad
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That is VERY exciting.
I envy you a little. I don’t think I have a book in me.
You do write very well, by the way. Your words have a way of pulling me into the post and I actually READ your posts instead of scanning, like I usually do online.
That is VERY exciting.
I envy you a little. I don’t think I have a book in me.
You do write very well, by the way. Your words have a way of pulling me into the post and I actually READ your posts instead of scanning, like I usually do online.
Thanks Vered,
Daisy has been trying to get me to write since the card I gave her on our one month anniversary, ten years ago. I’m glad I finally listened. This is a really exciting time for our family. Thank you for your support!
Thanks Vered,
Daisy has been trying to get me to write since the card I gave her on our one month anniversary, ten years ago. I’m glad I finally listened. This is a really exciting time for our family. Thank you for your support!
What a wonderful description of the writing process! Thank you for putting into words so very well what I’ve tried to explain a dozen times over. And – best of luck with the book!
What a wonderful description of the writing process! Thank you for putting into words so very well what I’ve tried to explain a dozen times over. And – best of luck with the book!
My pleasure. Thanks for commenting.
My pleasure. Thanks for commenting.
Writer Dad,
Good luck with your book and you future writing opportunities, you know how to write very well. You site is also very clean and presented well. Where do you go to get the pictures you use for your posts. Thanks again and keep up the posting!
Writer Dad,
Good luck with your book and you future writing opportunities, you know how to write very well. You site is also very clean and presented well. Where do you go to get the pictures you use for your posts. Thanks again and keep up the posting!
Thanks Brian,
I just get the pictures from the Creative Commons page off flicker. You can click on any of the photos to get you there. I promise to post at least once a day, Monday through Friday.
Thanks Brian,
I just get the pictures from the Creative Commons page off flicker. You can click on any of the photos to get you there. I promise to post at least once a day, Monday through Friday.
That’s great news Writer Dad! I think becoming a writer is a very interesting thing for many people. I especially like that your short story was just born and then morphed into a novel.
I’m really liking your blog, I will be back to get more writing tidbits. I wrote a novel for NaNoWriMo, and then half another novel in July this year. But I am far from polishing any of my writing, except for my blog.
Nathalie Lussiers last blog post..Is Your Relationship with Money on the Brink of Divorce?
That’s great news Writer Dad! I think becoming a writer is a very interesting thing for many people. I especially like that your short story was just born and then morphed into a novel.
I’m really liking your blog, I will be back to get more writing tidbits. I wrote a novel for NaNoWriMo, and then half another novel in July this year. But I am far from polishing any of my writing, except for my blog.
Nathalie Lussiers last blog post..Is Your Relationship with Money on the Brink of Divorce?