Novel Writing

I chronicled my progress on entering The Writing Show's Halloween short story contest. What I haven't really discussed was that since I entered that contest I was working on a novel.

I think writing is one of those ideal jobs for people with my mental wiring. I kind of live in my head already. I have stories to try telling. I want to work alone, without having to get stressed by other people. Unfortunately the life of an author is seldom the life of the Stephen Kings in the world. Very few authors get to make a life of their writing; most do it as a side job or labor of love. And that's the small percentage that actually get published.

I've heard that an author is someone who manages to get published despite really knowing how the odds are stacked against them.

I want to get a book published. I wondered if I could manage to defy odds and get a novel out there, maybe get someone to read it and like it.

I'm not an English major. I can't accurately dissect sentences into parts of speech. I just wanted to see if I could tell a story in a compelling way, compelling enough to sell it to someone that would hand over a decent advance and say, "Hey, kid, how about you send me another manuscript and we'll see about getting it published a year after this one?"

But I was afraid. See, something like this is best kept in your head. My head was filled with stories. Great stories. Stories that would make you tingle with delight at the valor of heroes and gape in awe at the entrance of the starship that swoops in at the last moment to the riffs of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero". Your head would explode from the sheer amount of awesome in my imagination.

Actually trying to get these things on paper was another story. In my head, I am successful. I am great, as a matter of fact. To actually try it...that's putting yourself out there. It's a way to perhaps validate that I'm a failure. One of the only things I thought I could do as an alternative to the stresses I currently live with in my current job would be finally acknowledged as a non-alternative.

But I still toyed with the idea. I listen to I Should Be Writing. I listen to The Writing Show. Both give inspiration for wanna-be writers. I started reading magazines aimed at writers with tips on how to create decent characters and plots and how to avoid common pitfalls in beginner's writings.

After the contest entries I sat down and started working on a story. I'm near the 25,000 word mark at the time of this writing. It will require a lot of polish and enhancement before I really show it to anyone for editing. I still have fears that it'll get to a point where if there is a decent story in the chaff, I'll get stuck at a point where it can't be fully developed or completed. Or I might sabotage myself and give it a crap ending, validating my fear that I'm not able to cut it as an author.

I desperately wish I knew what I was doing, if what I have is "right". But it's subjective. And I can't send it out to people for comments if it's not minimally reworked; one of the bad things I've read about is asking for comments from someone then telling them a week later, "Wait! I redid these parts. See if it's better with this instead!"

I could be wasting my time completely.

But for now...I'm making goals to stick to. I wanted to add at least 500 words a day to the draft. I've been pleasantly surprised to be hitting about 1,000 almost every day.

So who knows? Maybe I'll have something good with this. Maybe it'll end up thrown away. If I can polish it, then get it edited a few times, I'll try shopping it around to a few hundred agents and see if there's interest. If not then at least I finally tried. I really haven't failed until I have tried, right?