Saturday, July 3, 2010

Day 95, July 3, 2010

My wife has been with me through thick and thin and when she asks for a favor I do my best to provide what she wants. She asked me to write about whether I have doubts as I go through the lengthy process of writing a novel. She thought people would like to see me bare my soul or show vulnerability or something.

I might have doubts if I wrote serious literature. You know, the stuff where one character is more dysfunctional than the next and you wouldn't want any of them as a friend or a neighbor. Having doubts in that case would be in keeping with the work.

But I consider my writing to be intelligent entertainment, of one sort or another. So to address my wife's question: No, I don't have doubts. I've been through the drill enough times to know what works and what doesn't and I fix the things that don't work in my daily rewrites. If I somehow overlook something during the initial rewrite, I fix it when I do the overall reread of the first draft.

Note to any new writer who may read this: Screw doubt. It'll slow you down or stop you cold. Just keep writing. Most things can be fixed in rewrite. Keep writing.

As far as whether the main story idea is any good, that's a subjective call. Some people will like it, others won't. That goes for any story. Neither approval nor disapproval is universal. A sign that the idea works for me is how much fun I have writing it. I'm having a lot of fun with this idea.

Still, being the Fourth of July weekend, I got by with doing just two pages today. Enough to keep me engaged in the story. In today's scene, a supporting character learns she's been ditched. She'll have to scramble to get back in the game, and in doing so she'll make things worse.

Day 95 of writing my new novel is done.

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