Writing a Novel is Hard

Remember this photo? A few months ago, a friend of mine suggested that she and I commit to finishing our novels this spring and that we put some money on the line for motivation. $1,000 to be exact. We wrote each other checks in that amount, dated for March 15th. To keep the checks from being cashed, we would have to start querying agents by that date, with our manuscripts ready to go.

It sounded like a good idea at the time.

I’m a Sucker

As I know now, carrying around a check for $1,000 is actually a really bad idea. My friend’s wallet was stolen, and within a matter of hours the check had been cashed, the money withdrawn from my account.

After spending about two hours on the phone with the bank, and another few in person at my local branch, I was able to cancel the check, close that account, open a new account, transfer all auto-draws and direct deposits, and order new checks. Ug. What an effing nightmare. And that was for just one check. My poor friend spent days dealing with the fraud the thief racked up in a matter of hours.

So yeah, don’t let checks float around with your signature on them. As it turns out, they are really easily cashed, by anyone.

As a silver lining (or not, I can’t decide), I no longer have threat of losing $1,000 if I don’t hit my goal of being ready to query agents by March 15th.

Writing A Novel is Hard

Here’s where I am with the book:

The First 100 Pages

I’ve written countless drafts and discarded thousands of pages (I wish that was an exaggeration). Upon completing a draft two years ago, I paid a former professor to read it and give me feedback. She gave me many, excellent notes. The biggest was that I started too late. She asked if maybe I started the story at what should be page 100. After exploring the idea, I decided she was right and have since added about 100 pages to the beginning.

Sadly, this means that my roughest pages are my first pages. As I look through the notes I got from my beta readers on my most recent draft, that much is clear. The beginning pages are just covered in ink, but around page 100, the notes lessen and, from there on out, I’m told it “sings.”

To be clear, the story is better with the new opening, it’s just that the writing still needs polishing. A lot of polishing. So my challenge now is to get those first 100 pages to sing like the rest of the book.

The Race Issue

I also decided, after much debate (both in my head and among friends), to make my main character white again. She spent about two drafts as African American. I blogged about my reasons for this choice, and I blogged about my reservations, but ultimately it comes down to this: writing a novel is hard and I don’t need any additional challenges.

I’m not writing a black protagonist for the same reason I’m not writing a male protagonist: because I am a white woman, and I need to write what I know. I sincerely hope that, as I grow as a writer, I will feel confident writing more diverse characters, but I’m just not there yet.

A Short Novel

What else? Well, the story continues to hover around 75,000 words. I wish it were a teensy bit longer, so I’m looking for sections that could use a few more visceral descriptions, maybe a little more internal dialogue, but I also don’t want to bog it down. It’s going to be short, but I think that’s okay for a first novel.

Never Surrender

I’m still shooting for that March deadline, I guess. I really just want to be done, if only so that I can move on to the next novel. That gives me about 6 weeks and I’m pretty much putting everything else on hold to hit the goal. I just won’t be writing any more checks.