A few times along the way, I’ve felt it necessary to write down what I thought was going to happen.
Once was at the beginning — first in August 2011, and again on 9/1/11, just before I started writing. I’ve reviewed those docs and the only thing that has any correspondence to the finished product: the names of the protagonist and her grandfather, and the basic setting (America, near future, highest level of the government). The current plot is a distant cousin to the original.
A doc I wrote six weeks before finishing, when I was trying to get a better handle on the ending? Still has little resemblance to the true ending.
What I’ve learned from this: it’s all well and good to write notes, but it’s no substitute for writing the novel.
For my readers, here’s an example of something from a year ago that has no connection with the finished story.
the US elects a president who is a progressive, and who is interesting in many ways: he is the youngest president ever, he is Jewish, single (his wife died perhaps 18 mos prior to his election to the presidency), brash and honest to a fault, quite apolitical. His candidacy was deemed DOA but when the front-runner flames out in a homosexual sex scandal and the second-to-the-front-runner is assassinated (he is black, and the racist elements don’t want to see another black president), our Jewish candidate manages to win the nomination.
That was my protagonist one year ago. He’s long gone.
D.
Sorry I haven’t been writing, but I’ve been writing. I’m DONE. I love this novel. I love the story, I love the characters, and I absolutely love the ending.
Based on my post here, this novel has taken a little under one year to write.
The final manuscript is just over 139K words, which is probably a little longish. I’d like to cut it back to 120K words if I can, but I’m not going to be a slave to numbers. I’m going to edit the last three chapters, then start over from the beginning.
Once I’ve done the final edit, I’ll send it out to those of you who’ve expressed an interest. And after I get your comments back and made changes, I’ll have to decide what the hell I’m going to do next.
D.
Up early this morning, so I went out to breakfast at a local greasy spoon, the kind of place where the musical selection spans from “Where the Boys Are” to “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” decor consists of mounted steer horns and old gas pumps, and the walls are filled with pictures of both Bushes (signed, thanking the owner for his continued support), John Wayne, and Ronald Reagan. A children’s book, Who Was Ronald Reagan? prominently displayed. Anti-Obama bumper stickers filling the dead wall between pictures of Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani.
At the table next to me, the owner pontificated about the Olympics — specifically, about our chances to surpass the “pinko Commies” if we snagged just one more gold medal.
Framed on the wall above my table: that photo of a leering George W. Bush, waving at someone off camera, with the caption, “Miss me yet?” To the owner’s character traits, I add irony impaired.
I’ve never paid much attention to the decor, but that “pinko Commies” comment opened my eyes. Since I don’t follow the Olympics, I wondered which Commies he was referring to — the Chinese? Or does he think the Soviet Union still exists?
D.