I read an article last year by a woman who said her husband is bad with directions. He had traveled with a friend to a business meeting and upon returning they shared a rental car to get home from the airport which, unfortunately, was about four hours from their hometown. About halfway, they traded places, the friend too sleepy to drive anymore. The hapless husband took over and drove nearly two hours back towards the airport before the friend woke up and discovered the mistake.

That's I how I felt about the novel I'm writing. I think I was driving the wrong direction for maybe 30k words. This weekend I tore the outline apart and am going to relaunch, writing in a whole new direction. I think this time I'm headed home.

-- david j.

I broke one of my cardinal rules of writing, but I did it for a good cause. I put my novel down for two weeks in order to pen a middle reader novella for my son. The finished product seems strong to me, but authors can't always see the leaves for the branches when it comes to their own works. My wife and two good friends are reading the rough draft readers copy now. They'll let me know if it's a flop, especially the wife -- great editor that woman.

The break has given me some inspiration on my novel. While I don't plan to rip it apart, I'm going to readdress the outline with an eye towards bigger meanings and creating more fun for the reader. Maybe this way the time off from actually adding words to the thing won't leave it stale.


-- david j.