The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Writing

10 Day Novel – Why I Failed

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Well, I suppose I should report on the 10 Day Novel project.

Of course, you probably know by now that I didn’t manage to finish the book in ten days. There are a number of reasons why I didn’t manage to finish, but primarily, it comes down to a couple simple things.

First, I had this section in the middle where I knew something was supposed to happen, but I didn’t know what. I’ve mostly got it sorted out now, but for a while, there, I had nothing.

Second, there were some life events. My daughter’s first day of kindergarten, football, more football. I should remember to NEVER schedule large blocks of time writing on the weekends during football season.

Third, I’m under quite a bit of stress because of a lack of work in my “day job”. It would certainly help if everyone using StoryBox for free bought a copy today, and would be even better if for some reason Shattered just took off and sold a couple thousand copies in the next week. Then I wouldn’t have to worry so much about a day job.

Fourth, it would have been easier to finish the book in ten days if I had stuck with a genre that I know well. I tried to stretch myself a bit, and it made things harder.

I WILL try this again, but not until football season is over. I plan to finish Mendleson Mooney in the next three weeks or so. I have to be done with it before November. I’m going to really start Fragments Nov 1 (with NaNoWriMo).

2 thoughts on “10 Day Novel – Why I Failed”

  1. Off topic: Have you heard of Akiane Kramarik? Totally reminds me of when you say your story builds in layers. She has a video of herself painting. I remember watching and thinking that’s how my stories progress. My method is quite different from yours in terms of the layering, but I think it’s pretty cool we think of writing in the same term (layers).

    Check out the video, I think you could appreciate it.

    http://www.akiane.com/home

    It’s the video on the right of the baby painting.

  2. Hadn’t heard of her, but her art is pretty impressive. Watching that video and not being a painter myself made me think of the question, “How do you make all those decisions about what to do first?” which, of course, is reminiscent of the question writers always get: Where do you get your ideas?

    I laughed when I thought of it.

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