One Punch

I had kept journals off and on for years and written some creative non-fiction but first started writing fiction in the spring of 2003.

I’d had a particularly hard day at school that day.

A student with fetal alcohol syndrome had taken a swing at me and connected. He was scared and I didn’t realize it and he swung wildly and connected just below my eye.

He was not a violent kid. I was not a pushy teacher. We just happened to be walking through a narrow walkway together after a particularly stressful day for him and he went a little wild.

I continued to work with him for the next year or so, but that swing changed me. Woke me up. Made me realize once again to take nothing for granted. I had to go to the doctor for some x-rays and yeah, everything was fine, but still, it was the closest I’d come to having my life altered by someone’s physical force.

I’d been kicking around an idea I had for a novel for a couple of years--chewing on it as I rode my bike to and from work.

More than anything else, that one punch stirred me to action. It made me realize that if I wanted to start writing a novel the time was now. There was no guarantee that tomorrow would be there. There never really is.

  

Without that one punch I probably would have started writing that novel sometime but I’m not sure when. I don’t think you need to have life threatening experiences in order to make changes in your life but some experiences can put you on a faster track for taking action.

What experiences have you had that have made you re-evaluate what you are doing or that have woken you up and caused you to make a change in your life?

Thanks for stopping by.

First Novels: When to hold and when to fold?

I wrote my first novel over a two year period, much of it in long hand. When I finished it I felt a sense of satisfaction…..and dread. Was it any good? And, would I ever have an idea for another book?

Between a demanding teaching job, commuting by bicycle year-round, getting into long distance running, and the rest of life, like most people, many hours of my day were spoken for before I could sit down to write.

Okay, I got another idea and then another, and then another. Over a three-year period and I wrote three more books and revised and revised and revised.

Then, I came back to that first novel and I rewrote it. Why did I pick it back up? I guess I really loved the premise.

The story changed from a third person YA novel to a first person MG novel. And that’s the novel that took second place in the PNWA Annual Contest.

When I set my first novel aside I didn’t know that I’d come back to it three years later. I didn’t know I’d devote six months to a total rewrite that took the book through several more drafts.

During the process did I ever think I was wasting my time? 

Yeah, that happened almost daily. And, where will the story go from here? I’m not sure….

Where is your first novel? Published? Under your bed? Still working on it? At rest in the little-visited catacombs of your hard drive? Have you considered revisiting it? How do you decide if something is worth rewriting as opposed to moving on to a new project?