A change in strategy: my novel and I now have an open marriage

Long time readers (and real life friends) know that I have been working on a novel for so long that I usually just refer to it as, The Novel, and people know what I mean. I want to finish it. I have been working on it for far too long. It is also my epic masterpiece work so I am spending ages perfecting it. I am still very committed to finishing it but I decided to try a different strategy for a while.

Sometimes I come up with ideas for another story, unrelated to The Novel. Each time, I tell myself that said new idea would be a good project to do after I finish The Novel and ignore said new good idea.

I also never tell anyone these ideas or write them down in anyway. My logic has been that a) if they are that good of an idea, I won’t forget it so I don’t need to write it down and b) doing any work on these ideas will only take away from my work on The Novel which is priority one.

Well, obviously, this plan is not working. Here I am, 7 years later, still working on the same book and it isn’t done yet.

It’s time to put some spice into my relationship with my novel. From this point on, we have an open marriage.

I just spent all night tonight cheating on The Novel. With another novel.

Progress on New Novel

Other than the fact that I keep writing down the name of the character from my other book as the main character in this one, I cranked out a decent amount of writing considering I was just goofing around with this story. On a side note, I think this book is shorter than 50,000 words but I like that graphic so let’s just pretend.

So how did I get here? I came up with a decent idea but instead of just shelving it I talked it up to my husband. Then my mom. Then my cousin. I actually wrote out an outline. I know, very unlike me. I figured, it is fresh in my head now, why don’t I just write it now instead of being stupid about it.

I think if you sat down with all three of those parties and asked what the story is about, they would give you a different version because I was rewriting the story as I told it to each person. I think I was weirdly on my fourth + draft before I had written a single word because I retold it so many times.

My husband, mother and cousin all liked the idea. I liked the idea. But most of all, unlike The Novel, this idea is very straightforward. Whenever i am reading, I am very envious of stories that are straightforward.

This happens which leads to this which in turn leads to this. Bing, bang, boom.

The Novel is nothing like this. Stuff happens out of order, scenes are retold from other perspectives, things happen that don’t reveal themselves for what they really are until many pages later. The Novel is too f-ing complicated, pardon my abbreviated French.

But New Novel is a whole different story. Things happen in this book in a nice linear fashion. It takes place in the Real World instead of some weird fantasy realm. Characters in it have cell phones, listen to iPods, do normal people things. It is only from one person’s perspective. All of the characters are normal (relatively) humans just like me instead of weird made up races. I can use normal people names instead of making up weird stuff.

Don’t you see why this new novel has sucked me in? Compared to The Novel, this one is so freakin’ easy! Easy like Sunday Morning. (I have no idea what that means, for the record.)

Of course, New Novel and I are still in the honeymoon phase. I have no doubt that I may remember why I married The Novel in the first place and come crawling back. But for now, I am enjoying my dirty little fling with this new story and I want to see where it goes.