Promise-ary Note: Promise #6

For those of you who missed the 52 Promises post (a year-long project), you can find it here.

So I am a day early on drawing my new promise, but I liked the idea of giving myself an extra day, especially in light of the new promise.  The new promise for the week is...

The last couple of years have seen me scrap two attempts at the same novel concept.  It's a good thing for me to go through.  It shows me that I'm committed to the writer's life.  Even though hours of effort have been expended on a failed project, I return to the keyboard.

One of the reasons I failed in my previous novel attempts (at least I think so) is because I was writing what I thought I SHOULD write as opposed to what I loved writing.  This realization dawned on me this last summer and a new concept has since arisen to take the old novel's place.  I've been working on character sketches and scene studies for the new concept, but I haven't yet taken the entire plunge and set about writing a linear narrative.  The time is now!

I have a pretty solid idea of how the first act will unfold and how this will evolve in the second act, but I have no idea about the third.  I'm really comfortable with that and feel that it is exactly as it should be.  I don't want an entirely pre-determined ending.  I want the room to discover my characters and the overall story.  

This week will see me formalize what I think I know about the book.  Once I have the outline, I can begin to write in a more linear format and bring this project one step closer to the light of day.  This was one promise I wanted to pull early in the year, and it all worked out.

Looks like I'll be spending some quality time in my writing chair this week.

Photo courtesy of The Writing Fortress