If you want to get anything done, give it to a busy person…<\/p>\n
In my life, I’ve started four novels, completed my goals on three, gotten to “The End” on two, and completely flamed out on one.<\/p>\n
The first was in 2001. I hadn’t written much since high school. Something clicked in my head that made me realize that writing wasn’t some kind of black art (as one particular teacher had drilled into his credulous students). It was doable. You take pencil and paper and write one word after another. Voil\u00c3\u00a0. I was so taken with this simple idea that every single thing I ever learned about writing went out the window. I had Swifties, danglers, tell-vs-show, you name it. There’s enough material in there for several Bulwer-Lytton<\/a> contests. By the time I had 70 hand-written pages, the thing collapsed under it’s own weight and the story reached an abrupt, borderline-surrealistic “ending” to abuse the term. I have evidence that I even typed it all in and pressed on for a 2nd draft.<\/p>\n By 2003 my non-fiction book<\/a> was published–my writing career was under way! Part of the elaborate book proposal dance involved me writing some online articles, including one piece of fiction<\/a> that was well-received in the tiny circle that was its intended audience. At this stage I adopted electronic writing, and ditched my crashy Windows laptop for a Mac, a vast improvement.<\/p>\n