I'm trying my best to maintain the strictest vow of silence in regards to the novel I'm writing. Odd as it may sound, the less I mention it the more apt I am to complete it. Nothing is more cliche than creative-types talking about "working on a novel". Consequently, nothing is more rare than someone actually finishing a novel.
One painfully obvious statement must be made. Writing a novel is much more challenging than anything I've ever done. When I compose a script, if a bolt of inspiration hits me, I can spit out 20 pages in one sitting. I spend a week revising and I'm done. Heck, I scripted all 144 pages of Astronaut Dad in one glorious month. With a novel, it's painfully slow, inspired or not. One sentence at a time. One page at a time. There's nothing I can do to speed the process along. It's the epitome of the "marathon" metaphor.
Fortunately, my creative writing class has been helpful. I promised my students if I reached a certain page number by December, I'd throw a pizza party. Understandably, they are now personally invested in my success. We've also been watching a five part video series in which writers give advice on the writing process. I downloaded it from United Streaming and it's incredible.
