Growing Pains

I've outgrown my current novel. Now wait; hear me out before you react.

Traveling companions and fellow abolitionists, it's not the trafficking issue I've outgrown, and I haven't given up my passion for The Story in its essence, nor the setting of Cambodia.

Writing colleagues, I know there comes a point in the birthing of every book when the writer begins to hate the work. I don't think this is one of those times. My characters bore me, my plot seems flat to me now, and I just want to scrap the whole thing and start over. So, I am. Same high stakes issue, new plot, new characters.

Critics, I am not defeated. This is a step up, not a step back.

So, here's my goal: a new completed draft of 75,000 words in six weeks, a first revision by the end of September, and a finished, polished product to pitch at Surrey by the third week of October.

There it is, out in the blogosphere. Feel free to ask me how it's going (read: nag me to make sure I'm sticking to my plan). I have freshly ordered a copy of No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty. Chris is the National Novel Writing Month guru, so he knows a few things about working on an ambitious (insane) deadline.

And so the next journey has begun.