The Forbidden Experiment

This little experiment of mine, this pecking at a keyboard like a crazed monkey to see what magically appears, has had a very curious result... the book that has been hiding in my head, taunting and mocking me for years, has finally decided its time to come out. Almost 80 pages now, and progressing very well. Slowly, yet measurably, this monstrosity is seeping onto the page.

I've made it a priority to get more of my thoughts down here as I go, in order to have something to look back on, a little howd'yado from myself for the next time I get it in my head I'm going to write another novel. All the better if some other aspiring writer out there can read this and relate.

I'm inherently a fantastic procrastinator, prodigious even, reaching heretofore unknown levels of mastery since the invention of the iPhone. This is a trait that does not mesh well with being a novelist, surprisingly, as no one is making me write. Funny about that. So it really is a struggle, daily, to lash myself to the keyboard and keep at it. But the miraculous thing, and all writers seem to have this little piece of wisdom, is that the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the more confidence you start to build. True, true, and true.

The Next Big Author competition ends tomorrow, and I am currently sitting in second place. Its shocking really, that a couple months ago I had nothing, and not really any belief that I would, some few weeks down the road, be sitting in the top 5 of an international competition. Yet there I am. Or not me, really, but my little creation, my experiment. The Forbidden Experiment.

Curiously, it isn't even my best work. I've had to abridge and omit a few chapters here and there to fit a nice round excerpt into the format of the competition, so it isn't as polished as the real thing. But the comments I have received from reviewers, some of them embarrassingly glowing, have given me the confidence that I'm on the right track.

Maybe one day I'll look back at this as where it all began. Maybe not. But I'm going keep on writing regardless.


PS - Any thoughts on the cover? (he asks the empty room)

The Next Big Author and You Write On

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I would ramble off a blurb and update a bit. Been very busy scribbling away at the new book, mildly obsessed in fact. That's a good thing. Obsession gets shit done. Otherwise I'd procrastinate another decade away.

So things have been progressing well. Joined a competition called The Next Big Author, which is an affiliate of a fantastic writers' critiquing website called YouWriteOn, where the first 7000 words of your novel are peer judged, and the top five are awarded a professional critique from a major publishing house.

I joined mostly because I wanted some feedback from knowledgable sources on the opening of the new book. Thought it might help me progress, inspire me a bit to press on. But as the days wore on, and the great reviews poured in, I started to get a little excited. I'm currently bouncing around in the top ten on the site and have had some very nice feedback.  Feel free to take a look - I would love to have more thoughts. Book title: "The Forbidden Experiment"

Competition or not, I'll be hanging around this site for a long time to come to polish all my future work. Couldn't recommend it enough.

Thinking about posting some of my writing on here - I guess that's what a blog is for, huh?