You're probably asking yourself that very question at this moment. I know I am.
At the end of last November, I decided that I was going to return to my unfinished novel, A Certain Kind of Weird, and actually write some more sentences and paragraphs and pages and chapters and hopefully finish it. Since that time I've been doing a lot of thinking, some reading, and a little bit of writing, mostly conceptual notes and stuff like that. I've had to return to the little world I created and the characters in it. While the basics of the story have always been in my head, there is a lot of stuff that I need to revisit. I started writing the thing eight years ago. That's a long time. I haven't seriously worked on it for about five years. Thankfully, I had pretty extensive notes for where I wanted to take the story and what I wanted to do with the characters. I've been trying to track down all of my notes and outlines, not the easiest task, mind you, trying to locate every notebook with any kind of character sketch, note, or outline in it. All the while I've been thinking about the what I need to do to make the story work with where I am now as an author and human being.
Tonight I really began to dig in to the text of the first chapter. I have filled the margins of the printed pages with notes, revisions, ideas, comments to myself, etc. It was at times almost painful to read what I had written, at other times quite amusing. The revision process has begun. It will be long and difficult but ultimately worthwhile.
Okay, so back to why you're here. I decided it could be useful to create a blog in which I talked about this process of returning to my novel. I plan to write about the characters and the story, about specific episodes and ideas and the overall process. I invited you to read the blog because you have either been exposed to the story in some form or because I would like you to be exposed to it. You are here because you have opinions that I trust, and I am hoping that you will feel free to provide honest feedback. That will not only help my writing improve, but your willingness and (I'm hoping) excitement to be a part of this will keep me motivated to actually finish this thing.
If you want to read the thing I call my unfinished novel for the first time or revisit it, let me know in the comments. I'll then get the text out to you via email. Don't feel obligated or anything. I honestly don't want this to be a chore for anyone. If you're not interested or too busy, I won't be offended at all. That's how life goes and goes and goes and goes and goes.
