How about that serial novel launch coming up in two weeks?
That’s pretty serious, isn’t it?
I do take the novel launch seriously. In fact, I’ve taken the writing of this novel so seriously that I was not going to show it to anyone, other than my husband, until it was finished, fully edited, and ready to be published — the traditional expectation. It could have been two or even four more years, maybe longer. But my mind has changed on that.
Why?
Because of the DNF.
What’s the DNF?
The DNF is what I have named the demon that haunts writers, particularly writers of novels, and particularly writers of novels who are set on completing their first novel — like me.
If you watched the Olympics you may or may not be familiar with the term, DNF (Did Not Finish). For a racehorse, DNF could indicate a terrible fate. But more to the point, we rarely find out the true outcome of a DNF, let alone the reason why. Therefore, beware! DNF indicates a story that may never be told.
Add to this the fact that I am at an age when I’ve started seeing brothers, sisters, and friends disappear forever. That temporary feeling sinks in more every time. Some of them might have enjoyed reading this novel. I mean, we all know we are temporary, but it burrows deeper, in a, “Yes, that means you, you and everyone you know and love,” kind of way. So “seize the day” rumbles and drums anxiety into my heart, causing me to get mov . . . Nope, causing me to freeze up entirely and get nothing done at all, because it ALL has to be done RIGHT NOW. Cue the DNF to chase me screaming down the hall from my office.
My DNF likes to list everything I ever started and didn’t finish. Does yours do that, too? It likes to remind me how many would-be-novelists it has eaten whole.
So, what do you do when a demon jumps out of your closet and scares you? You sit down with it and have a conversation, of course.
DNF: Everyone says you should indulge your ten-year-old self. Why didn’t you become what your ten-year-old self wanted you to become? You don’t raise or train any horses. You don’t even own a horse.
I was born horse-crazy. At ten I had decided I would spend my life raising and training Arabian horses, thanks in no small part to Walter Farley’s series and the magnificent 1979 movie, The Black Stallion.
Me: You know what? I followed that goal for at least a decade. It wasn’t a bad road to go down. I studied Arabian Horse World magazines cover to cover, learning history, bloodlines, animal husbandry, and equine conformation. I cleaned houses for relatives to earn money to pay half for riding lessons and then board for my own horse. And after that I taught some young riders myself, even created worksheets with tack and conformation diagrams. I worked with trainers and breeders and handled some very famous Arabian horses.
And beyond that, DNF, I have raised several small horses in bronze, and now I’m giving horses life in my fiction. What more do you want?
DNF (squirming): Ha! But you’ve never finished a novel. What makes you think you’ll finish this one?
Me: Things That Can’t Be Broken is half complete. If I didn’t love editing so much . . .
DNF: You’ll edit it to infinitum. You’ll never finish!
Me: Welcome to Chapter by Chapter. This is where it ends, DNF. Take a look around. Here in this newsletter, I have short, solid, achievable weekly deadlines. What’s more, I have friends, family, and even readers I have never met expecting to read the next chapter every week. Small deadlines. Big accountability. You can’t beat this, DNF.
DNF: (whimpers)
Me: Aww. Cheer up little guy. I want to thank you. Thank you for pushing me here. If it weren’t for your threats, I’d probably still be rewriting Chapters 1-5 until the end of time.
What I’ve been up to . . .
I’ve been testing a template on Substack, so that I can more easily drop in chapters and schedule them for the weekly newsletters. And I have been gathering some visuals that I hope you will enjoy.
I’ve scheduled the Prologue to release on August 30, and I’m practicing resisting the urge to tweak it some more. That’s ok, because after August 30, it will be out of my hands and I’ll be forced to move on to Chapter 1 with all of you readers.
Thank you readers! Thank you for being here and supporting my effort to get it all down. May you be rewarded with an entertaining draft of my first complete novel.
Stay tuned next week for the last Behind-the-Scenes Extra for a while.
My first serial novel, Things That Can’t Be Broken, will launch August 30, (in just two weeks!) right here on Chapter by Chapter.