NB – old post

I have been fretting over my novel for a while, making little progress, writing new scenes and new plot lines instead of fixing what I already have. I realized at long last that this is because the finished book I have in mind is not only a best seller and a literary masterpiece, but also innovative and life changing. Just a tiny bit ambitious, don’t you think?
I am reminded of something Donald Miller wrote in Searching For God Knows What?. I am not going to go look up the actual quote right now because I was supposed to start making dinner half an hour ago, so I will summarize. He says that a radio host once asked him in an interview why he wrote a book and he responded with great honesty, “because I want people to like me”.

Me too.

And this, fortunately, makes me realize that I have in fact been agonizing over how to write a book that will please other people. And although I wouldn’t want to write a book that everybody hates, it’s much more interesting to try and write a book that satisfies me.

Not that I will actually accomplish this, because I always find fault with other people’s books, and I mean books by really good writers. So from a certain point of view, I’m already going to fail. But maybe I can write a book that embodies things that I love. Or I can try, at least.