Novel Work This Summer; A Brief Check-in

Dear students, I hope you're having a good summer.
This summer, I decided to take a little break from teaching and have been working on a novel that I've been breadcrumbing, inch by inch, over the last few years.

I'd been writing a chapter here, a chapter there, until finally, I realized that I had a stack of chapters this spring. I tried to engage in it, thinking I might have a blueprint for a book, but to my horror, it was not. The chapters were half-written, and the ones in good shape simply were from a time when I hadn't advanced that much in my writing. So I put the novel away.

Until several things happened, drops of serendipity started to show up here and there, as the universe gave me a sign to venture into the story. I got encouragement from my managers, I heard a podcast with Rob Lowe talking about his writing method, and it was 'I wrote anywhere and everywhere, on my phone, in airplanes, you name it, that was the key.'

That encouraged me because that is what I'd been doing thus far. I kept at it in June this summer of '22, and I felt the material was in good shape by the end of the month. I only had about a daunting 50% left to write. And now, by the end of July, I've just finished a solid 3rd draft of my book.

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and let you know what I've been doing this summer. I also want to share a short chapter from the novel.

I look forward to seeing many of you again in my Free Film Seminars that are now celebrating a one-year anniversary. I will change the format somewhat and send out a special post explaining how.

Anyway, here is a short chapter from my novel.