In the early days…
Over the next number of weeks, I will be sharing a series of excerpts, stories, and other materials related to my debut novel, Sarah’s Still Life, about a woman’s struggles with love and loss while striving for her dreams. The book is available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, eBook retailers, and orderable from most book stores worldwide. To stay up to date on all Sarah’s Still Life happenings other Matthew Kopf projects, join the mailing list here.
People talk about the first moment of writing their novel as if it were some kind of epiphany. As if the clouds opened, the seas parted, and they began on their writing journey. For me, it was far less dramatic. Just me, my MacBook, and a sinking feeling that I was starting something I wasn’t going to finish; again.
See, my computer is full of false starts. Documents with a few pages of a story here. An outline there. A few chapters that just abruptly end, etc. So, in those cold, grey December days, early in this adventure, as I stared at my computer screen and tapped out the first few sentences of what would become Sarah’s Still Life, I was stalked by a fear that it would end up as more of the same.
This time around, however, I’d done a few things differently. I prepared more outlining and planning than in any of my past attempts (though still not enough as I’d later learn) and set myself progress goals. I chose a modest 200 words per session, 50,000 words total. Not exactly prolific, but it was a start.
Today, as I scroll back through the logs in Storyist (the program I write in), I can see that my goal setting worked (more or less): December 9th, 217 words; December 11th, 197 words (missed it by that much); December 22nd, 277 words. You get the idea. Somehow, in those precious, sleep-deprived moments, I managed to get my 200 words.
My nascent novel and I faced other challenges as well. At that time, my wife and I had just welcomed our daughter into the world, and I was trying to squeeze writing sessions between naps (theirs and mine) while keeping the house running and adapting to life with a newborn.
Every few days I managed to sneak down to my basement office and write a little more. A scene, an edit, another scene. Inch by inch, word by word, I added small bits of progress to my seemingly large goal. Little did I know how much work laid ahead.
Looking back on it now, almost none of the work from those early days made it into the final story. For example, Sarah's adventure originally began in the midst of a snowstorm as she braved the elements to arrive at the Family Kettle tea shop to start her busy day of work, school, and claw-hammer that was her mother. That scene, while now the victim of a ruthless delete key, was a seed that eventually germinated into the full-fledged novel, Sarah’s Still Life.
If you want to know more about Sarah’s Still Life and all the other Matthew Kopf projects, please check out more of Matthewkopf.com and sign up for the mailing list here.