Novel Three Started

Written By: Timothy Fish Published: 12/21/2007

I wasn’t supposed to start it this soon, but I started the third novel this week. It wasn’t an intentional thing. I was just trying to figure out how it was going to begin and before I knew it I was into chapter three. Chapter one may need revision. I will have to look at it when I can look at it more objectively. Those first two chapters are among the hardest things I have ever written. It is not that they writing is so difficult as it is that the subject is difficult. There are some things that people should never have to face and yet I have chosen to write about one of those topics.

The story is based on a Bible story, so much of the outline is already done. My hope is that by setting the story in modern day America, in a Midwest town, of all places, it will add realism to the story that many people may miss when reading the historical account given in the Bible. I will have to use a bit of author’s license, since the Biblical account condenses several years of history into about a page or two of text.

One of the problems I have had is trying to figure out where to begin the story and point of view. It is a story that others have told, so I don’t want to repeat their work. I want the reader to connect with a character that others have relegated to a lesser role, even though I believe it is actually he who the story is about. I think I will have to tell the story primarily from his point of view. I may have to include others to prevent hearsay, but there is one character that I fear to use as a point of view character because people may connect with this character and lose sight of the other character.

I fear that things are going to get rough for the main character. They already are and things have to get a lot worse before they get better. If chapters one and two are hard, I can’t help but wonder what the rest will be like.