When Doubt Arrives, Right on Schedule

 

 

I’m at that point in the book. It’s one of two moments of intense doubt that show up for me in writing a novel–every single novel.

The first moment happens at around twenty-four thousand words. That’s about a quarter of the way in, when the basics of the story are all on the page exposed to the light of day. I’m just getting familiar with them as a collection of actions, characters, settings. But they’re a lot less shiny than when I first envisioned them. They don’t have that ahhhhh new...