ENTRY 1

JANURARY 1ST, 2012

Look at that date right there. The first of the month. The first of the year. The first entry in the diary.

I actually came up with the idea of keeping a diary a few days ago, but I decided the 1st would be a sensible start date. Not because I’m one of those people who swear by resolutions and such (go ahead and set a goal whenever you damn well please), but because it made sense.

What am I going to write about? Anything remotely related to writing this novel. The journey from here to there. Here being a man in possession of a manuscript that a publisher felt was worth the gamble of publishing and there being a book on bookshelves—AKA, The dreamed achieved! But more than the process, I want to document how all this feels, what I think about it. The what, yes, but also the how and why.

Today’s the day I decided to start editing the novel. Not that I haven’t edited it many, many times before, but this time it’s under contract (more on this later). Don’t ask me why, but I went to the end of the novel and did some line edits on the last two pages. Not the most productive thing I could’ve done, especially since no one has really said anything critical about the ending, but I’m just a sentence fanatic. I can revise and revise a sentence. It has to be true and also has to have kind of sonic appeal, etc etc.

Shit, there I go digressing.

Let me back up. The novel has found a home. The name of home in Bloomsbury USA. (This could also be called the publishing house the Harry Potter built). The novel also has a birth date or should I say birth season: Spring 2013. The novel also has a shepherd of sorts and her name is Kathy Belden (yep the same Kathy Belden that shepherded Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (a novel I’m currently reading) to the national book award).

So there it is: Kathy buys the book for Bloomsbury USA and they decide on a Spring 2013 release date.

Was that enough name-dropping for you? Yeah, I feel the same way as you do about it. Don’t bust my chops.

Does Spring 2013 seem far away? Well, it is, kind of. But for me it’s much closer. I have to hand in edits by May of 2012. So that’s five more months to make this thing I’ve lived with for yeeeeeeaaaaars (if you only knew) as good as I think it can be, as good as I hope it could be.

Yep, I hope to spend the next five, six, seven months of life devoting every atom strength, second of attention, ounce of talent to improving the novel (maybe sneaking a short story in here and there) to becoming a better writer along the way. It’s a challenge, but who successful doesn’t like them?

I’ll also be spending that time working on the documentary. Yep, documentary: if you didn’t know now you know, and if you still don’t, I hope you soon will.

Well, I don’t want to be too long winded. I’ve got editing to do. This is the first of many entries. I’ve got a year + of them.

Easy,

Mr. Debut