The Long Way Through

Hubs and I have been watching the DVD series Long Way Down. It is a documentary style film capturing a motorcycle trip that Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman took from Europe down to the tip of the African continent. Earlier this year we watched their first trip from England to New York, called the Long Way Round.

It has been fascinating to watch the two friends negotiate borders and breakdowns, riding a motorcycle thousands of miles, just to achieve a lifelong dream. They take a surprisingly bare bones approach to the trip and both of them have a meltdown at some point. Most of us don't have the luxury of taking a few months off to bike across Africa, but I'd like to think that if I had my chance I would grab it.

Okay, maybe not on a motorcycle exactly. But there is something to be said for taking some risks and making yourself completely uncomfortable in the process.

This weekend, I made the monumental decision to start over on my book. I finally nailed the beginning and then realized that the voice wasn't going to work with the direction I had originally been planning to take the main character. It kills me to toss thousands of words. For a few days, I kept trying to rework what I had. I am sure I will be able to salvage some of it, but really the best approach is going to be to just start writing from the new voice I am hearing. I felt such magic when I finally wrote the first few words of it, literally had a physical reaction, so I know I am making the right choice.

It isn't easy. I have to get up just before 5 AM to get any good writing time in and sometimes the kids wake up early anyway.

But at some point I am going to complete a novel, even if it is the long way through.