stairway of love

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on September 30th, 2009 at 10:00 PM | 2 comments |

They challenged me to complete the novel by October 1, or deliver myself to the consequence.

Two years and two months ago I started a novel that has been slowly percolating its pages through my overly-committed schedule. The book was inspired by a trip I took to Rhode Island a couple of summers ago, where I stayed with friends in their Watch Hill “summer cottage”—a gorgeous dwelling in the Gatsby tradition of power, fortune and scandal. From the very scant factual nugget, an idea for a novel emerged, one that explores “fitness gone awry.”  Darwin meets Frankenstein, maybe.

A month ago, I still had a third of the book to write, and lamented my inability to prioritize its finishing.  I made that complaint in front of various members of my writing group—all prolific and successful authors who were tired of my whining.  They challenged me to complete the novel by October 1, or deliver myself to the consequence.  And what was the consequence you ask? My hair would be clipped to Bob-length.  Now, that doesn’t sound terrible, right?  But the nature of my hair without the weight that length provides it, is to become a horizontal nightmare seeking eternal latitude. Think of a rust-colored dandelion gone to seed.  No thank you.

So, in a process inspired more by vanity than resolve, I finished the sucker an hour before deadline.  Whew.  And thank you, writing group, for whipping me with the threat of lost locks.

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