How I Wrote a Novel: The Beginning

The weekend it all started.

It all started on a car ride to Chicago.

The conversation went something like this:

“You should write a novel next,” said Mike glancing over at me from the driver’s seat.

I snort laughed and shook my head. “I have no idea how to write a novel. I haven’t studied English since high school.”

“But you’re already a published author.” He emphasized published author with gravitas it didn’t deserve.

“But that’s a guidebook. I can research stuff and write technical papers and marketing copy but writing a novel… I’m totally not qualified.”

He wasn’t giving up on this. “But if you were to write a novel, what would you write about?”

It was an interesting question. One I’d never considered. We had 5 hours of car ride to go and we needed something to chat about so I started thinking out loud. Since I knew nothing about writing fiction, I should write a story drawing on my personal experience.

The first idea that popped into my head was to explore a fictional version of something Mike and I discovered when we first met. We figured out that we’d unknowingly crossed paths over the years, in Florida in 1985, in Malaysia in 1996 and then we finally met in Arizona in 2005. On top of that, from the beginning, Mike seemed to know we were destined to be together and wore down the wall of my skepticism with his certainty that we were meant to be. So, I proposed that IF I were to write a novel, I’d write a story about two people who discover that their lives crossed paths many times before they actually met.

What began as a theoretical thought experiment to pass the time on a long drive turned into a multi-year adventure in conceptualizing, researching, developing, writing and revising my debut novel. Without Mike’s unwavering belief that it was going to be great, I’m not sure I would have followed through.

That’s why Out of Time is dedicated to him.