Like the forever sagging waist band on my stretch jeans, something about my latest manuscript is not working.

Despite a few strong elements, it just doesn’t seem to crackle, pop, or even fizz, and I wasn’t sure why till I read this quote  from Shannon Hale about the importance  of telling a story that doesn’t come easy.

“…attempting to write a book that’s too hard for me…telling a story I’m not smart enough to tell. The risk of failure is huge. But I prefer it this way. I’m forced to learn, forced to smarten myself up, forced to wrestle. And if it works, then I’ll have written something that is better than I am.”

Perhaps my problem, is that the story I have created, was too easy to create. Now for the really challenging part: figuring out what the hell that means on paper.

Well here goes.