Over the past few weeks I had been working on my next novel Titled Murder in The Family and I found myself completely unmotivated to write. Every night when it came time for me to work on this I found myself not wanting to write it. I was bored with the story. It wasn’t bad but it just wasn’t knocking my socks off if you know what I mean. It was just…average. I never like to make anything average. It must be above average to make me want to invest time in it.

Murder in The Family was being told in the third person from the point of view of the family. I tried to make this as interesting as possible but it just wasn’t working. The pace was off; the dialog was boring and I just couldn’t force myself to like this story. So, one night I was talking to my son about it and then suddenly he tells me I should tell the story from the point of view of the killer. I thought that sounded so much better but I was afraid to go through the trouble of starting the book over. I had already written sixty pages and you know how I feel about killing a story. But am I killing it, if I start over with some changes?

My answer is no. A friend of mine from Twitter told me to go with my gut instinct and that is what I decided to do. I started this novel over to be told from the point of view of the killer and it is being told in the first person. The title has also been changed to “Can You Hear Me?” This is not a mystery so I can tell you who the killer is. The killer is the husband/father and he is slowly but surely descending into madness. That’s all I will reveal for now. I am so glad that I did this. The ideas came and flowed so easily and the outline is complete. I have already begun writing the first chapter and so far, I am enjoying this. Sometimes you get a better idea while writing a novel and if you are willing to put in the extra work to re- write it, go for it. Our readers deserve it. They deserve the best book we as writers can give them. Until next time…