You have one shot at the big book. Not the book you know you can write and that you think will sell and wont take you that long and other people might write it and most people will like it and your agent will be able to sell it or your publisher will love it because it sums up in a couple of sentences. No, you have one shot to write the book you might not be able to write. You have one shot to go against the grain and conventional wisdom of what you should write or what you might write or what everyone says you should write and you decide to write what no else has written and now you are taking your shot at the big book.

Because it is a high risk high reward all or none proposition. It is either going to fly or crash and burn like a hellion. It is the book that will pull you to pieces with more balls in the air,  more characters, more reach, more breadth, more of everything that is in you and more than you even think you have to give. And not a day goes by you don't think it is a colossal mistake and that you should just stop and write that quick potboiler that everyone thinks will be good and sell and might make you a million bucks. But you don't do it, you keep on.

And the Big Book is going to take too long. It is just too damn long. It is not what people want to read anymore. They don't want epics. They don't want books that run a thousand pages. They want something neat and short and punchy and edgy and timely and something that you are not writing. But you don't care. You are taking your shot. It is your fight. It is only you now. You will either succeed or fail. You will not have a second chance. Most writers wont even attempt it. You are way out on a limb now. You are reaching way beyond your grasp. You are going for the big book.

Yeah. Take your shot. At least you had the guts.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/