Attached are Chapters 1 & 2 of Draft #13-g of John’s novel, which has the working title ‘Getting It, a dark comedy.’ A previous draft was called Irreconcilable Differences, but there was a movie by that name in the 80s, and besides this title (suggested by friend and critiquer, Mona Birch) is MUCH better.

John wrote the first word of the first draft around September 1995. He took off summers for Creative Writing Abroad, and didn’t write a lick (except for poker stuff) the year we spent in Vegas. Still, there’s about four years work here, and thousands of pages have made their way to the Recycle Bin.

The book started with a personal event which sparked John’s realization that he was totally clueless about how men and women treat each other.. Then it occurred to him that he might not be the only guy with this problem. As with all good stories, it evolved from an idea to a story about a character: Adam Painter, a late-night Miami radio show host who struggles haplessly on the journey from cluelessness to the awareness that he has no clue. A small step to some perhaps, but an essential one.

The way John works, beginnings get re-written more than endings, so this is pretty close to what the final draft of these chapters will probably look like. Although, with any luck, agents and editors and the like will have their say.

Theoretically Draft 14 or 15 will be the final draft to be sent out for possible sale, which means it should be soon. But novel-writing’s not exactly a predictable process.

This excerpt is about 23 pages. You can either download a printable PDF version or just read it on the screen.