Why writing a novel is like a 2 year old’s birthday party

This past Saturday we celebrated my grandson Aiden’s 2nd birthday. We had a lot of fun and even some surprises. Like balloons that pop just because you looked at them. Big shout out to my son for blowing them up so tight everyone was scared to move out of fear of the BANG! But they were big. Yeah.

Aiden was a very good guest of honor. He smiled for the camera, smiled appreciatively at his cake and presents and, well…that was about it. The little bugger sneaked off to the kitchen and dove into his cake while everyone else was chatting and visiting with one another. In one split-second moment, a few of us looked at one another and realized the others didn’t know where Aiden was, either. That first moment of realization that you don’t know where your two year old is is sheer panic, the moment after that is …”oh noooooo” as we all ran to the kitchen to salvage the cake.

Then there were his presents. He opened his mom and dad’s present first. Mommy and Daddy got him a baseball cap so he could look like daddy and they got him a really cool little boy book bag (Aiden has three older sisters. He knows the Disney princesses and fairies by name.) So he puts his ball cap on and daddy helps him put his book bag on and he’s done. Like finished. What other presents? I’m just going to walk around with my cool red cap and little boy book bag on. Y’all go ahead with whatever. Daddy says, “Aiden, look you’ve got another present. Let’s open it.” If he had more than a twenty word vocabulary Aiden would have said, “Yeah, cool. Go ahead, there dad. I’m just going to check myself out in this mirror.”

Papa Hemingway was quoted as saying: “Begin your story as close to the end as possible.” No other author’s words could ring more true. Start big and build bigger until it’s so big, it explodes on the page. Like overfilled balloons. Save the ball cap and little boy book bag for last so the reader can savor every minute of it.