Adventures in storytelling

Last night at Anthem, I was asked (more like told) to start writing a book, and that I should have the first chapter done by Spring Break--it was asked for as a wedding present by the very same person that got me to start writing this blog.

I don't think it's going to happen. Firstly, I'm not sure what to write about:

1. Do I go partial biography? I'm only 8589 days old (or about 23 and a half years for those that don't keep track of that sort of thing) and I can't remember a whole lot--I've almost completely blocked out high school.....and middle school......and most of elementery school...... so there wouldn't be very much to write in that line, and what there would be is many crazy stories, some of which are told in full on this blog, some are merely alluded to, and some are overlooked completely
2. What about fiction? Well, I've been thinking about writing a fiction book for a few years now, but nothing's really concrete, not to mention that a lot of those ideas were heavily based on the RPGs I used to spend entire weekends playing, so there may be copyright issues there.

Anyway, the biggest problem is the idea of having the first chapter done in a little over three months. If I were to write a book--and I'm not saying I will--I'm likely to start at the end and work backwards, while also starting near (but not necessarily at) the beginning and working forwards, and throwing in middle bits when they come to me and working outwards from those. Once all of that connected up, then I'd have to go through and read it to see where things don't quite line up, and make changes--like "this character just randomly (dis)appears here, I better explain that" or "the timeline isn't quite right, I need to adjust dates working either forward or backward from this point".

And that just tells of my scatterbrained way of approaching a book. That doesn't even begin to say how short a time three months is. The author I'm currently reading took over 10 years to complete his most famous work, and then spent the rest of his life correcting mistakes--some made by him, many others made by printers--and even after he died, his son worked on correcting mistakes, and from what I have read, it still might not be completely right, even over 50 years later.

Also, if a chapter were to be written in three months, it would most likely have to be completely rewritten before the end. Again referencing the author I'm reading now, his most famous work is a sequel to an earlier, nearly equally famous work, and by the time he completed the sequel, he realized that he had to go back and rework the earlier work, since things didn't line up quite right. How much more so with the manner that I figure I would be writing in! The first chapter started would likely be the last chapter finished, and the last chapter started the first chapter finished. No, I feel strongly disinclined to acquiesce to that request.