Throwback Thursday: My first attempt at writing a novel was based on the real misadventures of an ill conceived road trip to California in the summer of 1988, after I had graduated college. I took it with my best friend, Tim, his fiancé, Beth, and a school friend, Sunday. Below is a screen grab from a video of Sunday and I, and part of Tim, on Big Thunder Railroad at Disneyland.

This trip was so horrendously awful it nearly destroyed my friendship with Tim. Years later I thought I’d try to write a fictionalized version of those memorable events, but, after about three chapters, I stopped. I wasn’t good enough to pull it off.

I went back to my comfort zone, writing screenplays. Looking back, I wish I would have forced myself to finish. I’d be a much better novelist now if I had allowed myself to suck back then.

I eventually jotted down a small book about my memories of it. Tim read it and agreed it was 95% right, just some minor facts missed here and there. Maybe I’ll try to write a novel about it again one day. After all, life is often far more interesting than fiction.