Welcome to A Novel Approach. If this is your first issue, I encourage you to check out my back issues for more tips on how to write a novel. It's my fondest hope that I can help other writers do the best they can do.

If you have any specific aspects about novel writing you'd like me to address in future issues, please feel free to contact me and let me know what those are. Thank you for your interest, and here's to better writing!

Turning Life's Lemons into Dollars

Make "lemonade" from those lemons. That's what I'm doing as we approach the finish line (ready or not) of building our own home.

I'm taking the lumps and turning them into laughter, by writing about the trials and travails of taking on such a project.

So, in the interests of keeping my readers from abandoning me while I go quietly insane finishing our new home, here's a sneak peek at the book I'm writing about the wringer - I mean process - we've gone through. Enjoy, and please note that pre-ordering your own copy will be available soon on the website.

Building Your Own House Without Murdering Your Whole Family: A Hilarious Look At Why You Should Think Twice Before Doing It Yourself

Introduction

Building your own house is much like having a baby - a very LARGE baby. First, you know how you didn't plan a lot ahead when you decided to have a baby? Well, deciding to build your house needs more planning than that. It needs more planning than you can possibly have time for in this life.

Don't forget, you'll change your plans at least a hundred times before this "baby" is ready to be born. Which will make you "pregnant" for about 30 years. Well, maybe only five. Don't change your plans after you've started. Unless of course, you have to because the suppliers who had the flooring you wanted no longer have it when you're ready to order it.

You will have eight million distractions - much like you do with two (or more) children underfoot. Things such as putting together the draws that pay those who help you build your house. It takes three to five days to do this each time, mostly because all the sub-contractors are yammering about how they need their money by today, or they can't pay their own mortgages.

You may also find yourself having thoughts like these pulling you away from what you're supposed to be doing (building the house) because you have to write down how funny it is (LONG after the fact) when SO MANY THINGS GO WRONG all the time you're building!

If you're an introvert, I beg you to reconsider now! You will end up being around people seven days a week ten to twelve hours a day, and you will go off your rocker, guaranteed!

And if you think it'll take six months at the longest, I laugh at you!

On second thought, don't build your own house.

For a little more enticement, here's my preliminary list of the chapters I'm writing.

1. Choose Your Own Land: The Ins of In-Town Versus The Outs of Out-of-Town
2. Design Your Own House Till You get It Right: Then Argue With Your Architect Till He Gets it Right, Too
3. The Many Ways to Build a House - and Go Way Over Your Budget
4. Permits and What They Really Cost
5. Getting a Building Loan Without Selling Your Kids
6. Before You Choose a Bid: You Did Ask for More Than One, Right?
7. Being Your Own Contractor: Are You Nuts?
8. Absolutely Essential Preparation Before You Begin - Like Sixth Months of Military Bootcamp to Get into Shape
9. Organizing the Mess - I Mean Process: Keeping Track of All Those Receipts and Other Pesky Items the Bank Always Wants to See
10. What's First? Breaking Ground, Breaking the Bank Early
11. Driveways, Septic Systems and Wells, Oh My! Things You Didn't Realize You Had to Budget For
12. Creating a Solid Foundation: Digging Holes and Building From the Ground Up (You Didn't Think You Could Start at the Top, Did You?)
13. Inspectors and Their Evil Twins
14. Framing, Timber Framing, SIPs and More
15. Changing Plans as You Go Along: Great Idea... Not
16. Insurance While You Hurt Yourself Building Your Own House: No, It Doesn't Cover You and Your Immediate Family
17. Isn't A Roof Supposed to Go On Now?
18. Rain, Rain, GO AWAY! How the Weather (Not to Mention the Contractors' Vacations) Can Affect Your Schedule
19. When Materials Come Pre-Damaged and Moldy: Who to Kill For Ruining Your Schedule
20. When Materials Come Late Because They're Routed Through Timbuktu
21. When the Bank Says STOP and You're Not Done Yet: Making the Bank Believe You Can Do This In Budget
22. Changing Plans Because You Have To: Those Appliance Models You Chose Are No Longer Available, You Know
23. Finishing the Inside: You Just Thought This Would Be the Fast Part
24. How Long Was This Supposed to Take?
25. A Partial List of Items You Probably Forgot to Budget For: Doorknobs, Electrical Covers and Closet Shelves
26. It's Not Over Till You're Ready to Kill Someone