"Casual Conversation"

When I was in college, I took a creative writing course that focused on short fiction. In the class I wrote a story called "Casual Conversation" that was all dialogue (with no tags) that took place in a coffee house. It was a lot of fun to write, and as I've been working on my coffee house book, I've discovered there might be a home for that story (or part of it, at least) in the book. I don't know yet if I'm going to use snatches of conversation here and there or if I'll take the whole story and include it in one of the scenes.

I really like this story because it was a time I took a risk and it worked. And it has an atmosphere I'm trying to create with the coffee house book.

Even if I decide to leave it out, I'm going to play with it in the manuscript and see what happens. After all, who knows what could develop from trying to add even snippets of "Casual Conversation" into the story. It could take yet another turn and come out even stronger!

I'm going to need to do some research this week on landlords, leases, renter's insurance, etc. for the section on the landlord. There won't be a ton of jargon in the story, but I need to have a better idea of how renting works from the landlord's perspective, as well as needing to know about renting commercial/retail property. It will help me understand the relationship between the landlord and the owner of the coffee house. The landlord makes...interesting decisions...and there needs to be strong reasoning behind them, even if that reasoning is flawed.

If I keep working the way I have been, I should be in a place to set the coffee house book aside for November, which would be a good thing. I wouldn't feel like I have to divide my time between NaNo and the coffee house book.

What's even better is that I'll be able to send some scenes out to readers to satiate them, at least for a while. (Thank you for being so patient!)