Backgrounding the funeral book

I'm in the rewriting phase of the coffee house book, which is awesome but also a little scary and very intimidating.

So while I'm working on the coffee house book, I'm also doing the background work for the next book in the collection, which I'm calling the funeral book. I have my list of characters and the skeleton outline of the chapters, and I'm working on the character biographies and detailed chapter/scene outlines.

I did this for the coffee house book, too. Because of the way the coffee house book is structured, it was necessary for me to have a lot of background work done before I started writing. Well, if I'm being honest, it kind of started as a sort of procrastination technique because I was nervous about the actual writing part. But now I don't know how I would've gotten the story down without it. The character biographies let me create the vital parts of the characters relevant to the story and reference them quickly. The outlines keep the story moving forward once I get into it. And since many characters are overlapping in the different stories in the collection, I've created a file for each character so their stories in different books remain true to the character.

Besides, the funeral book background gives me something to work on when I need a break from rewriting.

That being said, starting the background work for the funeral book is starting to push me into that story's world, which, as you can tell from the moniker for the book, is a little bleaker than the coffee house book. And, in that way, going back to the coffee house book is a much-needed break from teh funeral book background work.

It's going to be a hard book to write, I think.

The coffee house book in third-person point of view

Writing has been different since I changed the point of view of the coffee house book from first-person. In some ways, it's been easier to write the stories, but first-person lent itself nicely to exposition with the characters who were on the ramble-y side.

I've had to adjust my thinking in developing the characters and telling their stories. I need to share intimate aspects of their lives and stories while remaining true to the structure and narrator I've established.

The good news is that now that I have the point of view right, the whole process is going much more smoothly, and I'll be finished with the draft by the end of the year.

How's your work-in-progress going?

Making a change

I've been working on the coffee house book lately, and I've felt myself struggling with the feeling that something wasn't right. Yesterday I figured out what it is.

The first-person point of view is wrong.

The coffee house book is complex, and yesterday I realized that I've been trying to do too much, and that's what has been holding me back as I've been writing. So now I have to essentially restart with my first draft and change every section to be third-person point of view. (The overall book is third-person omniscient, but each section is third-person limited based on the story being told in that section.*) This will give me a wider latitude in telling the characters' stories, and a single voice through the narrator that will help add cohesiveness to the individual sections. It will be much better, even if it means a lot of rewriting.

The good news is that I'm still early enough in the process that it shouldn't set me back too far. And in making this change, the rest of the writing process should go much more smoothly.

Theoretically.

How's your writing going?






-----
*Which makes more sense when you actually read the book.

Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling

Woman writing a letter by Gerard ter Borch
c. 1655

I've been working on the coffee house book for a long time. There was a time that I had to sort of set it aside for a little while to address some issues that came up in my life, but now that things are much more settled, I've been back to working on it quite a bit. I'm making good progress on the draft I'm working on, and things are coming together nicely.

I'm at that phase of writing in which I'm either working on the coffee house book or thinking about the coffee house book. Sure, I think about work when I'm working and am able to go about my daily life fairly normally, but when my mind is not specifically focused on something, it wanders back to the coffee house and the stories I'm writing about the people who wander in and out of it.

I like being in this mindset about writing. It keeps me moving forward on the book, and keeps me excited about it (and what comes next when it's finished). I know it may not last, and that the editing phase will be far less fun, but I'm holding onto the excitement for as long as I can to keep making progress. I'm optimistic that this is the momentum I need to push through to the end of this draft and next round of editing. So I just keep writing one page at a time, and drinking more and more coffee as I write because writing about coffee makes me want to drink it.

Remember the coffee house book?

I've been doing a lot of work on the coffee house book in the past couple of weeks (especially last week). And the more I work on it, the more I want to work on it.

I've been working on it (off and on) for a long time. And the structure and story itself has come a long way since the first conception of it. In some ways it's come full circle. In other ways, it's nothing like what I first imagined.

It's been an interesting experience these past couple of weeks. I've been getting into the characters more than I have previously, and realizing the characters I thought would be the easiest to write are turning out to be quite a bit more difficult. For example, I've been struggling quite a bit with the coffee house manager character, but the high-maintenance salon owner who feels entitled was quite easy to write.

It's more than that, though. It's been about getting back to what I really want to do. Because while I love my career as a freelance writer,* fiction-writing is where my heart is, and that's what I really want to be doing.

Right now I have to balance fiction-writing with freelance writing (which is also balanced with all the things I need to do to take care of my family and household), but I'm looking forward to the day I can focus on fiction much more. Of course, I would love to be able to be a full-time fictioneer, but until then I'm happy to steal time when I can. To make time when I need it. To write a little bit every chance I get.

And the coffee house book will get done, along with its companion books.






-----
*Though I generally call myself a "content journalist" when speaking with potential clients because, you know.

The coffee house book taking shape

I'm going to have the first draft of the coffee house book done in the next few weeks.

I know, right?

It's not in good shape right now. If I had to classify it, I'd say it's more of a glorified outline. But that's okay, because it's way more than I had a few months ago.

The first draft is just that: the first. There's lots of editing and revising and rewriting to come until the coffee house book is "ready."

One of the great things about being a writer is that you don't have to do it right the first time. You get time to rework it until it's the way you want, and that's encouraged!

Remember the idea of NaNoWriMo? Get the words on the page. It doesn't matter if it's award-winning or just okay or complete trash. All that matters is getting the writing done, and you can go back later to edit.

I know that when the coffee house book draft is done, it will be far from where it needs to be. But it doesn't have to be perfect yet. It just needs to be written.

How's your work in progress going?

Pushing forward

This long, strange, hard transition that's been going on in my life has been dominating my thoughts (and energy) lately. It's been frustrating and there are times I'm sure I'll be in this state of transition forever.

This post is not about that.

This post is about the coffee house book.

In the free moments between the munchkins, getting settled and my crazy work load, I've been working on the coffee house book. And I've made some really good progress on it, too. (Who needs sleep, anyway?) And the best part is that I've fallen in love with the project all over again.

The characters are interesting to me. And the boring ones are interesting in their boringness. There are characters I like and some I dislike. I'm enjoying giving each of them a voice through the story I'm telling.

As you probably know if you've been reading this blog for a while, the coffee house book is just the first in a collection (not a series, mind, but books that are interrelated but stand alone). And in some ways, the coffee house book is sort of setting up some of the future books. That's another fun part of it to me--adding in the little nods to other books that readers will pick up on later, and, in a few cases, laying the foundation for the stories in other books.

I've been working on this book for a long time. Almost ten years, to be honest. But I always come back to it. Whatever else I work on, I can't stop thinking about this project. And that's why I keep working on it, little by little.

It's encouraging to have made so much progress over the past few weeks. And it seems like the more I'm able to get done, the more I want to get done. Maybe that's why it was easy in the beginning to make excuses for not starting. It was overwhelming. Now that all the background work is done and I'm in the middle of actually writing, it feels more like something I can actually accomplish.

I hope to have the first draft done by the end of the year. In the meantime, I'll just keep pushing forward, word by word.

How's your work in progress going?

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

I like Emily Dickinson's poetry. Quite a lot, actually. And one poem that has resonated with me as a writer is "Tell all the truth (1129)".

Tell all the truth but tell it slant --
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind --

I think this poem is particularly applicable to the coffee house book (and the collection as a whole). The basis of the coffee house book is perspective. The reader learns about a particular event through various perspectives to give an overall view of the coffee house and its community.

Each character whose perspective is given in the coffee house book has his or her own truth. That truth fits into the bigger story, and is part of the truth, but it's only part of the truth. And the truth they tell is slanted based on their individual experiences and biases.

That's what happens in any story that uses first-person point of view, isn't it? The narrator tells his or her own version of events, and it's up to the reader to decide whether or not to believe the story. Every story has the potential to have an unreliable narrator, and the reader is the determining factor.

Every story is told slant, isn't it?

Down the rabbit hole

I've been deep in research and background work for the coffee house book lately. Character biographies have been one aspect of that, but I've also been doing research into certain aspects of characters' personalities, including religion/philosophy, cultural traditions and the paranormal.

I have one character who is into the paranormal, so I've been reading about UFOs and ghosts and Bigfoot. (And it's a good excuse to listen to episodes of Mysterious Universe.)

I was reminded in the midst of this research that research for any character can be a bit of a rabbit hole. For example, as I was doing research for this particular character, I was reading about encounters with spirits, which led me to reading about both near-death experiences and shadow people, and I ended up reading about UFOs and Men in Black (the men, not the movie).

Research can be that way sometimes. You start somewhere and the research leads you elsewhere. For this character, it's been helpful, but I've also found that it can be a bit of a distraction. I could spend a lot of time reading about things I'm interested in "for research," but not really doing anything productive for the story. Research can, in fact, be procrastination, even if you claim it's for the story.

One thing that helps me is to keep my character bio sheets handy. That way I can be aware of what specific areas I should be researching and keep from veering off too far in one direction or another.

Although, some of what I found out will be useful for other characters in the collection, so it wasn't all procrastination, so I guess it wasn't all rabbit hole research...!

When your writing won't leave you alone

The first idea for the coffee house book came in 2004 as I was preparing for my first foray into NaNoWriMo. The idea wasn't developed very well at that point, but it was a start.

Over the next few years, I changed the structure, format and overall idea of the coffee house book until it became, a few years ago, what it is today: the first book in the collection.

In all that time, as I worked on the coffee house book as well as other projects, had babies, took jobs, took other jobs, moved.... the coffee house book remained.

My mind worked on plot details, I saw characters and their relationships in people on the street, and whatever else I wrote, I always ended up back at the coffee house book.

It wouldn't leave me alone.

That's how I know the collection is where I need to be. Yes, it's an intense project, and will be incredibly time-consuming. In fact, it will likely take many, many years to complete. But I'm willing to take that time for it because it will be worth it. These characters' stories are begging to be told. They're important, and I can't ignore that.

I'm making good progress on the work now, and I'm looking forward to when the first draft will be done. Until then, I'll keep plugging along because my characters and their stories certainly won't leave me alone until they've been given voice.

The collection in 2013

I've been working on the coffee house book background information lately. I have a lot of work done in my character files,* and I feel like I'm really making progress on the project.

To that end, I've been thinking about my editorial calendar for 2013, and how to incorporate the collection into it so that I can meet my writing goals for the year, and for each month. I know where I want the collection to be one year from now, so adding it to my editorial calendar will help me get there, one step at a time.

I've already put a lot of myself into this project. I've never been as excited and passionate about a project as I have been--and am--about the collection. There's just something about it that resonates with me, and makes me want to keep working, even on the tedious parts, until I've got a story to share. And when I'm not working on it, I can't seem to stop thinking about it. Dialogue shimmers into my head on the drive to work. Characters turn corners a few paces ahead of me. The collection won't leave me alone until it's done. I know it.

2013 is going to be a good year for me, and the collection is going to be just one aspect of that. The progress I'm making on the collection now will help carry me through the coming year. And before I know it, the coffee house book--and the funeral book, perhaps--will be done.

What is your main project for 2013?






-----
*Because of the nature of this project, each character has an individual folder with the information I need for that character kept in it.

September Writing Goals

Typical task/goal lists

As I said in a previous post, September is a fresh start for me in a lot of ways, some of which have to do with my fiction-writing life. As a result, I've set some goals for myself this month that will help me get the collection back on track. Here's what's on my list for September:

• Finish the character biographies for the coffee house book.
• Write the outlines for at least two additional books in the collection.
• Begin the character biographies for one additional book in the collection.
• Begin the chapter-by-chapter outlines for the coffee house book.

I know it looks like a short list, but each component has a separate list of things that have to be done for that particular item to be done. So it's more than it appears. (Isn't that usually the case?) And as each task is crossed off this list, it will be replaced with a new one so I'll be able to continue pushing forward in the collection.

I think September is going to be a good month.

Chapter-by-chapter outlining

There's a lot of background work
for the collection!

I'm an outliner when it comes to writing. It helps me think about the story as a whole. And, in the case of the collection, it will help me think about the community of the people and their stories, and how everything fits together.

I already have a basic outline for the coffee house book, as well as synopses for the other books in the collection. Since I'm still doing all the background writing and research, what I have is fine for now.

However, as it gets closer to time to actually start writing the coffee house book, my intent is to take the outline a step further by creating detailed outlines for each individual chapter. I think I've mentioned before that the characters are the driving force in the books, and because of this, the simple outline I currently have for the coffee house book is adequate for background work, but is really a skeleton outline. I need to fill in the holes to be able to move forward.

Essentially, what I intend to do is sit down with the coffee house book outline, and write the chapter outlines as if each chapter stood independent of the rest of the chapters (and collection). When I have that done, I'll fit the chapters together within the larger work of the coffee house book (there is a loose story arc that ties the chapters together, after all), and think about how the coffee house book fits into the larger collection. When all those threads are put together, I'll have an extremely detailed outline for the coffee house book, and I'll be ready to start writing!

Not every story needs this kind of outlining. Many stories I've written don't. But because of how integrated everything is in the collection, I think it's necessary to do. Tedious, maybe. But necessary.

Do you outline before you write? How detailed are your outlines?

Even in the midst of chaos, there is writing....

I haven't done a lot of writing-for-pleasure this month. I started a new job career and have had many changes occurring in my personal life, so other things have taken priority. And yet, even as busy as I've been, I can't stop thinking about the coffee house book.

The good news is that after Labor Day weekend, things will be a little different, and I'll actually have time to make time for the collection.

I have been working on the coffee house book a little, here and there, but only moments at a time, and just enough to remind me that I do need to write it, and the stories will never leave me alone until I do.

Examples of my writing task lists

I have a list of notes and tasks that I need to do for the collection. I still have a lot of background work to do for the collection. I need to do some research into a few areas so I feel a little more confident writing about them. More importantly, I haven't finished the character biographies for the coffee house book (or the rest of the town), so that's the first priority. My coffee house book outline is solid, so once the background work is done, I'll be ready for the first draft. And I know a few people who will be eager to read a draft when it's ready.

I wish I could start writing the chapters or the biographies I have, but this collection just doesn't work that way. The characters in the coffee house book are interwoven with each other, and with the characters in the other books. I have to have a good foundation for that before I start writing.

I have started stories that didn't get finished. I've started novels that didn't get finished. And those characters were content in the half-scribblings I did for them, storing the pages away in a folder or a drawer. But these characters are different. The collection is different. The coffee house book has been following me around since 2004, and no matter what else I work on, or where else my writing takes me, the coffee house characters are there, begging to be written. And now I can finally tell their stories.

Never give up! Never surrender!

I have been working on the coffee house book (sort off and on, I suppose) since November 2005. The idea behind it has changed quite a bit, and I'm very happy with the outline's current incarnation. But it's been a long, frustrating path to get where I am in it. There were many times I wanted to just walk away from the idea altogether, convinced it would never work, or that I wasn't good enough to do it justice, or that pursuing writing a novel at all was a colossal waste of my time.

I'm so glad I didn't quit. Because I really am excited and passionate about the coffee house book, and the other books that will come with it. (Collection. Not series.) In fact, I'm passionate enough about this project that I'm willing to devote as much of my writing career to the collection as is necessary to make it complete, whether it takes another year or ten.

I will not give up on this collection!


There's something strange that happens to writers when they get an idea they're supposed to write. It sticks with them like nothing else. I'm serious.

For the past seven years, the coffee has been rattling around in my mind almost nonstop. No matter what else I've worked on, what other job I've held, that damn book won't leave me alone. I smell the characters' favorite drinks when I make my own coffee in the mornings. I dream about the characters. When I play at writing other stories, elements of the collection creep into the narrative.

And so, for seven years, I've worked on the coffee house book. It's developed into a collection. I've got pages and pages of (necessary) background notes. And I'll keep working on the collection--starting with the coffee house book--until it's done.

There's a reason the coffee house book has taken over my brain. I honestly don't know what will happen once the book is done. Of course, I would love for it to be published, and my intention is to seek publication. But if that doesn't happen, I'm still going to write the rest of the books in the collection, even if no one else ever reads them. It's the only way to get these characters out of my head: tell their stories.

Never give up. Never surrender. And by Grabthar's hammer, the collection will get written.

An update on the coffee house book

Sura Nualpradid / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I promise I'm still working on the coffee house book! I expect to have the rest of my background information collected and organized in the next few weeks, and then I'll finally be ready to write the first draft of the story.

I know it seems like I've been procrastinating or simply not working on the coffee house book, but that isn't the case. The reason it's been taking so long to get all the background work done is because it has to be so extensive. After all, the coffee house book is one aspect of a larger collection of works, all of which are closely interrelated. When I began, I knew I would have to do background work for more than just the coffee house book before I could write it, and that's what I've been doing.

Character biographies and relationships, outlining the coffee house book (and the other books in the collection), and, yes, world-building*. As all this background stuff is being wrapped up, I'm looking ahead to the actual writing.

It's been a long time coming, and the book has seen many different versions of itself before ever being written, but I'm finally, finally coming up to the next stage in the process. The stage that is the most fun, the most harrowing, and the biggest. The writing.

I think I'm going to need a drink.








-----
*The collection is set in the real world, but I still have to create a community to fill the stories. I still have to build the world of the stories for the collection.

Goals for 2012

The past few years I've chosen not to make resolutions for the new year. Instead, I've set goals. It may seem an insignificant difference (especially when the end result is that I make positive changes in my life), but it's a big difference to me. To me, resolutions are ironclad promises you make to yourself of things that have changed or things you will or will not do. They are... resolute. Goals, on the other hand, are things you'd like to do or stop doing, but you're realistic in that it will take time and effort.

If I make a resolution and break it or don't achieve it, I feel bad. If I make a goal and don't meet it, I keep trying.

Big difference.

So I'd like to share with you a few of the goals I've set for myself for 2012.

I would like to read 100+ books in 2012. I know it's a lot. I used to read voraciously. Motherhood sort of changed my priorities so I don't read as much. This year I'm taking a reading challenge, and even if I don't hit that magical number, I'll still have read a lot more than I would have otherwise!

I would like to finish the coffee house book in 2012. By "finish," I mean I'd like to write, edit, and polish the manuscript and have it ready to send out on queries. I've been working on this story for a long, long time, and it's time to tell it in its entirety.

I would like to reduce/eliminate negativity in my life in 2012. I know it's just about impossible to completely eliminate negativity in my life. And that's fine. But there was too much of it in my life in 2011, so I would like to work on distancing myself from overly negative people, as well as working on being more positive myself.

I would like to get healthy in 2012. I have a specific goal weight I would like to achieve, as well as some other health-related goals, but for the sake of this blog, I'll just say I'm going to "get healthy." On the short-term end of that goal, my mom and I intend to run our first 5K race this spring, so I have a lot of "get healthy"ing to do between now and then.

There are other goals, as well. There are things I'd like to do or see or change about my life. I've told many people already that, for me, 2012 is the year of change. But those are the big ones.

It's going to be a good year. I just know it.

Story cards

The coffee house book is one in which chronology matters, but the story is not necessarily chronological. Because of that, I'm considering using story cards to help me keep the story line and story-telling organized.

The idea is that I'll write a summary of each chapter/scene on an individual index card. I'll number them chronologically in one color, then arrange them for the story arc and number them in another color. That way, I can see which events come in which order chronologically, as well as which events come in which order within the fabric of the story.

Has anyone used this method for organizing story events? If so, how did it work for you?

Patterned story structure meets the coffee house book

Photo source

Upon the recommendation of Nathan Bransford, I read this post by Jennifer Crusie at Argh Ink about linear vs. patterned story structure, comparing a patterned structure to a quilt that's been pieced together.

This post comes to me at a perfect time in the creation of the coffee house book since a lot of the background "stuff" I'm doing right now deals with structure and how everything fits together with this book, as well as with the other books I have planned in this collection.

In fact, I was just explaining to Hubby last night that I can't really start writing the coffee house book until I have a rough idea of the story lines in the other books in the collection so I know what character is where, who is important when, and what story needs to be told how.

Crusie says:

So in a patterned novel or film (damn hard to pull off), you need to construct pieces that are complete in and of themselves, scene sequences that form complete stories, and then juxtapose them with other pieces to make a pattern so that at the end, the pattern is the meaning of the story. Think of the scene sequences as quilt blocks, beautiful on their own, and the story as the finished quilt in which the blocks disappear when it's finished to form a patterned whole. The blocks are beautiful, but it's the quilt as a whole that's the finished design.

That is what I want to accomplish with the coffee house book, as well as with the whole of the collection. Yes, each book in the collection has its story, and each character in each book has his or her story, but it's how those stories fit together that's the important thing.

The books I'm working on are about relationships and perceptions. They're about how people work and live together in a community, how different community members interact with each other, and what, overall, makes up a community.

I could tell the community's story in a linear structure. I could go through the characters and explain the town and talk about how people interact with each other. But it would be a boring book, that's for sure! At that point, the collection (or the novel, since that's what it would be) would focus on some story arc that links the community rather than what really links a community: the people and their relationships with each other.

As Crusie says, some stories call for a linear structure. (When I first started writing the coffee house book, I thought it needed to be a linear structure.) Those stories don't hold up in a patterned structure. And some stories call for a patterned structure. And those stories don't hold up in a linear structure.

A patterned structure is not easy. You have to know the story really well, be conscious about how the quilt is pieced together (it can't be random), and know how it all fits together. It takes a lot of background work, takes patience during writing, and takes careful editing. But in the end, it's worth it.

After all, quilts sure look beautiful when they're finished, don't they?

The coffee house book is calling!

Now that my beautiful Bunny has arrived, and I'm settling into a new routine with two kids and an increased freelance workload, I'm trying to make time to get back to the coffee house book.

Photo source

It's been bugging me quite a bit that I haven't had the time to work on it. Ideas have been rattling around in my brain, developments have been revealing themselves, and characters have been begging to be written. So in between scribbling about nursing education and wiping snooger noses, I'll be writing about (and drinking) coffee.

I will not be posting excerpts here, but I'll be keeping you updated on the writing process, how the story is developing, and anything else related to writing I can think of. (After all, this is a writing blog. And I've missed updating this blog just as much as I've missed working on the coffee house book.) However, to keep me accountable for the coffee house book, I will be updating with my writing task list often. I'd like to update daily, but I will post my task list at least weekly. And at least once a week, I'll "check in" with progress on my writing life.

Here's my first coffee house book task list:

• Work on character biographies
• Outline chapters for finished character biographies
• Create a detailed description of the coffee house
• Start creating a detailed outline for overall book story line
• Write up the recipes for the chapters

Here we go!