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 possibly added book

A few days ago while I was making breakfast for the munchkins, I had an idea for another book in the collection.

Originally, there were nine* books planned, but I have to decide if this new idea I have fits in with the collection, or would be better served as a standalone book, or just something that I have an idea for that doesn't get written any time soon.

The thing is, I think I would really enjoy writing this new idea because of the subject matter. It's something near and dear to my heart, and I think could provide a lot of insight to people who have been through similar situations.**

So I have to decide if this new book fits into the collection, and if so, how. (There is somewhat of a chronology to the collection, though the coffee house book ranges wider than other books in the collection.) I don't know if it really will fit, or if I'm just trying to make it fit because I like the idea. And do I like the idea because it's not the coffee house book, or because it's an idea with its own merit?

I'm fortunate because I have writerly friends I can turn to for advice or insight. And I know my heart sister will always tell me if something I'm working on is stupid or won't work.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to move forward with the coffee house book, and soon I'll be starting the background work for the next book in the collection.

What do you do when you get a new idea in the middle of a project?





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*It may be seven or eight. There's one book I'm on the fence about including in the collection because it may work better as a stage play. There are two other books that are similar, so I am likely going to drop one of them.

**Sorry for the vagueness. It's still an undeveloped idea and I'm not going to give too much away.

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?

My series bible

The collection is not a series. Not really, anyway. The books are connected, the work together, but it's not a series.

Still, because of the way the books are all connected, I'm writing them similarly to the way others write a series. Specifically, I'm creating a series bible.

The idea behind a series bible is to have notes and information all in one place that I can reference as I'm working on the books. That way, when I write about Cameron, who first appears in the coffee house book, in a later book, I have notes about him to keep consistency in his character and story.

The biggest thing in the series bible so far is character biographies. The characters are the driving force in the books, so it's important to have that information handy. That's not all that's going to be in there, though.

I have charts that show relationships between characters as needed for the stories. I have a sheet that shows which books the characters are in, since there is crossover. And I have an overall story arc for each character that spans the whole of the collection.

When you create a world in a series or collection, you have to stay true to it and write within whatever parameters you establish. A series bible helps you do that.

Nathan Bransford has a nice post about creating a series bible, which he used for Jacob Wonderbar. If you need a series bible (and you do if you're writing a series), I encourage you to read his post.

Do you have a series bible? How has it impacted your writing?

The scope of the collection

I've been thinking a lot lately about the role the collection has (and has had) in my writing career.

• The bulk of my non-work writing files are notes, research and background work for the collection.
• It was the coffee house book which introduced me to the publishing process because it was the first work I considered publishing.
• It was the development of the collection that led me to realize that my dream-of-all-dreams is to be able to write the collection full-time.
• And it is the collection that is the focus of my non-work writing.

It's important. And I feel like the collection, as a whole, is important for me to share. These characters needs their stories told.

The problem--if you want to call it a problem--is that because of the nature of the collection, and what it means to my writing career, I could very likely be working on it for the next 10+ years (depending on how many titles I end up with in the end). And I've already devoted almost ten years to the coffee house book (I began the first ramblings of the first draft in November 2004).

This might be what I do. The collection might very well be my writing career. So I've had to ask myself if it's important enough to me to spend the next ten years on it.

It is. At least, I think so. I believe so.

There are some stories that need to be told in certain ways. The collection is one of those stories. If I compromise the way I'm telling the story in order to write it faster, I know I'd be doing it a disservice. Yes, it's going to be hard to write, especially for some of the later books in the collection, but it will be worth it. So I'll keep working on it, and let the collection become even more of who I am as a writer.

But what about you? What if the book/play/collection of poetry you're working on right now became your defining work? Would it be worth it to you? Is whatever you're working on worth telling?

I'm not trying to imply that if you don't think something is worth defining your career by that you shouldn't write it. But I do think it's important for writers to carefully examine how they spend their writing time. I don't know about you, but between my day job and my munchkins, my fiction-writing time is limited. And I don't want to look back years from now and feel like I've wasted precious time working on something that doesn't matter or shouldn't have been written.

I'm sure that the collection is worth the time and energy I'm putting into it. Can you say the same about your work?

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.

Taking a few days with family

I have Thursday and Friday off from my day job, so the kids and I are loading into the car to spend the end of the week with PawPaw and the family "up north." The kids haven't seen my dad's family in quite some time, so it'll be good to reconnect with everyone.

It is a pretty short trip, so we won't be taking too much with us, but I do intend to take my writing folder with me. I don't know what's planned for the weekend, but I'm sure I'll have a few spare moments here and there to work on some background writing for the collection (and the coffee house book in particular). Since I won't have marketing writing to do, I'm hoping to get some fictioneering done instead.

What are your plans for the rest of this week? For the weekend?






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Image courtesy of Michal Marcol / Free Digital Photos.net

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?






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*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.

Continuity in my collection

As I've been doing background information for the coffee house book, I've realized that I want something to further unify the collection of books. It's not a series, but I want there to be some thread (aside from the books all being set in the same small town) that connects the books so that readers who read multiple books from the collection will see that they are, in fact, a collection.

My initial idea was to use a character. One character who appears in every book. That wouldn't mean that that character would have his or her own story in every book, but he or she would appear in every book in some capacity. In one book, the character might have a story to tell, while in another, the character might be an observer in someone else's story. Or someone on the street. Or barely noticed at all.

And while I'll still most likely incorporate one character into all the books (somehow), I'm also thinking of adding another dimension to this thread that will run through all the books: an event of some kind.

All the books in the collection take place in the same small town. That's why it makes sense for the characters to overlap. They know each other. Many of them grew up together. They see each other at the post office, on the street, in the coffee house. And, to that same end, they hear about what goes on in the town.

Now, this isn't such a small town that Ginny knows about Harold's late night out with the guys last weekend when his wife made him sleep on the porch. But the significant things that happen in the town are talked about. So, yes, everyone knows about the barn that burned down because those kids were smoking in it. Or whatever. And that's what I'd like to do with the other part of this unifying thread.

I'm going to incorporate some event or something that happened in the town that nearly everyone knows about. Like the unifying character, this event will have different weight depending on who's mentioning it, and what story it's in. In the funeral book, for example, you might only hear it mentioned in passing, or as a time frame reference. While in the coffee house book, someone may explain their reaction to the event, which will reveal more of it for the reader.

I don't want this event to create a story arc through the collection. But I do want it to be present, and to give another depth to what's going on in each of these books, and in each of these characters' lives.

I think, as well as helping show that these stand-alone books do go together, the character and event will be a little "aha" moment for the readers who pick up on them.

What do you think?

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Note: Did you notice my delightful label alliteration today? ::grin::

My series bible

Before I begin this post, let me make sure we're clear on something: I'm not writing a series. The books I'm working on are a collection of books that go together. They're all set in the same town, and many of the characters' are revealed more fully in the other books.

That said, I am creating what I'm calling a "series bible." Because the books are interwoven in many ways, I thought it would be helpful in keeping things straight, as well as planning ahead as I'm working on the coffee house book.

Right now, my series bible is in a five-subject notebook I had around the house. Here's what's in it so far:

Synopses


The first page is a list of the books I'm planning, along with a brief description of each one. These serve as a quick reminder as I'm putting all the information together. It's got everything from the coffee house book to the waiting book (What? Did I just give away another of the books I'm thinking about? Whoops.) in it. That page is done unless I decide to write additional books, but what I have will keep me quite busy for quite some time.

Coffee House Book Notes


As I was thinking about the coffee house book, I jotted down some things I wanted to remember as I was planning and writing. A few notes are about some of the characters, some things about the coffee house itself, and reminders to myself for while I'm writing.

Cast of Characters


Since I only have the outline for the coffee house book so far, I only have the cast of characters for it. But each book will have its own page of characters, with notes about characters who are also in other books. The list also contains a quick note about who the character is. (ex. Vivi (Vivienne) is the coffee house manager, drinks espresso macchiato, is planning the anniversary party, and her story is about how she came to work at the coffee house.)

Story Line


Again, since I've only outlined the coffee house book, I only have a rough story line sheet for that book. It's not as detailed as my big outline, but is just a reminder of what the story is about, should I need it.

Coffee House "Chapters"


This is my "biography" of the coffee house. It goes through each year of the coffee house from it's opening/first year through its fifth year. Each chapter gives information about what was going on in the coffee house at the time, who was important, how business was doing, etc.

That's all I have so far, but it's a start. Since my character biographies are so extensive, they won't be in the series bible, but will be in a separate folder (or folders) nearby so I have easy access to them.

As the coffee house book develops, I know I'll add to the notebook, and as I'm writing the next book, I'll be able to use the information from the coffee house book to develop the characters and the world I'm creating.

Just as with the biographies, there's going to be a lot of information in this notebook that will never be in the coffee house book.

Oh, the things writers do for their stories.