Breakthrough!
Today I was really enjoying the heat and walked through my garden looking at the dahlia stalks. Rotted, I thought. I planted them too early, I thought. That last echo of winter did them in, I thought.
Today marks the first sprout from my bulbs. And it got me to thinking... I don't even know what led from one thing to the next, but somehow in the back of my mind I must have been chewing on this Book 7 problem.
Book 7:
I had the entirety of 'It's Just Us Here' mapped out before I started assembling the first few chapters of Book One. Book Seven is the only book that's been changed since that initial layout.
This book is my most ambitious entry, it might end up being the most ambitious book I've ever written.
Part of the reason I've struggled with this particular book is because it's not really a relationship story. Books 1-3 are about me and Mark meeting. Books 4 and 5 have some of our friends meeting and falling in love while Mark and I grow as a couple. Book 6 is once again about my relationship with Mark as it grows in a new direction.
But Book 7 doesn't have any of that romance/relationship stuff (or so I thought). And it was driving me crazy!
A few weeks ago I realized that B7 wasn't even a book about my family, as I had originally anticipated. It's about having a relationship/romance with a community. It's not just about finding your place among those that love you, but within your spiritual community, too. It's basically an abstract concept disguised by my evolving relationship with Mark.
B7 also deals with the company I started with my friends, where we lost our way and why I consider it a failure.
Book 7 has a lot of stuff going on.
And today as I bent down and focused on my dahlias... it just clicked. The ending. I had already axed my original ending and figured I had landed on a better way to end Book 7. I was going to talk about my found family as opposed to my blood relatives.
But that's all wrong.
The ending actually is supposed to be even simpler than that, but requires an even more delicate balance of friendship, family and community.
TL;DR: Sorry for ranting, but I got excited! I know the ending--the actual ending--of one of the trickiest sections of this project. I've been writing a few thousand words every day, hoping for the spark to come back so the writing doesn't feel like writing any more.
With this single idea, everything is falling into place, like a grid. I can feel all the chapters snapping into the proper alignment and now I can shed the ideas that lead nowhere and hone the important stuff.
This is very exciting for me. Hopefully next week, or next post, I'll be gushing about how I'm back in the groove and I'm surfing this wave of enthusiasm. I'll try to ride this excitement to the end of 'It's Just Us Here'.
Till next time,
an enthused Chris!
Also, if any of you have examples of a romance where the MC is also falling in love with a community, like a service-related goal or something greater than an individual ego/person/relationship... I'd love for some recommendations so see how others tackled this kind of thing. Thanks!
Today marks the first sprout from my bulbs. And it got me to thinking... I don't even know what led from one thing to the next, but somehow in the back of my mind I must have been chewing on this Book 7 problem.
Book 7:
I had the entirety of 'It's Just Us Here' mapped out before I started assembling the first few chapters of Book One. Book Seven is the only book that's been changed since that initial layout.
This book is my most ambitious entry, it might end up being the most ambitious book I've ever written.
Part of the reason I've struggled with this particular book is because it's not really a relationship story. Books 1-3 are about me and Mark meeting. Books 4 and 5 have some of our friends meeting and falling in love while Mark and I grow as a couple. Book 6 is once again about my relationship with Mark as it grows in a new direction.
But Book 7 doesn't have any of that romance/relationship stuff (or so I thought). And it was driving me crazy!
A few weeks ago I realized that B7 wasn't even a book about my family, as I had originally anticipated. It's about having a relationship/romance with a community. It's not just about finding your place among those that love you, but within your spiritual community, too. It's basically an abstract concept disguised by my evolving relationship with Mark.
B7 also deals with the company I started with my friends, where we lost our way and why I consider it a failure.
Book 7 has a lot of stuff going on.
And today as I bent down and focused on my dahlias... it just clicked. The ending. I had already axed my original ending and figured I had landed on a better way to end Book 7. I was going to talk about my found family as opposed to my blood relatives.
But that's all wrong.
The ending actually is supposed to be even simpler than that, but requires an even more delicate balance of friendship, family and community.
TL;DR: Sorry for ranting, but I got excited! I know the ending--the actual ending--of one of the trickiest sections of this project. I've been writing a few thousand words every day, hoping for the spark to come back so the writing doesn't feel like writing any more.
With this single idea, everything is falling into place, like a grid. I can feel all the chapters snapping into the proper alignment and now I can shed the ideas that lead nowhere and hone the important stuff.
This is very exciting for me. Hopefully next week, or next post, I'll be gushing about how I'm back in the groove and I'm surfing this wave of enthusiasm. I'll try to ride this excitement to the end of 'It's Just Us Here'.
Till next time,
an enthused Chris!
Also, if any of you have examples of a romance where the MC is also falling in love with a community, like a service-related goal or something greater than an individual ego/person/relationship... I'd love for some recommendations so see how others tackled this kind of thing. Thanks!
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