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Thursday, October 29, 2009

When and where do you write?

I’ve already spent a couple of hours in Starbucks this morning, writing the revision of Forget You (coming July 2010). No part of writing is easy to me, but typing words is a lot easier than what I’m about to do. The hard part is figuring out the logistics of a story. Why would Zoey do this? Why wouldn’t Doug tell her about that? I could sit in Starbucks and stare at my computer screen for another eight hours without answering those questions, but I know I will get a lot closer to the answers on my morning jog.

Mile 1. I have started this book at the wrong place, too late in the story. I need to add a lot to the beginning, but where exactly to start? Hmm...



Mile 2. A conversation between Brandon and Zoey at the beach, where they are headed, and why. Hmm...



Mile 3. The secondary characters in this book are driving me insane. I have already deleted Doug’s mother and the llama because they wouldn't behave. If Keke, Lila, and Mike don’t start cooperating soon, I will throw them under the bus too. Hmm...



Mile 4. Somebody has stenciled a computer’s power button on the asphalt. I always step on this button when I finish my jog so my mind will stop racing about my book and I can get on with the rest of my day. Power off.

5 comments:

Stephanie Kuehnert said...

You cut the llama??!?

That aside, I love seeing your thinking process documented through your run. I'm not much of an outdoors runner, but sometimes I do attempt it in order to think or I just go for a walk. Wish I could do that now to work out this new book. But it's rained for like 2 weeks straight here! (And I'm only sorta exaggerating!)

Jan Blazanin said...

Jenn, I get some of my best inspiration while I'm running, too. I even bought a teeny recorder for those rare occasions when I come up with something that I have to remember word for word. But I can't record on the run because my panting makes the playback too hard to understand!

Stephanie, it's rained almost every day this month here in Iowa. And I'm not exaggerating, either!

Jenny O'Connell said...

That's so cool.

Jennifer Echols said...

Steph--yeah, I had to cut the llama. I okayed it with my editor first.
Me: You have kind of a strange sense of humor, and if you don't get my jokes, nobody will, so I'm backing off some of the stuff in the book that I thought was funny but clearly isn't, and one of the things I'm going to do is delete the llama.
Editor: That sentence has probably never been uttered by anyone before.

Danielle Joseph said...

Love seeing the documentation of your thought process while running. Me: I need to get out there with baby in stroller, now that the humidty is easing a bit in Florida I have no excuse!