Behind the Scenes Pt. I
Been seeing lots of people on Instagram sharing behind-the-scenes of their stories. Inspiration, writing process, character vibes. All that good stuff. I thought today might be a great time to share a bit more about my own manuscripts I’ve already completed. There’s art and synopses for each of them on my website, but that’s just a taste. So, if I may, let me provide a little more.
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The first completed novel: my undergrad thesis project, A House of Broken Chords.
Genres: Fiction, magic realism, YA
Where’d this idea come from?
I hate to say that I had a dream, but I did. Not of this whole story—a teenage girl in a parallel universe who finds not only her home planet but her family, too, are self-destructing—but of a moment I turned into a scene in this book. Around the same time I had this dream, I was reading a story that was a work of fiction yet incorporated pieces of the author’s life, and my sister was like, “Why don’t you do that with your creative writing?”
Up to then, I hadn’t seriously thought about giving that a try. But the dream kept bothering me, not because it felt like I was sitting on the spark of an idea that would grow into something amazing but because I wasn’t dealing with some hard truths that I hadn’t yet healed from.
Writing my first novel became my thesis project and a means by which I began processing some tough stuff.
The scene from my book that was inspired by my dream is a little blip of a thing, really. It’s when Clara (my MC) and her friends have their first interaction with a magical woman named Katarina. They want something from the house that Katarina is the guardian of, and she’s only going to let them have it if they give her something in exchange. What she asks for is, essentially, the content of my dream: she wants an admission of each character’s deepest shame (there are reasons).
Clara thinks she knows what that is within herself, so she shares it. Rips the band-aid off to get it over with—only to have Katarina point out to her, with surprisingly sad, knowing eyes, that there’s something else harbored within our protagonist. And, all this time, Clara had made herself blind to it because looking at it full-on was too much.
In other words, there was a great hurt and a great shame within me, the author, I hadn’t realized existed. It took writing this novel for me to get a better grasp on it. To give it words and expression and a healing touch.
Clara is not a one-for-one copy of me, but she and I share some similarities in the domestic situations we’ve lived through. I wasn’t sure how incorporating elements of my own life into a piece of fiction would go, but I’m so glad I gave it a shot. Often, books are a great way for readers to grapple and reflect on issues and concerns that are sometimes difficult to encounter any other way. In my experience, I find that writing a book can be a great way to do that, too.
Character Insight
In a different, later interaction, Clara asks Katarina for some advice, caught between the desire to leave a tumultuous, self-destructing home and staying to fight for its survival. If Katarina was in Clara’s shoes, what would she do?
Katarina says, “I would know my pain, and I would know my joys. And I would know if it’s really worth letting go of both.”
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The 2nd novel: Bold North
Genres: Fiction, YA, light sci-fi
Where’d this idea come from?
This is a much more straight-forward explanation because it begins, very simply, with this post someone made a handful of years ago:
My first reaction to reading that was to laugh, and then I moved onto the next funny thing Pinterest had for me. Only, months later, this concept popped into my head, again. An alien invasion gone wrong because of something they just couldn’t predict and plan for? That…That sounds like it could be turned into a story, don’t you think?
Well, I did think. I also was missing Minnesota, wanted to write about it in some way. And I remember, at the end of my thesis defense, my committee asked me, “So, what’s your next project?”
Without a beat of hesitation, I said, “I’m going to write about an alien invasion in Minnesota.”
There. I put it out into the world. Manifesting.
On the way to celebratory dinner, my mom asked me, “Are you really going to write about aliens next?”
Reader, that is precisely what I did.
I came up with Janna, another teenage protagonist, and gave her a rival, Ryan. I also gave her some problems such as but not limited to: Minnesota being invaded by aliens in the dead of winter (bad news for the invaders: cold weather is the furthest thing from their friend), an environmental crisis with all the lake’s (which she’s helping to work on thanks to her family owning an environmental lab trying to fix that issue), and a dad who’s been missing for quite some time.
I really did jump into this project directly after graduating, and it was such a good change of pace to switch from writing my thesis novel where I was dealing with personal trauma to this story that was more light and fun, though there are still some serious matters Janna is navigating. I think I needed this kind of plot, too, because I needed to prove to myself that I could start and finish a manuscript that wasn’t semi-autobiographical. That I could come up with enough creative twists and turns without bringing my own life into the plot.
I’m not gonna say I crushed it…but , when you read it, you can, if you want to.
Character Insight
Through a series of events that you’ll learn about if I’m ever able to get this published, Janna befriends an alien, Zeb. One of the challenges for them is navigating language. Zeb has a fair grasp on English (for reasons mentioned in the book), but there are times when he either uses a word incorrectly, doesn’t know a word, or his grammar is wrong. Typical things for someone speaking a language that’s not their native tongue.
He’s about to share a bit of his background, though, with Janna and Ryan, and this is what she’s thinking right before he does that: For Zeb, this [sharing his story] means beginning with a quick thinking session. His brow creases, his eyes close, and I recognize this as one of those instances where he’s trying to figure out how best to communicate to people who are just as foreign to him as he is to us. I appreciate how deliberate he is with his words. Sure, maybe it means conversations that could take a minute take two, but I like his intentionality. He doesn’t say something unless he means it.
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Looking back over my stories feels a little like opening a can of worms I probably shouldn’t have because it makes me want to do yet another round of edits and revisions on my manuscripts. However, now is not the time since I’m trying to dedicate the majority of my writing sessions to my pirate tales. Catch me deep in editing mode, though, when I get the first draft of that manuscript finished!
I have two other projects to share about—Twice Read Tales (rom-com, full-length novel) and Hearts in Retrograde (slice-of-life novella)—so look here next week for Behind the Scenes Part II when I chat more about those!