currently writing: a new series

dedicated to the recording tidbits of the stupidity, the madness,
the odd choices of words i find in my journals

i have the series of posts called "currently reading", but i just realized i didn't have one about my own writing. sure, i write about writing all the time, but it's more about my general methods. so...this will be a little bit of that, a little bit more particular, and a real-time look at what i'm actually working on.

writing has two sides for me right now: the creating of new works and the editing/submitting/waiting patiently for movement on finished works. 

as i'm doing my taxes (early, hallelujah) i am realizing how much i have to jump around from idea to idea. this past year, i started out finishing from the desk of a serial monogamist, started and finished falling stars, rewrote draft upon draft of falling stars, and started the sequel to falling stars. 

yes, i'm crazy. and for a lot of last year, i had a lot more on my plate (doing accounting/tax prep for two of my husband's NEW restaurant locations--and it was my first time to do it...period) oh, and i am a real estate agent. it got a few gray hairs. not even kidding. but i promptly pulled them out and cried a few tears. i'm a year older than my husband and he'll never let me live it down, so any reminder of "old" hits me like a ton of bricks. :)

so this year, i am starting another new project. because i had another rewrite for falling stars and added 80 pages, i had to halt on my sequel, and  i will have to literally start over on it with new circumstances. i'm totally fine with that! i've said it before, and i'll say it again: nothing you write will be a waste, even if it's not used right away or in the way you first intend. for instance, a detail i discovered in writing the first chapters of the sequel brought me an extra detail that i eventually added to that rewrite of the first book (falling stars).  anyway, while i wait to finalize book numero uno, i want to keep moving.

maybe you're asking why. why can't you just take a breath, ashlyne? why do you have to keep chugging along when you know you'll have to stop...well, who says you can't write simultaneously? i happen to love switching off during first stages of a new work (research/character building). it keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by one project and feeling strapped down by the daunting task of starting all over again. if i can choose between moods every few weeks and do a little here and there (by the way, i can do this right now because i'm not under deadline...when there's a deadline, no switching allowed!!) that way, i'm always moving forward on something, and at some point, it will be clear which one of the ideas is the winner, thus the one that gets to be written first. and by then, you're on your way and on a roll. no awkwardness, no overwhelming feelings, no stress--well, some but it's the kind that makes you feel really alive, right?

bottom line, i'm writing a new work. a series actually, which is funny because i titled this post "a new series". i originally meant a new blog series, but i just realized that i'm also writing about the new series. hmmm:) 

the series takes place in high school from 2001-2004. that's about all i can tell you because i'm still fleshing literally every other detail out, but what makes me excited is this method of "fleshing". everyone knows i have a million journals. it's one of my bio bullet points, or at least it was when i was singing. if you don't know, i have about 26 journals from growing up. i started them my freshman year in high school on a trip to paris for school. i didn't want to forget anything, so i started writing about each day. and it stuck. fourteen years later, i have too many to even put on a shelf. right now they live in a bin in the back of my prius--no room in my townhouse either, and my journals, they don't like to be split up from their brothers and sisters. 

my little library. (and this isn't all of them)

so i go out to my car, open the back hatch, and thumb through my journals like a little library trying to find the next one in chronological order. i did it two days ago, and i remember thinking...wonder what people driving by think of the girl in her robe in the shared driveway checking books out of her trunk.

so, i don't think i mentioned this before but i have never ever gone back to reread any of my journals. i thought it would be too painful to discover some of the memories in my past, the growing pains, the ones we all try to forget. so i kept them all but never opened them. but i decided that instead of going out and interviewing high school students, which i would have to tailor anyway to the years i wanted to use (which means there are no iphones or facebook) i would ask my high school self for as many answers possible. i can't edit myself now...it's all in there.

my current three

and do you know what? i was chatting with my beloved grandma donna yesterday and told her this very thing: i thought it would just bring back my old heartaches and memories i had put to bed, but i'm actually able to read it and let it go. i know how it ends for that little lady. i know how awful it will get but also how wonderful it will be. i know all the poems she wrote in high school will eventually lead her to be a songwriter. i know her dream of singing will actually come true. i know the silly boyfriends she worried about will just fall by the way-side when she finds her prince. i know she'll be safe and she'll figure it out. and all those worries...they just go smack into my characters!

it's a win-win for two parts of my life. because i can be the slightest bit detached, i can squeeze details out of my pages while also relive them just enough to let them go.

am i crazy? i think you already have your idea...

& that concludes my first "curren
tly writing" series.

spongeing: sue monk kidd

nashville, though typically known for its music, has really stepped up the literary game. over the past few months, they have had what they call "salon at 615"--our zip code happens to be 615, and the events start at 6:15. last fall i went to see pat conroy speak about his latest novel death of santini but this time, it was the ever-lovely sue monk kidd.

Source

you probably know her name from her novel-turned-movie the secret life of bees. or the mermaid chair. but this time she came to speak on her latest attempt (and by attempt, i mean she was given the honor of #1 Best Seller on the day she spoke in Nashville)  the invention of wings. 

my pennsylvania bff lindsey was in town unexpectedly this week for a non-ashlyne reason (a pipe burst in her nashville house) so i snagged her to come with me to listen to mrs. kidd speak. well, first it was awesome that i got to actually see her (lindsey, but i was also pumped to see sue monk kidd) in real life and not have to recount my experience for once over the phone! we had lunch a few times this week, wrote at coffee shops together, went to mckay's books for like an hour or two...it was amazing. 

anyway! back to sue. all of the events are held in different locations, but this one was actually at the downtown nashville library in the auditorium. if you ever come to nashville, this particular library branch is worth seeing. it's so awesome and huge, and it has a whole room dedicated to the history of nashville/tennessee. trust me, i've used it for research a lot. 

sue monk kidd is stately. poised. and well-spoken to say the least. you really never know how writers are going to be in the flesh. sure, they can take a pen to paper like nobody's business, but just like a musician, you never can be sure if they'll be awkward in a regular conversation or not, when they are out of their element. 

i want to spend the rest of the post talking about some of the things she said that i took note of. i won't spoil the book at all i promise (couldn't if i wanted to, i haven't read it myself yet). it's more about her journey into writing, and some of the tips she gave, when asked. that's what i'm interested in knowing at this stage of my writing career: how someone who's clearly "doing" it does it. 

first of all, she wasn't looking for the idea. it came to her at a function at a museum in brooklyn. she noticed a heritage panel in the museum with a bunch of names on it...and found two she was interested in learning more about. this was a wonderful bit of information for me. i rarely 'want' to write about something before it just lands in my lap, or rather i notice it for the first time. good to know that it happens that way for someone so freakin' awesome. 

second. it took her 6 months of pure research before she even started writing, which took another 3 1/2 years to complete. granted it's a historical novel set in the 1800s, but still, it gave me a little bit of a buffer not to worry about finishing so quickly in 2013/2014, the world of instant. i don't think i need that much time, but still, i need to give myself a break. 

third, she said she was "very daunted" by the idea of her two major, important, narrators, almost to the point where she decided if she didn't get them exactly right, she was canning the whole project. you wouldn't have seen that doubt in her eye when she was behind the podium (clearly having gotten them exactly right) but it was so good to hear that even she felt like the task was potentially too much. it gave me the inspiration to push on. it also gave me a push to try to take on a new point of view in my latest work: teenage boys as well as girls. i was worried before, but i think i can do it now based on her ability to capture an enslaved girl from the 1800s. at least my people are still around and i can ask. :)

fourth. she talked about her characters the way i feel about mine. like they were real (well, hers actually were in some sense), like she felt the responsibility to represent them perfectly, like she knew them, went to their houses for coffee. i love that. it might seem to non-writers like an adult version of an imaginary friend, but we all know it's way better. 

fifth, she didn't start out her working life as an author. this is probably one of the details i wonder most about successful authors: did you always want to do it? did you do it immediately after, say, high school or college? when mrs. kidd was in high school, it was 1963ish, so it wasn't totally normal for a woman to want to do something like write. so, she went to nursing school, and then 8 years later, she started writing. that nugget of information was so encouraging, seeing as writing has always been in the back of my mind, but i had to do/see/try other more typical (for me) careers first in order to finally arrive here. i feel like it's a common theme, and i'm thrilled to actually feel like i'm doing something normally for the first time ever. 

sixth, i loved this quote. i'm not sure if she was quoting or if it was a quote of hers. i think it's in her novel the mermaid chair, but as a 'they say' quote. anyway, i love it all the same: 

you can bear anything if you can tell a story about it

killer right? 

seventh, her advice: 

a. believe in what you're doing and doubt it at the same time. (i think that's one of my favorite lines of the night)

b. set the bar high and read higher than yourself. (read the best of the best, not at your level, or you'll be pushed to get better)

c. allow yourself to write badly (seriously, sue, you're amazing. this is a big deal for perfectionists all around. but i have definitely done it and it helps to allow yourself to do it)

d. don't expect yourself to write a masterpiece in a week (guilty)

e. this wasn't her advice, but i took it as advice. she talked about how she modernized the voices in her latest novel to make sure her readers could really understand the characters. apparently, the journals from the 1800s are not as fluid as our speech now. they were choppy and hard to follow. so mrs. kidd took her author prerogative and made them into people we could relate to. i think i get so caught up in making sure everything is exactly how it would have been that i don't remember that i'm allowed to make some decisions on my own. i'm telling the story. 

i hope some of these help you out there! it sure helped me! now, go write till you fall over. 

ok so i'm a writer...a timeline please?

so you want to write a book. a novel, in fact. and you have this great idea...you know how you'll start it, how you'll end it, oooo and the twists! you have even figured out all the little things like the cover, the fonts, the way your name will spill across the front of the whole thing. it's amazing. so...like, how long will all this take?

i'm being silly, but this isn't a joke. it's how the idea of being an author comes about. it's simple, and i don't know of any other beginning to a passion besides this: this is what i want to do. followed by: how hard could it be?

well, since i'm technically still an amateur, i can say this with utmost honesty. the revelation is simple, but the process can get complicated if you are thinking everything will transpire in a couple months.

we took ourselves very seriously. #growingupdancers

united center after my set.

i started my first idea when i was just getting off the road with nkotbsb (new kids on the black/backstreet boys) in the summer of 2011. even though i had been super duper busy...barely had time to shower at night--gross, but true--i had gotten two big ideas while i was on the bus. one, was that i wanted to take a stab at writing a novel...and the second was my stationary shop on etsy (the piecemeal shoppe).  anyway, i took some time i had after the tour to start to start both...the idea for my novel  was called sentences, which, incidentally, i am starting to recycle into a new book series... i thought i would get it started, write the thing, and see what happened. but then, i got another idea for from the desk of a serial monogamist, and it was a much lighter than the first one. so i jumped ship.

after the show in la

 they say the hardest thing is to finish. that's probably right because you can't really do anything with a story until you actually finish it. so i made darn sure i did that, if not for someone else, to show myself i could do it. i did it. i finished it on my honeymoon of all times...don't worry, i had permission from my new husband because he read all week. we're weird i know.  and i nervously sent it off to this girl i had just met at my wedding to read. in bullet points, it sounds like it just "happened" and maybe it did a little bit, but not without a lot of rewriting, not knowing, hoping, praying, and really digging deep into the confidence cookie jar. but she did end up becoming my agent, and i could not have found a better one for me. i love my sarah.

when sarah came to nashville!

with mase and sarah's sister marissa (senior at vandy)

i've been asked before how to get an agent...i honestly don't know. if my husband of literally 12 hours hadn't said something at our post-wedding breakfast at the hutton hotel in downtown nashville, i don't think i would have one yet! i can only thank the good Lord for the blessing, the wedding gift of sorts. sarah was just...there. and she was willing to take a chance.

so fast forward to now, early 2014. from the desk of  a serial monogamist was the story that got the attention of sarah and the amazing ladies at stonesong, but after i mentioned another idea i had for the future, we did an about face and i started on falling stars. i wrote the first draft in two months--it's amazing what you can do if you have a little fire under your bum--but that was in the spring. since then, it's all rewrites, genre switches, reading, critiques, feedback, copy editing, etc.

and i have loved every moment of it. am i absolutely crazy?? maybe. but the hand cramps, brain spins, and overload of coffee has made me so freakin' happy. so the point of this post was not to actually give you a timeline. there isn't a typical anything in the literary industry, just like there isn't one in music, just like there isn't one in any profession, any life for that matter! you just keep on going, fitting it in, trying things, taking notes, observing, building characters, making the fake people as real as the folks next door. you do it because you have to. you do it  because a timeline would be nice, but it's not the only reason you're trying to do something as lone and as committed as writing 300 pages without a monetary guarantee.

it won't be quick unless you're being commissioned or your a celebrity. i am neither even with my touring experiences. i am just a lover of pen and paper, a trapper keeper of every memory and observation i've ever had, and a storyteller. and that's enough.

we live in a world of instant. if you're not a huge success instantly, you probably aren't going to make it. at least that's what the world tells you. and i have been known to buy into it. but actually writing a book isn't instant, so it stands to reason that the rest of the process wouldn't be either.


if you want to write a book, write it. start now. if you've already started and you want to finish, try to let go of any kind of timeline you saw yourself having so you can focus on the most important part: the story. make some doable timelines, but realize that you are a human living in a busy, instant world, and don't smack yourself over the head if you miss one or two. get back on that horse and keep going. it might take a while, but if you love it, it will be ok. one day, you will finish.

alright enough of me...get to writing.