Tag: CR Book 2

Story Within A Story Time

reginaweaverauthorgmailcomLeave a comment

One of the things I enjoy about this whole writing deal is coming up with all of the backstory that goes into a book. I know so much about every single named character I write: their histories, their personalities, their likes, dislikes, and goals, where they will end up in the future. Figuring this stuff out is fun and results is so many little side stories and vignettes that never, ever make it into the book but strongly inform the characters as I’m writing. (As fun as this part of my process is, it is also occasionally frustrating like when you realize that the main character from Book 1 will pull out his grandest romantic gesture 3 years after the epilogue, but I digress.)

Since this is my blog and no one can stop me, Imma tell you some backstory from Book 2 that makes me all warm and fuzzy and will definitely not make it into this book:

Book 2’s FMC, Nat, was born around 1990. She would have been 8-9 years old when the Backstreet Boys Millennium album came out, a little too young for it to have been a real cultural touchstone. Nat was often left in the care of her older sister, Rachael. Rachael was born in 1982 and was 17 and a junior in high school in 1999. Millennium was absolutely part of her zeitgeist. Now Rachael was far too cool for boy bands at 17, at least in front of her peers. But she fucking loved that album and she and Nat spent many a night blasting I Want It That Way and yell-singing along when they were home alone together while their mom was working or out. It is the soundtrack to some of Nat’s fondest memories of Rachael’s last year living at home.

Twenty plus years later, Nat will be out somewhere, probably a grocery or drug store, with the MMC and I Want It That Way will come on. She’ll smile and bob her head along. When he notices, she’ll tell him she loves this song because it reminds her of her sister and dancing around the living room screaming into a remote control to an album Rachael would never admit to even liking to anyone else. Rachael died when Nat was 17 and this song bring her back to the absolute best, happiest memories of her sister.

I am now going to spoil a shocking twist of my romance novel: Nat and the MMC end up together and eventually marry. (Didn’t see that one coming, did you?) He is a very cool guy and Nat’s musical tastes in her 30s don’t generally run to pop love ballads so the music at the reception is danceable and accessible but does not include a 90s and early aughts pop music. But midway through the night, he’ll have the DJ play I Want It That Way. It’s his way of including her sister in their wedding and their lives. Nat recognizes it for what it is and it absolutely delights her. They’ll dance to it a little off to the side of the dance floor so they can have a some more space and it’s just this little moment of private joy. He’s the only one there who truly understands what this song means to her, just as she had been the only person to understand what it meant to Rachael. And now the song she associates with some of the best memories of Rachael is also associated with the new memory of celebrating the start of her marriage to a man who really, truly knows and loves her.

And this is why I will never, ever give up writing or romance. Because I love this stuff.

Inspiration Fresh Out of the Dryer

reginaweaverauthorgmailcomLeave a comment

There is nothing quite like manual labor to spur a writing epiphany.

Usually hand-washing dishes is my go-to method for getting through any sort of creative block.  Over the years I’ve solved plot holes, genetics experiment design flaws, and complex data review workflows while scrubbing glassware and pots, my hands emersed in hot, soapy water.  Tonight’s, came via laundry, though, and took me completely by surprise.

I was listening to the playlist for my WIP, the second book in my contemporary romance series (which shall heretofore be Book 2) and folding one of the many, many post-holiday travel loads.  I thought I’d take advantage of a quiet moment to try and get ye olde creative subconscious percolating in anticipation of doing some post-bedtime writing. (As you can see from this blog, I am not a visual person. But playlists are a big part of my process.)  Book 2 has been slow going for a variety of reasons, but it has picked up in the last few weeks as I’ve both quit querying Book 1 and slowly made my peace with  not querying  Book 1 anymore.  (If I stick with this blog thing, no guarantee there, there will definitely be an eleventy-million word post on all of that at some point down the line.)

Since I do like a consistent theme, Book 2’s playlist has also been slow-going.  I’ve been struggling to find songs that capture the characters or the vibe and, at the moment, it’s quite short.  Spotify likes to antagonize me by adding songs to playlists on the mobile app if it deems the list “too short.” After flying into a rage one too many times on my walk to get the kid from school because I was suddenly assaulted by a song or a band I loathed, I threw a handful of songs from Book 1’s playlist on to meet the minimum so that I might know peace. (Side Bar: Spotify. Babe.  If I have specifically curated a list of songs, why in God’s name would I want your suggestions?  In what universe does that make sense? Also, your suggestions are so bad as to be insulting.)

The track that has become Book 2’s theme song had just finished when Cyril Hahn’s Open started up.  Open is one of the Book 1 placeholder songs. It’s lovely, down-tempo, almost ethereal electronic track with essentially only 7 lyrics: “Should I leave my heart wide open?” Open was a major track for Book 1.  I listened to it a LOT to get in the right headspace for that story.  Since there’s so little to it, I thought it would be an innocuous addition to the Book 2 playlist, but it has always felt jarringly discordant in the context of Book 2.  Tonight, it felt desperately out of place. And suddenly, while folding t-shirts and hanging school uniforms, I knew exactly why. 

One of the issues that tied the main characters in Book 1 was that they both fundamentally feared being vulnerable; showing their whole selves to other people.  Each of them had to work through some variant of that fear to get to their HEA.  “Should I leave my heart wide open?” was a weighty and frightening question for both of them, especially the FMC. 

Vulnerability is not a problem for the idiots in Book 2.  Their first real conversation involves them sharing their worst secrets.  I think they learn the thing the other is agonizing over but has never shared with another soul before they learn each other’s names.  “Tell me another dark secret,” is a reoccurring theme and a game they play throughout the story.  “Should I leave my heart wide open?” is not a difficult question for them.  They’d both pretty much be like, “Sure, why not? The other MC already knows the worst of it.”  The fundamental issue that unites these two isn’t that they are afraid to trust other people; it’s that they are afraid to trust themselves.  The FMC has had her confidence in her own judgement and perceptions shaken by a bad relationship.  The MMC is afraid to examine how dissatisfied he is with the path he’s been on his entire life because he doesn’t think he has it in him to forge a new one.  That’s why this song fails so badly for the new Book.

And just like that, half-way through the basket of warm laundry, a major theme and driver of both character’s actions for Book 2, and a major theme from completed Book 1 suddenly crystalized like purified water flash-frozen in a polar vortex.  When I wasn’t even thinking about it. Creativity so weird.  Also, do your laundry I guess?