A Most Unreliable Narrator Issue #136 exposition, exposition, exposition
Show. Don’t tell.
Welcome to A Most Unreliable Narrator, the slice of life newsletter of GenXer around town, Lisa Rabey. I talk about anything and everything with a bit of swears. I’m glad you’re here.
Dear Internet,
Writing the good word
When I awoke the other morning, I remembered a dream of writing a novel. I had the plot, characters, and genre.
Everything.
For those who haven’t been following me long, I’ve always wanted to make a living as a fiction writer, but I know I’m shite because I rarely write fiction so how can I be amazing? I’ve grown considerably as a non-fiction writer but fiction? Not happening.
The big part, to me, of that was lack of story ideas. I didn’t get how people came up with plots, ideas, or hell, even character names. I spent a lot of time worrying about the most miniscule stuff rather than just writing. Hell, even Hallmark movies had some variances.
Nothing every came to fruition from my brain.
When I woke from that dream, I got super excited. I opened up Scrivener, which I bought long ago because several writers I read were fans, and ended up with not one, not two, but three plots for three very different books. THREE! It had been years since I had come up with one but now, I had three.
The first thing I did was write the elevator pitch of the book. No plotting, no pantsing (well maybe some pantsing), just the summary. I even had character names that came to me quickly.
Book 1: general fiction about a woman who finds herself
Book 2: Enemies to lovers (Pride and Prejudice) romcom
Book 3: Cozy mystery set before WW 1
Now, to be fair, book three I’ve been toying with for years. I started doing the research and buying books and all that good nonsense, but I never actually sat down and wrote or read the research. Hell, I panicked at the character’s name and spent an inordinate time stressing over that.
But this time, it was different. The summary flowed, a quick search of names for that era gave me the protagonist’s name, and viola! Summary completed.
I am ecstatic about this turn of events. After feeling so creatively blocked for years, having something come to me (thrice!) was shocking and exhilarating.
Sunday night I started writing book one. I got about 12 or so pages in, written in the first person, when after putting my laptop away for the night, realized I’d have to already re-write it in third person. Or maybe still 1st person but
And you know what? I’m not even mad.
(I’ve scrubbed version one of book one with intent to start over.)
Now that I’ve got the writing bug, I signed up to meet with a writer’s group at a local coffee shop. I start in a week (we have plans the night they meet this week) and I’m really excited I am going to write!
If you’ve been following along with my What I’m Reading list every week, and the count for how many books I’ve read for the year, you know I read fast. Not uncommonly fast, but fast. I realized that two of the books I’m interested in writing may sound like your average genres but as my mentor said in graduate school, even if you’re writing on a topic that you feel has been done to death, you’re bringing your own voice and perspective to that topic.
I’ve paid attention to what I’m reading, that is what reading is about, but now I’m paying closer attention to how the writing is structured. I’m using it as a fiction writing class of sorts rather than just straight up entertainment which I really do not mind.
J is encouraging me to do this, which makes me obviously happy. The catch is that these genres are not his genres, so he doesn’t have a comment about what I’m writing. I’m not even mad because I’m not claiming this is highbrow literature (his fav).
But we did have an interesting discussion. Book one, which I’ve started on, takes place in Northern Michigan where the cabin is located. The whole area is ripe for mining for fiction material. Now the quibble is I wanted to make up names and situations rather than being dependent on local names. It felt too much wish fulfillment. (The protagonist inherits a bookstore in a small village that is modeled after the village we live by.) I’m also afraid that if the book ever does get published (either as an indie or trad), someone may get a hair up their ass about using their business in the book. I know this last part seems a bit farfetched, but when I wrote D3bucks S0d Farm and Gift Shop back in the late ‘90s, I got emails from the family (D3bucks S0d Farm does exist) threatening me with a lawsuit under the guise they thought I was talking about one of their grandparents and they were losing thousands due to the piece.
Right.
My editor suggested we use numbers instead of letters in the place of vowels in the name and we made the title an image in the piece so it couldn’t be indexed. We also told the family to bring the lawsuit.
Of course, nothing ever happened.
Now we’re over 25 years from there and indexing the internets has changed considerably. Impressively so so excuse me if I’m feeling a bit tetchy about using real place names and businesses in my book.
Right now, I’m not worried about anything than writing the book.
I did a poll on FB asking what people think on naming the area. The responses were all over the place but in order:
Mix of both
Fake places
Use real places
The reasoning was all over the place. One friend, who’s a published writer, said she used a general area (say, Northern Michigan) but used fake places because she was tired of people, mainly dude bros, attempting to correct her. Another friend said use real names to get the sense of connectedness to the region. Other said what about a mix to give an idea of the area but also having fun with it.
Right now I’m leaning towards mix because some of the landmarks will be easy to guess but since the specific area is so broad with villages, creating my own will be easy.
Leave in comments what your thoughts are: Mix, fake, or real!
Fat Girl Surgery Update
Not much new to update this week. I’m holding steady at 20lbs lost (it’ll be five weeks on Tuesday so still not bad). I’ve been hanging out in the same few pounds, 296-297, and I was stressed but I keep reminding myself it’s a marathon, not a race; each body is different; etc etc. It’s hard when you know people personally who’ve had remarkable success with the surgery and program rather quickly.
The one thing I thought would bother me would be eating. It’s small bites and you can’t drink anything 30 minutes or 30 minutes after you eat. You can, however, sip during your meal. You just can’t like gulp down liquid. Our kitchen counter and fridge are of meals that in time will eventually eat. I’ll eat ½ Factor meal for lunch and the other half at dinner. Into the fridge the other half goes. We went out to dinner last week and I ordered appetizer mac and cheese. J and I split a Bavarian pretzel. I had two bites of the mac and cheese and about 3” of the pretzel and I was full. The other half went into the fridge to be eaten at another meal. Thursday morning, we went to breakfast place below our condo. I ordered an egg casserole and coffee. I had three bites of the casserole and then had some for a snack, for lunch, another snack. I have enough left over for dinner.
This is my life now.
I thought J would be weirded out since I’m essentially not eating when he is but it’s actually going on fairly well! But turns out, after a fight Friday morning, I was wrong! He said he felt awkward because I have my few bites while he nom nom noms his food. I’m watching TV (it seems every place we go to has ESPN on), reading my phone, or attempting to have a conversation with him between bites. The fight got heated to the point I called him “Justin” instead of his nickname because I was so angry. We came up with a solution for us to be more present at the meal and talk while we eat. As long as he doesn’t talk with a mouthful of food, I’m fine.
If you had the surgery, and it seems a lot of people I know have, what do you do when you go out to dinner with someone(s)?
Things I Recently Wrote
If you read #97.5, you’ll recall I’ve ditched the We’ll Read Anything Once (Twice If We Like it) book review blog for a newsletter of the same name.
What I’m Reading
This year I’ve committed to read 75 books via the GoodReads Reading Challenge.
Total: 10/75
Glenarvon Byron’s ex-lover was so distraught about their breakup; she wrote a roman à clef about their relationship
Pride and Prejudice Read this a zillion times but doing a read-a-long for Austen Mondays
Amor Actually Anthology of interconnected romance stories from top Latinx authors
The Christmas Cupid Can Zoey match six couples before Christmas Eve?
If Walls Could Talk Lucy Worsley walks you through the history of the home
Madly, Deeply The diaries of Alan Rickman
Lessons in Chemistry Elizabeth Zott proves there is no such thing as an average woman
A Trace of Poison (Phyllida Bright Mystery #2) Another murder at Mallowan and only Phyllida can solve it
People We Meet on Vacation Alex and Poppy: Will they or won’t they?
Lost Connections: Uncovering the real cause of depression
Spare Prince Harry’s memoir
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Chuck Klosterman’s seminal essays on pop culture
Check out the media I’ve consumed for 2023!
Wonderful Thing
The great bookening
If you would have said to me a few years back to donate my read books or add unread books to library wish lists and then donate them, I would have thought you were high. Part of the pleasure is finding titles you’re interested in, feeling them, smelling them, and buying them. The search for out-of-print books. The joy when you hold a new book in your hand. It’s my drug.
But the drug, for some time, has been getting wildly out of control.
When J and I broke up in 2014, I donated about 500 or so books to Goodwill. And then I did a further weeding. Then another. I also donated books to Friends of The Library libraries. I knew I would never read them and holding on to them seem supercilious.
But my skinny down collection at home and the cabin has morphed out of control.
Time to reign it in. Again.
My reading for pleasure has increased over the years. (Last year I read nearly 80 books.) And my buying has also increased. Every time I read about a book in an article, heard about it via a mailing list, or just plain word of mouth, it either got bought or added to some wish list at Amazon or at one of my libraries. Diary of a 15th C mother and mystic? Bought. History of Ancient Rome? Take my credit card. Essential English to Gaelic dictionary? Sure, why not. Graphic novels? Absolutely.
I like to read far and wide. I am interested in so many things and I want to know all the things and reading gets me where I need to be.
I came up with a plan.
I started cataloging all of my books in GoodReads. If I have read the book, I was taking it to Half-Price Books or donating to Goodwill.
If I have not read the book, it still got cataloged. If the book is available via one of my library’s eBook collections, into the Half-Price Books or Goodwill bag it goes and added to my library wish list. If it was not available in one of my library’s eBook collections, I kept the book to read and then it will get sold to Half-Price Books or donated to Goodwill.
I’ll be doing the same thing when we get to the condo this summer.
I have heard whimpering from several friends about selling/donating of my books. How could I do this? I gave them the stark reality: I probably won’t read this book again so why not let it free for someone else to read? You have to remember; the story lasts forever even if the medium does not.
I did decide to keep some books based on topic of author since some it’ll be for reference or happiness.
(Note: long term study came out that people who read live longer. Of course, we do!)
lisa x