Tag: Starbucks

What Inspires Your Work?

Friday night I gave a friend a ride home from work. We were chatting about my book, and I was telling her how an event had inspired a scene in my book. She thought that was fascinating; kind of like getting a Behind-the-Scenes look into my work. So here’s your peek into some of the moments that inspired TOUCHED.

1)      Chevy Malibu – In March 2009, I was busy working on the last scenes of my book. On my way to work one morning, I T-boned a woman on the freeway in my little Ford Focus. (Not my fault, BTW.) As I waited out the insurance rigmarole, I drove around in a rental car. Sorry, Chevy, but I hate your Malibu. So when I needed a car to crash in my story, I gleefully chose you. And boy, did I smash you.

2)      In September 2008, my work took me on a three-week tour of San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston. My co-worker and I visited a few sites, including Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, the first Starbucks, and the Space Needle. All of these locations made it into the first draft of TOUCHED, though you can hardly recognize them in the final draft. Why? Because I love mac and cheese, coffee, and heights.

3)      My friend, Lindsay, is afraid of heights. I realized this when she stood against the wall at the Space Needle, while I tried to peer over the edge through the bars, going “See how high up we are? Isn’t this great?” This moment made it into the book, morphed into a scene between the two main characters. The Space Needle also magically transformed into a lighthouse.

4)      In 2003 I lived in New York City down near Wall Street. I used to get up early in the morning to ride the ferry to Staten Island because (1) it was free and (2) I loved seeing the Statue of Liberty when the sun was coming up. When I worked in Seattle in September, my job had me riding the ferries back and forth between Seattle and Bainbridge Island (don’t ask – a job in marketing has you doing all kinds of things you’d never expect). I knew my book had to include ferries. There’s something lonely and romantic about them. If you’ve seen the Seattle skyline from the car deck with not a soul in sight, you know what I mean. When I moved my story to a fictional town on the East Coast, I created a fictional ferry to transport my characters to my fictional island. Also, since I worked with the folks who run the advertising on the ferries, I know that the deck on either end of the boat with the green rails really is called a pickle fork.

5)      My father lives in East Haven, Connecticut. When I visited him one winter, I saw it snow on the beach. As a Southern California girl, this fascinated me. I’ve since lived in snowy climes, but snow still makes me pause like a giddy little girl. That’s why my location features snow AND beaches.

6)      My MC remembers a scene with her mother of a day spent on the beach using a blanket instead of towels and pans in place of sand toys. We never had a lot of money, but I remember some fun days at Huntington Beach with my own mom.

7)      The mother’s shoes with the plastic cherries. This is a callout to one of my favorite authors, Jennifer Crusie. One of her MCs has a pair of these shoes in her novel, Bet Me. Our characters have nothing in common, but I included them anyway. J

8)      In an early scene with my MC and her father, she watches as a local helps himself to coffee at the server’s station. On a location visit to Port Townsend, WA (my town is modeled after there), I watched a local do this very thing at a local diner.

9)      A couple of scenes between my two MCs take place in a park that is a labyrinth with a haven at the center. This park – Sather Park – really exists in Port Townsend. On a visit to the town, a friend and I came across a bunch of teenaged boys playing war games in the maze. Don’t worry. They were responsible. They used biodegradable bullets and halted the game to chat with us about the town.

10)   One of the creepiest scenes in my book takes place at a hostel in town. When I did a location visit to Port Townsend I stayed at their hostel at the Fort. It was the middle of winter so the place was deserted. I had the bottom floor entirely to myself because I booked a private room. When I came in at night, the wind was blowing, and I couldn’t tell if the ocean sound I heard was the actual water or the wind in the trees. Without city lights, you could see every star, but the place was black, black, black. So, of course, I had to put it into my book. Note: It’s actually a decent place to stay and the people are very nice. It also caters to a great writing community though I didn’t know it at the time.

What inspires your work?

How Writers Do It: A Writing Process Series – Part Two

The idea: A 4-week blog series in which eight (8) writers give their views on eight (8) different writing process guides. For more details, visit here.

This week’s topic: Getting Into the Zone: What goes into the creative process of writing a novel? (i.e. Author’s mindset, the writer’s environment, etc.)

The contest: Join in the fun by blogging about the week’s topic on your own site. Be sure to post the link in this thread for a chance to win a free book! More details here. Last week’s winner is Karla Ellenbach! Email me at corrinelj@gmail.com to get your free book!

The writers and their guides: Click on any of the writer’s names below to view their blog.

Cory Jackson: Robert Olen Butler’s From Where You Dream

Kate Hart: Stephen King’s On Writing

Jamie Blair: Thomas Monteleone’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Writing A Novel

Laura McMeeking: Natalie Naimark-Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Debra Driza: James Scott Bell’s Plot and Structure

Leila Austin: Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird

Sarah Harian: Gotham Writers’ Workshop’s Writing Fiction

Jennifer Wood: Sol Stein’s Stein on Writing

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Getting Into the Zone: What goes into the creative process of writing a novel? (i.e. Author’s mindset, the writer’s environment, etc.)

Last week’s post was full of how I disagreed with Robert Olen Butler’s definition of an artist in his novel, From Where You Dream. This week’s post is the opposite. It’s a lovefest because Butler knows me. He knows my best and worst habits better than I do. I’m pretty sure he’s my writing therapist or a parent calling me on the carpet. Here’s what Butler told clueless me about me.

On functional fixedness:

…you have a certain place and certain objects that you associate only with a certain task, eventually the associational values build up in such a way that when you go to that place and engage those objects, you are instantly completely focused on that task.

Apparently, this is why I can only plant myself in front of the television when I’m at home (as I write this an infomercial for a 70s music collection is on. That’s just sick. Not the 70s music, but that I’m watching an infomercial.). It’s the task I associate with the place. And that’s why I’ve herded myself to Starbucks to write for the last couple of years. I knew it was my habit to write there, and now I have a name to put to my habit. Functional fixedness is the reason a remote is attached to my hand at home and my fingers burn up the keyboard with an extra-hot, no whip Toffee Nut Latte at hand in the land of my neighborhood 24-hour Starbucks.

Butler gives this advice:

Find a place and some objects that you go to and engage only when you’re writing.

He also advises you to write every day. When I’m “in the zone” the words come out of nowhere at light speed. And then there are the days in between where every word feels worthy of the Delete key. Butler says:

You may find – this is dangerous – that you can take a day off every six or seven days. When you do, you’ll be grumpy and out of sorts and things will be uncomfortable…If you let three or four days go by it’s as if you’ve never written a word in your entire life.

And I thought, “Damn, it’s like he’s in my head, except for that crazy bit about discounting genre writers.” This is exactly what happens to me, though I’ve never been able to vocalize it. When the writing is flowing, my manuscript is like a lover, and I mourn every minute we are apart. And when I stop writing, it’s like a lover has broken my heart, and I just can’t find my way back into the dating game. I’m pinning this quote somewhere I can see it as a reminder that I need to write something every day.

One of Butler’s most intriguing ideas (and my favorite) he refers to as dreamstorming. This is part and parcel of being in the zone.

It’s very much like an intensive daydream, but a daydream that you are and are not controlling.

I’ve lost whole days writing. Quite happily. Beginning the day with one crew at Starbucks, I’ve looked up to find myself surrounded by an entirely different crowd. And I never even noticed the change. Ten hours can feel like ten minutes when the story is coming. Thank goodness Butler gives practical tips for getting back to that place. Starbucks, my headphones, an iTunes playlist, a Toffee Nut Latte, and my laptop. These are the keys to getting into my zone.

What about you?

10 Things I Am Thankful For

A Thanksgiving meme borrowed from my AWer buddy, Kate. The rules? List ten things you are grateful for, but every even numbered item must be about writing in some way.

1. My Four Fathers (not to be confused with forefathers). Without them, I would not be me. Nor would every work I write have a running rant about fathers. Or a girl who is afraid to love/has abandonment issues/is fiercely independent/needs therapy.
2. iTunes Genius. Seriously. An insta-playlist that creates an insta-mood for whatever scene I’m writing. The rubber on my second set of earbuds has disintegrated from overuse.
3. My Sister. Who else would listen to me whine? Who else would take me on a tour of every TJ Maxx and Marshalls between Redondo Beach and Palm Springs? Who else would tear the lace off my shorts without asking and then tell me to get over it already? Who else would love me and encourage me and threaten me when I need it? My friends, that’s who. But not one of them could make me laugh like my sister does. – Even though she’s older and stole my “baby of the family” thunder, or as I tell her, she “stole my sunshine.” And then I rub in that I have blue eyes and she has brown and she fumes with jealousy. Deal with it, Sis! – Who else has that kind of shared history with me? And who else would have four kids just cuz I love being an Auntie? (at least that’s what I tell her).
4. Querytracker.net. The insanity tamed by tables and charts.
5. My Million Nieces and Nephews. They keep me grounded in things like Spongebob and iCarly, and their dreams inspire me to have ones of my own. Damn right I can sing the entire Spongebob theme song.
6. AW Forums. My fellow writers keep me sane and the Bewares and Background Checks for Agents keep me smart. SNI stands for Shiny New Idea, and hell, no, I’m not paying an agent to read my manuscript! < — See what I learned.
7. My New Asthma Doctor. Funny how we take breathing for granted. Huzzah! My lungs work again! *tackles San Francisco hills* I can so take you now!
8. Dr. Irena Praitis. My grad advisor in my Master’s program. Second week of school in her poetry workshop, shy little me proceeded to announce how much I hated poetry. Two weeks later I wrote my first sonnet. A year later I had a scholarship to the West Chester Poetry Conference and received honors for a Master’s Project that included a sonnet redoublee. Don’t know what a sonnet redoublee is? Look it up, and be very afraid.
9. Starbucks. You bring me together with my friends. You are the starting point for outings with my sister. You are the maker of the bottled Frappacino that my mother buys for our camping outings, while shaking her head at our ridiculous need for you. You are the place I write and procrastinate and write. You are the keeper of the Caramel Brulee latte. I frickin’ HEART you.
10. Beta readers. Where, oh where, would I be without your taunts, LOLs, rusted-bloody-box-cutter criticisms, and encouragement? Probably huddling in a corner rocking. Or sticking my fingers in my ears and squeezing my eyes shut to avoid editing.

Tag! You’re it! Oh, wait! Kate tagged everyone already. Damn you, Kate!

Novel Soundtrack: Part I

As stated in my previous posts, I write at Starbucks. Many of you will laugh when I say I do this to avoid distractions. However, since I can be an anti-social creature, the call of talking to strangers in a coffee shop is far less appealing than the pull of my TV or any obscenely boring activity other than writing. Starbucks is my office, if you will, and my dual purpose there is to write and consume delicious coffee beverages. (The employees know I’m a regular, but I confuse them by ordering a different drink every time. Keeps things interesting.)

With that said, I have my methods for drowning out the crowd – iTunes, a ragged set of headphones, and a custom playlist for each work-in-progress. My story plays like a movie in my head. A movie needs a soundtrack, right? I find that music helps me get in the mood for certain scenes. Sometimes, it also helps to ground me in a particular character’s mindset or personality. I highly recommend this process if you can write to music. Plus, creating a playlist is a great way to procrastinate when you should be writing.

Coming soon: my playlist for TOUCHED

When the Well Runneth Dry…

I am capable of writing for hours on end. Ask my local Starbucks barista. I work my normal 9-6 job, grab a quick bite, and I’m at my keyboard until midnight. There have been times I’ve taken over a table for a spell of ten hours (or in Starbucks time: a caffe mocha, skinny vanilla latte, and Zen tea) with twenty-five pages to show for it. Case in point. I began TOUCHED in December 2008 and finished in March 2009. That’s an average of 105 pages a month, and that doesn’t include about 50 pages I cut. Factor in a week I took off for the holidays and another two weeks when I had pneumonia (from overworking myself, obviously), and I was a writing maniac with no social life and way too much caffeine pumping through my veins.

And I’d give anything to be in the middle of that again. The story poured out of me during those months. It became this OTHER, a living, breathing entity that lived outside of me. I felt driven to get it down on paper. It’s hard to explain how alive I felt describing the world my characters were living in or how they lives affected each other. If I had to pick one word to describe that time, I’d say, CONTENT. And because I write, here are some others… Happy, thrilled, maniacal. The last because no one can live at that pace for long and not be a maniac. I actually wore the little labels off the keys on my keyboard. Thank goodness I touch-type or the N and D keys would be forever lost to me.

Now, I’m starting a new project. I’m in that dry spell before an idea really takes hold of you and makes you crazed with passion. A little nerve-wracking because a question whistles through the wind and the heat, “What if I never feel that way about a story again?” But also a little breathless excitement because is that a mirage I see on the horizon or my next big idea?

Saturday Sonnet

A light sonnet celebrating my writing office – Starbucks.

In a Starbucks World

We’re defined by our beverage of choice.

The Teas and Chai Tea Lattes are of green

tree-hugging, forward-thinking social mien.

The Vanilla Latte are sweet of voice

And have a lighter, kinder view of life.

Straight Black are extremely matter-of-fact

And like all things to be right and exact.

For Caffe Mocha, darker days are rife

With cocoa hints of saccharine relief.

The Caramel Macciatos are wise

With pronuniciation skills others prize.

For those who seek a more complex motif,

Change up your size or go nonfat, no foam.

It’s best, though, not to stray too far from home.

The Elusive Muse

Where do ideas for stories come from? For me, it’s a combination of everything I see, my experiences, and things I’m interested in. Is that vague enough for you? Honestly, my best ideas are born out the things I feel most passionate about.

My mixed-genre (fiction and poetry) work, “Loss for Words,” came from some feelings I have toward my father. My father’s health is not great, and my sister and I were discussing how I would feel when the man who abandoned me – who is mostly a stranger – died.  The novella-length work was divided into five parts – the five stages of grieving – as I explored how people write on each other and scar each other with their actions. Very morbid stuff, but I can’t tell you how cathartic the process was.

With my first novel, TOUCHED, a YA suspense novel with hints of sci-fi and romance, inspiration came from a very different place. I saw the movie TWILIGHT and read all four books in three days. While Stephanie Meyer is a great storyteller, there were things I reacted to in a not-positive way. I wished Bella was stronger. I wanted her to save herself instead of always waiting for a man to save her. I mean, even her power was a passive one in MIDNIGHT SUN. I also didn’t want her to be so ready to throw away her entire future and family for love. Shouldn’t this be a balancing act?

After my marathon TWILIGHT weekend, I couldn’t stop thinking about my reaction to the book. Suddenly, a character popped into my head. A girl who will kick the ass of anyone who harms her family and stands up for herself. To complement her, a boy was born who was strong enough to let a girl to do the saving when the situation calls for it. Remy and Asher are independent characters who compromise to be together, but they never lose their sense of self in order to be together.

What about you? Where do your ideas come from?