First Cup of Coffee - March 4, 2024

How writing a novel is like building a road brick by brick, and how some days you're nose in the mortar and other days you lift your head to look. Also thoughts on revision, the 3-Act structure, story logic, and knowing whether you have brain juice or not.

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Transcript

00:01.31
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee. Excellent today is Monday March Fourth and

00:19.50
jeffekennedy
Yeah here we are here we are then um, one thing I wanted to tell you about um and caveat. It's not an endorsement necessarily. But I told you about this amazing sports bra thing does seriously the best thing I've ever had on my body. And that's the only reason that I'm telling you about it I'm wearing it today. So I can show you but um I still love this thing ridiculously expensive I bought a second one. Some of you have opened the link in my show notes and you'll see that it is an affiliate link. Um, it gives you 10% off which is not inconsiderable that covers at least tax and shipping and I do get like $10 off of my next purchase of these things. So um, you don't have to do affiliate style thing but I thought well if I'm putting the link on my show notes I might as well. So.

01:13.37
jeffekennedy
And after this I'll try not to talk about it too much but I did order a second one and I'm just gonna show you all here. But this is this is a cute sports bra and see how it just it really hugs and I'm gonna see if I could show you the back. Um, it. It makes your shoulder blades kind of slide down your back and it is so comfortable and I think even kind of cute. This one is green if you're not on video sorry that was definitely a show and tell. But this one's yeah, it's a real nice soft sage green for my second one I ordered Rose and I'm so happy with them. So yeah, don't please don't be annoyed by the affiliate link thing I really don't do monetization type stuff very often. Which I know other people do um and sometimes I think maybe I should monetize more than I do I don't know I have that a ah resistance to to monetizing every damn thing. Um, which I think is I don't know. Is it a detriment maybe not necessarily anyway. Um I feel like I don't have a lot to say today.

02:42.21
jeffekennedy
I really hit tired I'm not sure what's wrong with me I don't know if it's like seasonal allergies or if I little bug but um, guess how much I got done on Friday nothing I got nothing done on Friday I just couldn't even I couldn't even look at the book and.

03:02.70
jeffekennedy
It's a thing and I know I talk about it regularly on here. It's It's the hardest part about being a writer maybe being any kind of creative and striking that balance between holding your feet to the fire being. Um, ritualized being disciplined and requiring yourself to show up and do the work conversely knowing when you simply don't have it in you.

03:38.51
jeffekennedy
Um, back to the thing about the busy brain right? You know like with dogs that it's good for them to use up their energy by doing lots of sniffing because it's busy brain work. Ah, you know like sometimes we just our our brains don't have the busy.

03:58.87
jeffekennedy
So um, if you did not watch podcast on Friday then I will let you know I only have about 5000 words left on first order of the fae realms. Um, but I decide to go back and revise from the beginning because I think the balance of the book is going to change. And this is um, you know partly how I because I do not plan the book ahead of time at all. Ah, this one had I'm going to copy out that this one had more planning the most which could be why it's written so slow. Ah, it. Because it's hard to explain without giving it away because well partly because I took a movie I thought what if this movie took place in an alternate fantasy world secondary fantasy world. Um, but then also because. It is I don't want to say it's a heist. It's not really a heist but it is a there and backa again. Story probably there's a good name for that right? That's a there and back again. So I knew from the very beginning that the story was going to require. Getting there and say with me getting back again, right? So it's more of knowing the ending than I normally know. However I didn't know how they were going to be able to do it spoiler I still don't know.

05:32.25
jeffekennedy
Actually I do know um I think part of me I'm I'm thinking a lot on this one which is never could take don't think, meat. Um so Bull Durham joke. Ah.

05:49.73
jeffekennedy
Yeah, um, I'm not even articulate am I I need to I keep feeling like more needs to be happening on the back again which is at the very very end of the book and. I don't know I've lost perspective on the book. That's part of why I decide I need to revise from the beginning and on Friday I looked at it and I simply did not have the brain juice to work on it I was like nope I ended up working on business stuff. It was good I got a lot of business stuff done on Friday and over the weekend. A lot of times not having brain use means I don't have it for 1 thing but I do have it for other kinds of things and miraculously I tend to have very long to do lists which. People tell me isn't a good thing but by five o'clock yesterday afternoon Sunday afternoon I had gotten everything off of my to do list that I wanted to get done over the weekend which never happens. But I got it all done and I had brute chilling in the freezer and it was great. I sat down and had my champagne and I was very happy with myself and then I slept I slept a huge melt and so i.

07:21.62
jeffekennedy
Clearly I has a tired right? I'm tired out for don't good race. Well maybe for good reasons. So anyway, um, back to actually talking up writing the shape of the book. Um I was worried was wrong and.

07:40.40
jeffekennedy
1 of the great problems with writing a novel you know I I often talk about it that it's a process of laying bricks which is something that Neil Gaiman said that I find really really useful because you're just there out in the hot sun. Laying down brick after brick day after day after day and it takes a long time and because of that when you have your nose down in the bricks and mortar you can lose track of where the road is going. And a very common solution to this is the outline. That's why a lot of people like to outline they want to have that they're from the beginning. Ah, you'll like they have their roadmap right? there. That's why sometimes the. Ah, analogy of the architect versus the gardener works. Well um, the architect is like the highway engineer who knows exactly every single turn of the road those of us who are intuitive writers were building that road and were like well I know I need to get the road. There and I need to loop it back again to hear and every once while you poke your head up and you look and you're like oh yeah, I'm not quite ready to loop back. Um, and sometimes I don't know we could get really mired in analogies here. We won't get mired in analogies.

09:14.23
jeffekennedy
But you you have to climb up and look at the layout of the whole road and see if if it's what you need it to be and this is where the road analogy starts to fall apart because what I'm going to be doing next is I know I'm going to be cutting a little bit from the beginning. Maybe. It's probably not going to be a ton but it might be several thousand words it'll be interesting to see ah I know that there is a series of let's look and see I think it is 2 to 3 chapters I do keep track of my chapters. How many words are in them and ah how many pages they are and I have here. It is chapters 6 and 7 and I sometimes I take notes on like what happens in them so I can sort of remember and so this chapter 6 is kitchen convo. Chapter 7 is kitchen convo part 2 which is always a sign. Um, they're not hugely long chapters of 7 pages and 8 pages. But and my average for this book is is 7 pages a chapter.

10:30.90
jeffekennedy
Ah, for those of you asking how long chapters should be no mine. It varies from book to book. But this book. Um I wanted it faster paced if I want something a little bit faster paced I make the chapter shorter a more. Epic leisurely pace longer chapters and it does vary throughout the book and I do have shorter chapters where it's more pitched action. Ah but I just knew kitchen convo part 1 in part two that that needs to be 1 chapter and. 15 pages is too long but I know that there are things I'm gonna cut there. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to compress a few things at the beginning because I feel like the beginning is taking too long. Maybe it won't seem like it. When I dig back in. That's the other part of getting perspective on the road because um and I know I talk about this all the time but you cannot conflate the reading experience with the writing experience and that's why I feel like it's really bad advice when people say if you are bored as a writer. The reader will be aboard reading. It's simply not true. There are sometimes stretches of road where every brick hurts and your fingers are sore and you're tired and it's a hot day and you feel like that. It's just going super slowly.

12:00.43
jeffekennedy
And a reader will just step right over it. It's they're they're just very very different experiences and so I have written enough books at this point that I know myself and I know that when I go in and look at this book. Parts that I feel like are taking way too long. Probably don't so we'll see how much I actually cut and I will report back on that. Ah, but I'm wondering if that won't give me a little bit more room at the End. We'll see so far I'm right on my beats.

12:36.39
jeffekennedy
And just to revisit a bit for new listeners I know a lot of you are newer listeners I use the eighteen three x structure to help me know where I am in the road and so part of what's making me overthink. Um. So quick quick and dirty explanation first 25% is act 1 get all the stakes set middle 50% is act 2 divided by midpoint at 50% act 2 ends at 75 % act three goes into approximately 90% within the denouement and and it's that approximately 90% that becomes a real bugger because and it could be that is just this particular book because it is a slightly different structure than I typically use. It's not. Um, it's not a fully romance arc there is a romance but it's not the romance arc. It's really this heist arc this there and back again and so maybe that's screwing up my. My radar on this but I have passed the act to climax which ended up being on a romantic beat which is interesting. Um, when I see where those climaxes happen.

14:08.81
jeffekennedy
And what has occurred in the story that often tells me what kind of story it is this shows you how I do everything backwards. Um, and in fact, look at this and this is partly why I keep track of the words in each chapter. Is at my 25% mark my act 1 climax that is picking up the love interest running into the love interest. Um, yeah, and a lot of these midpoint is a plot.

14:45.11
jeffekennedy
Um, or plot not plot. That's probably the wrong word, but the the action arc um that it's on that beat the scene 3 and is on the romance um scene five is on the french. No, no, it's it's the sorry There's also very important female friendship in this story. Ah so scene 5 and is on the action. Um act 2 climax. Is the action story but then scene 7 and act 3 are are the romance which means that my last 10 percent is is largely resolving the action arc and so it's not denoue. Um. And maybe that's fine I just have to figure it out once I get in there. It'll be interesting to see when I dig in how fast the revision goes. Um I was having a lot of dread about it over the weekend because. Because I still don't have that map in my head of what the book should be and so I'm trying to ddecide if that's an accurate statement. Um I still don't have it precisely the way I want it is probably a better way to put it. The overall map is there.

16:11.40
jeffekennedy
But I feel like the road is looking really squidgy. At this point I'm worried there are potholes. Ah, you know it's funny because a lot of writers talk about plot holes and people wonder you know like well what does that mean and. It's it's really not a good term for what we're talking about but it really it just means a place where the plot's not working. It's it's a flaw in the logic of the story. It's a probably a better way to put it. Um, and so but as with many things. I can't remember exactly what I was worrying about over the weekend waking up in the middle of the night thinking about the book and wondering if something or other was working. So so that's me, um. I am going this week to visit my mother in Tucson so heading there flying there on Wednesday evening so that'll be really nice. Get some sunshine spend some time with her. Ah, and then I don't come back till Monday afternoon so there may not be podcasts. On Friday and Monday maybe there will be um I always think that it's possible that I will my husband's not going I'm going solo. So I think it'll just depend on how this revision is going and how I feel. Um.

17:39.77
jeffekennedy
And if I have anything to say I feel like I don't have anything to say right now but that's probably because I'm fully immersed in book brain. So ah I think on that note I'm just going to go get to work and hopefully hope I have the brain juice for it and I will talk to you all if not.

17:59.27
jeffekennedy
Friday and Monday then the following Friday whatever day that is um, let's see so maybe not the eighth, maybe not the eleventh the fifteenth I will talk to all on the fifteenth for sure. Ah. You all take care. Okay bye bye.