Barbara Eberhard's Blog, page 5
June 11, 2023
Research vs. Life Knowledge
Most of my novels are based on things I know, either my life or things I can imagine.
But some of them have had elements of things I knew nothing about. In Gift for Michael, for example, I had the invention of a plane that could be flown remotely. I was reminded by my Facebook memories the other day of the time I interviewed an aviation specialist to make sure that it might be possible - some day - to have a plane be flown without a pilot in the cockpit. The expert assured me that it was, indeed, possible.
But even for the books that don't include technology about which I know little, there are still things that I may not know. I think I've written before about using the Internet to do research. I certainly did this a lot for my dad's biography, in addition to using his papers and others' memories.
In today's writing, I wanted to research about Mass Gen, a Boston-area hospital I knew about from when I lived in Boston just after I graduated from college. I had had my main female character's aunt work there. At the start of the novel, Aunt Olivia is an x-ray tech at Mass Gen, living in Revere, MA.
But now, 30 years later in the novel's timeline, I wondered what Aunt Olivia might be doing. I wanted her to have had a career with the hospital. So, I looked up Mass Gen. Little did I know that Mass Gen and Brigham and Women's Hospital - longtime rivals in Boston - had merged years ago. And that Partners Healthcare, which I knew from a doctor friend, was the name of the merged organization, until recently when they rebranded to Mass Gen Brigham.
When I worked for Northrop Grumman in the 2000s, we were supporters of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) at HHS. ONC was trying to get a National Health Information Network (NHIN) developed. In the process, they had promulgated the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and set standards for interoperability between EHRs, which would pave the path for sharing of medical records between hospital systems, and also the creation of the NHIN.
In those days, I knew a lot about EHRs and the NHIN, and although the NHIN never happened, EHRs have become pretty widely adopted. A few years back, in fact, the Military Health System (MHS) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) adopted the same EHR - Cerner - which was supposed to help with interoperability between MHS records for active military personnel and VA records for veterans. Hasn't really happened, much like the NHIN, but it does mean EHRs have become pretty commonplace in hospitals and medical offices.
Anyway, as I said, I knew a doctor at Partners. Because he was one of the leading doctors working on the NHIN and the standards for EHRs. I followed his blog for years. And we were even Facebook friends for a long time.
And with my newfound research, I was able to flavor in a little of that part of my life knowledge into this novel, through Aunt Olivia and her work at Mass Gen, then Partners Healthcare, and then Mass Gen Brigham.
Sometimes my research meshes with my life knowledge. Isn't that fun?
But some of them have had elements of things I knew nothing about. In Gift for Michael, for example, I had the invention of a plane that could be flown remotely. I was reminded by my Facebook memories the other day of the time I interviewed an aviation specialist to make sure that it might be possible - some day - to have a plane be flown without a pilot in the cockpit. The expert assured me that it was, indeed, possible.
But even for the books that don't include technology about which I know little, there are still things that I may not know. I think I've written before about using the Internet to do research. I certainly did this a lot for my dad's biography, in addition to using his papers and others' memories.
In today's writing, I wanted to research about Mass Gen, a Boston-area hospital I knew about from when I lived in Boston just after I graduated from college. I had had my main female character's aunt work there. At the start of the novel, Aunt Olivia is an x-ray tech at Mass Gen, living in Revere, MA.
But now, 30 years later in the novel's timeline, I wondered what Aunt Olivia might be doing. I wanted her to have had a career with the hospital. So, I looked up Mass Gen. Little did I know that Mass Gen and Brigham and Women's Hospital - longtime rivals in Boston - had merged years ago. And that Partners Healthcare, which I knew from a doctor friend, was the name of the merged organization, until recently when they rebranded to Mass Gen Brigham.
When I worked for Northrop Grumman in the 2000s, we were supporters of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) at HHS. ONC was trying to get a National Health Information Network (NHIN) developed. In the process, they had promulgated the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and set standards for interoperability between EHRs, which would pave the path for sharing of medical records between hospital systems, and also the creation of the NHIN.
In those days, I knew a lot about EHRs and the NHIN, and although the NHIN never happened, EHRs have become pretty widely adopted. A few years back, in fact, the Military Health System (MHS) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) adopted the same EHR - Cerner - which was supposed to help with interoperability between MHS records for active military personnel and VA records for veterans. Hasn't really happened, much like the NHIN, but it does mean EHRs have become pretty commonplace in hospitals and medical offices.
Anyway, as I said, I knew a doctor at Partners. Because he was one of the leading doctors working on the NHIN and the standards for EHRs. I followed his blog for years. And we were even Facebook friends for a long time.
And with my newfound research, I was able to flavor in a little of that part of my life knowledge into this novel, through Aunt Olivia and her work at Mass Gen, then Partners Healthcare, and then Mass Gen Brigham.
Sometimes my research meshes with my life knowledge. Isn't that fun?
June 3, 2023
Childhood Insults
Is there something that happened when you were a kid that you still haven't gotten past all these years later? Some insult? Some slight? Some teasing?
Anna has those feelings still. Something that many other people - her mother included - see as a minor incident she should have gotten past. But she hasn't.
In this case, the insult stings so much because it felt too real, too right. Even though she's long since grown up and no longer sees herself as inferior to anyone, she can't forget the pain that little girl felt to be accepted and then rejected by the rich friends of her childhood best friend. The rich son of a rich family, who had befriended her as not so different after all. Or so she had thought.
So, reliving being called Raggedy Ann hurts Anna, even though she's grown up. Even though she's a successful writer. Even though she's worth more - financially - than the people who once called her that name.
In today's writing, Anna finds out that the origin of that nickname was not some random guy who knew Andrew all those years ago. But was, in fact, Andrew himself. That Andrew was the first to call her Raggedy Ann.
And the pain she thought she had gotten past - or that had at least receded to the point she could handle it - is right there. Again. Raw.
Anna has those feelings still. Something that many other people - her mother included - see as a minor incident she should have gotten past. But she hasn't.
In this case, the insult stings so much because it felt too real, too right. Even though she's long since grown up and no longer sees herself as inferior to anyone, she can't forget the pain that little girl felt to be accepted and then rejected by the rich friends of her childhood best friend. The rich son of a rich family, who had befriended her as not so different after all. Or so she had thought.
So, reliving being called Raggedy Ann hurts Anna, even though she's grown up. Even though she's a successful writer. Even though she's worth more - financially - than the people who once called her that name.
In today's writing, Anna finds out that the origin of that nickname was not some random guy who knew Andrew all those years ago. But was, in fact, Andrew himself. That Andrew was the first to call her Raggedy Ann.
And the pain she thought she had gotten past - or that had at least receded to the point she could handle it - is right there. Again. Raw.
May 29, 2023
Picking Up the Pieces
I spent the past couple of weeks focused on wrapping up the biography of my dad. I'm still waiting for comments from some of the folks I interviewed. But having heard from some of them, with no inputs, I'm guessing the others will likely do the same. So, I edited and put the finishing touches on that book. To be published in July.
This weekend, instead, I turned my attention back to my novel, Rich People's Problems.
When last I'd written in it, almost a month ago, I had realized that the major climax was happening on page 100. Much too early. I had gone back to several of the chapters and broken them up, with the intention of adding content to the earlier parts of the book, pushing the climax to later in the page count.
This three-day weekend has been full of doing just that. And I'm pleased to report that - finally! - the storyline is flowing more easily. Ironically, I wrote about the novelist protagonist having problems writing. Not so ironic, I guess, though she's nothing like I am, in real life. Fodder is fodder, after all.
Anyway, one of the main issues had been that, in my original dream, the relationship between Anna and Andrew, while distant in the recent past, had never been contentious. In my drafting of the novel, though, I had created a tension between them. Based on the Raggedy Ann taunt one of Andrew's friends had made when they were teenagers. It had been bothering me that I changed this crucial plot point from the situation in my dream, where Anna goes to Andrew specifically because she knows he can sympathize with negative publicity, having experienced it himself.
But when I was writing, and having come up with a title for the book, it just made more sense for Anna and Andrew to be at odds. And the childhood taunt also made sense, Anna being much poorer than the Johnsons and their friends.
But it was bugging me. It's not often that I have changed such a major part of the plot.
But today, the writing came together. And I like the new direction. So, whew.
And I added about 20 pages to the beginning of the book. Not sure the climax is far enough along yet. But things are better than they were.
This weekend, instead, I turned my attention back to my novel, Rich People's Problems.
When last I'd written in it, almost a month ago, I had realized that the major climax was happening on page 100. Much too early. I had gone back to several of the chapters and broken them up, with the intention of adding content to the earlier parts of the book, pushing the climax to later in the page count.
This three-day weekend has been full of doing just that. And I'm pleased to report that - finally! - the storyline is flowing more easily. Ironically, I wrote about the novelist protagonist having problems writing. Not so ironic, I guess, though she's nothing like I am, in real life. Fodder is fodder, after all.
Anyway, one of the main issues had been that, in my original dream, the relationship between Anna and Andrew, while distant in the recent past, had never been contentious. In my drafting of the novel, though, I had created a tension between them. Based on the Raggedy Ann taunt one of Andrew's friends had made when they were teenagers. It had been bothering me that I changed this crucial plot point from the situation in my dream, where Anna goes to Andrew specifically because she knows he can sympathize with negative publicity, having experienced it himself.
But when I was writing, and having come up with a title for the book, it just made more sense for Anna and Andrew to be at odds. And the childhood taunt also made sense, Anna being much poorer than the Johnsons and their friends.
But it was bugging me. It's not often that I have changed such a major part of the plot.
But today, the writing came together. And I like the new direction. So, whew.
And I added about 20 pages to the beginning of the book. Not sure the climax is far enough along yet. But things are better than they were.
May 14, 2023
Free To Write Whatever, Whenever
Today's writing was about trying to extend what happens in the first part of Rich People's Problems, so the climax of the plot doesn't happen on page 100. It needs to happen on page 200. Closer to 250 would be good.
So, I took what had been the opening chapter and expanded the main character's background into two chapters instead of one. I've already broken up a couple of other chapters, though I haven't finished writing the scenes that will expand them. Hopefully, by the time I'm through editing, rewriting, and expanding, the page count will sort itself out.
It's an interesting problem to have, needing to make the book longer. As noted, I need to add 100-150 pages to the beginning of my book.
I have a fellow author at work; both of us have "day jobs". She and I were chatting on Thursday about our writing, and she has the opposite problem with her current manuscript. Her plot midpoint is happening on page 300, and her book is only supposed to be 400 pages. So, she's spending time this weekend - and I suspect the next couple of weekends - trying to shorten the first half of her book by 100 pages or so. And then she still has to write the rest of the book!
She has a deadline, too, as she has a book contract. I envy her the book contract (she has an agent, too). But I don't envy her the deadline.
Deadlines are one of the reasons I haven't sought out an agent or a publisher. I write on my schedule, and I don't have anyone telling me what or when to write. I don't know Stacie well enough yet to know if her agent or publisher have had any say in what she's writing.
But I do know she's feeling the pressure of the deadline. And will have to write most nights after work to make hers. As she's a mom with a small child, that will be tough. I'm not a mom, and I don't write much during the week, unless an idea takes hold that I just can't not get down as soon as possible.
It's nice to have that freedom.
So, I took what had been the opening chapter and expanded the main character's background into two chapters instead of one. I've already broken up a couple of other chapters, though I haven't finished writing the scenes that will expand them. Hopefully, by the time I'm through editing, rewriting, and expanding, the page count will sort itself out.
It's an interesting problem to have, needing to make the book longer. As noted, I need to add 100-150 pages to the beginning of my book.
I have a fellow author at work; both of us have "day jobs". She and I were chatting on Thursday about our writing, and she has the opposite problem with her current manuscript. Her plot midpoint is happening on page 300, and her book is only supposed to be 400 pages. So, she's spending time this weekend - and I suspect the next couple of weekends - trying to shorten the first half of her book by 100 pages or so. And then she still has to write the rest of the book!
She has a deadline, too, as she has a book contract. I envy her the book contract (she has an agent, too). But I don't envy her the deadline.
Deadlines are one of the reasons I haven't sought out an agent or a publisher. I write on my schedule, and I don't have anyone telling me what or when to write. I don't know Stacie well enough yet to know if her agent or publisher have had any say in what she's writing.
But I do know she's feeling the pressure of the deadline. And will have to write most nights after work to make hers. As she's a mom with a small child, that will be tough. I'm not a mom, and I don't write much during the week, unless an idea takes hold that I just can't not get down as soon as possible.
It's nice to have that freedom.
May 13, 2023
Formatting and Formatting Again
One of the good things about self-publishing is that I can make changes to my books anytime I want to.
One of the bad things about self-publishing - at least the way I do it - is that I do all the formatting myself.
I have a template that I've used for several books. But for Dad's biography, I've changed it up a bit, following some of the convention from KDP's format. There are actually three styles for book text:
- Autobiography - which is the text that Dad wrote, either in his autobiography files I inherited or in his Extraordinary Events of My Life book, which he self-published.
- Book Text, which is the generally used font for anything I wrote or for most quotes
- Quote, which I've used for sections that are from plaques and presentations; that kind of thing
Using styles is second nature to me. I do it in my day job, all day long. Most proposals have at least 5-6 styles, maybe more. So, using and changing styles is de rigeur for me.
BUT, what I've been playing with a lot today is tables and page breaks.
I use tables for placing the photos. This is a formatting trick I learned from my desktop publisher friends. Rather than using a text box or just inserting the picture with a textbox caption, you create a table with two rows. The photo goes in the first row, while the caption goes in the second row. Then, you delete the borders of the table, and it looks as though the photo and caption are nicely aligned, without the chance of the text box popping around, as they are wont to do in Word. I've done this for years for proposals, so it was not a big deal to do.
But...when I PDF'd the Word file and uploaded it into KDP print preview, the tables didn't "stay". And some of the photos went wonky. So, one of the other things I did today was make sure that all the tables were centered and 100% in sizing (at least all the ones that are full page in width). This solved the problem in the KDP print preview for paperback and hard cover (Kindle is a whole other thing; I'm not sure how to do things for that since I can't use a PDF for Kindle).
Next, I had to tackle page breaks. In Word, there are multiple kinds of page breaks. Most people use Ctrl-Enter for a regular page break, like between chapters of a book. And then there's the Section Break/Next Page, which creates a new section. This has the advantage of allowing you to change the headers and footers in that section - if you do it right - without changing them in the other sections of the book. I have a lot of experience with this, as well, from my day job. It's not hard; you just have to be patient and make sure to do things in the right order. And in this case, I had to insert Section Breaks three times.
First, I wanted all the introductory sections (Dedication, Foreword, Preface) to start on the left page. That just feels right, rather than having them run together. So, that meant inserting a "code" to make all those pages "odd" after their Section Breaks. Okay. I did that.
Second, at the end of the book, there are two appendices. The Endnotes automatically started on the left page, so that felt right. However, the Index of Names ran right before the Endnotes. And when I looked in the print preview, it seemed odd to have the Index "run right into" the Endnotes. So, I put a page break in there. That's all fine, but then I had to delete the header and footer, without screwing up the existing headers and footers for the existing sections. Not hard, just tedious.
Finally, when I looked at the book again in the KDP print preview, I realized that the last page was an even page, which meant that the Index of People was right after the last page of the biography. This, again, felt wrong. So, I yet again inserted a page break and deleted the headers and footers, making sure not to screw up the existing headers and footers.
It's a good thing I know a lot about formatting in Word. Whew.
One of the bad things about self-publishing - at least the way I do it - is that I do all the formatting myself.
I have a template that I've used for several books. But for Dad's biography, I've changed it up a bit, following some of the convention from KDP's format. There are actually three styles for book text:
- Autobiography - which is the text that Dad wrote, either in his autobiography files I inherited or in his Extraordinary Events of My Life book, which he self-published.
- Book Text, which is the generally used font for anything I wrote or for most quotes
- Quote, which I've used for sections that are from plaques and presentations; that kind of thing
Using styles is second nature to me. I do it in my day job, all day long. Most proposals have at least 5-6 styles, maybe more. So, using and changing styles is de rigeur for me.
BUT, what I've been playing with a lot today is tables and page breaks.
I use tables for placing the photos. This is a formatting trick I learned from my desktop publisher friends. Rather than using a text box or just inserting the picture with a textbox caption, you create a table with two rows. The photo goes in the first row, while the caption goes in the second row. Then, you delete the borders of the table, and it looks as though the photo and caption are nicely aligned, without the chance of the text box popping around, as they are wont to do in Word. I've done this for years for proposals, so it was not a big deal to do.
But...when I PDF'd the Word file and uploaded it into KDP print preview, the tables didn't "stay". And some of the photos went wonky. So, one of the other things I did today was make sure that all the tables were centered and 100% in sizing (at least all the ones that are full page in width). This solved the problem in the KDP print preview for paperback and hard cover (Kindle is a whole other thing; I'm not sure how to do things for that since I can't use a PDF for Kindle).
Next, I had to tackle page breaks. In Word, there are multiple kinds of page breaks. Most people use Ctrl-Enter for a regular page break, like between chapters of a book. And then there's the Section Break/Next Page, which creates a new section. This has the advantage of allowing you to change the headers and footers in that section - if you do it right - without changing them in the other sections of the book. I have a lot of experience with this, as well, from my day job. It's not hard; you just have to be patient and make sure to do things in the right order. And in this case, I had to insert Section Breaks three times.
First, I wanted all the introductory sections (Dedication, Foreword, Preface) to start on the left page. That just feels right, rather than having them run together. So, that meant inserting a "code" to make all those pages "odd" after their Section Breaks. Okay. I did that.
Second, at the end of the book, there are two appendices. The Endnotes automatically started on the left page, so that felt right. However, the Index of Names ran right before the Endnotes. And when I looked in the print preview, it seemed odd to have the Index "run right into" the Endnotes. So, I put a page break in there. That's all fine, but then I had to delete the header and footer, without screwing up the existing headers and footers for the existing sections. Not hard, just tedious.
Finally, when I looked at the book again in the KDP print preview, I realized that the last page was an even page, which meant that the Index of People was right after the last page of the biography. This, again, felt wrong. So, I yet again inserted a page break and deleted the headers and footers, making sure not to screw up the existing headers and footers.
It's a good thing I know a lot about formatting in Word. Whew.
April 23, 2023
Changing Plot Lines?
I had my original vision for Rich People's Problems. I had had a dream, and I woke up with this idea.
And then as I was writing, things morphed, as they usually do.
But in this case, the morphing seems to have changed the original premise of the book.
The problem stems from the relationship between Anna and Andrew. As teenagers, they'd been attracted to each other. Bad things happened. They fell apart.
20 years later, Anna - who has been living a quiet life in NYC - is outed as a famous author and philanthropist. Her quiet life implodes. And she retreats to CO, where she grew up.
All good.
In the original outline, Anna goes to CO not only to get away from the craziness that has become her life in NYC, but also because Andrew has been famous his whole life. She wants to learn from him how to cope. Andrew grew up rich; he's always been in the public eye because of that. Though he lives on a ranch outside of Denver, his family often socializes in Denver. When Andrew was engaged in his 20s, it made all the papers. Then, after breaking off that engagement, he'd spent some time in Hollywood as a stuntman originally and then a small-time star. The papers loved his story, and he'd been on the cover of many magazines. Till it all became too much. And he left to go back to CO, to a quieter life again.
All good.
But in the morphed outline, Anna goes to CO and the ranch. But because of the thing that happened when they were teenagers, she doesn't want to see Andrew. In fact, she only goes to the ranch because he and his family aren't there. She goes to see Cecelia, her second mother, to be comforted - Anna's own mother is more practical than maternal.
Then the papers, who have been following Anna, find out about her being on the ranch, about her teenage passion with Andrew, about the rumors of her mother and the ranch owner - Andrew's father - having been a thing. And things just go from bad to worse.
Making these even harder is Anna's biological father - who never wanted much to do with Anna or her mother, but now does because she's rich. And he comes to the ranch, and he keeps the story alive, even while Anna, her mother Jennifer, Andrew, and his father Mitchell, are all trying to either let the story die or tell the truth.
The problem with all this animosity is that it's taking away from the original storyline of Anna going to see Andrew to learn how to be in the public eye. Maybe that's okay? I haven't quite figured it out yet.
And then as I was writing, things morphed, as they usually do.
But in this case, the morphing seems to have changed the original premise of the book.
The problem stems from the relationship between Anna and Andrew. As teenagers, they'd been attracted to each other. Bad things happened. They fell apart.
20 years later, Anna - who has been living a quiet life in NYC - is outed as a famous author and philanthropist. Her quiet life implodes. And she retreats to CO, where she grew up.
All good.
In the original outline, Anna goes to CO not only to get away from the craziness that has become her life in NYC, but also because Andrew has been famous his whole life. She wants to learn from him how to cope. Andrew grew up rich; he's always been in the public eye because of that. Though he lives on a ranch outside of Denver, his family often socializes in Denver. When Andrew was engaged in his 20s, it made all the papers. Then, after breaking off that engagement, he'd spent some time in Hollywood as a stuntman originally and then a small-time star. The papers loved his story, and he'd been on the cover of many magazines. Till it all became too much. And he left to go back to CO, to a quieter life again.
All good.
But in the morphed outline, Anna goes to CO and the ranch. But because of the thing that happened when they were teenagers, she doesn't want to see Andrew. In fact, she only goes to the ranch because he and his family aren't there. She goes to see Cecelia, her second mother, to be comforted - Anna's own mother is more practical than maternal.
Then the papers, who have been following Anna, find out about her being on the ranch, about her teenage passion with Andrew, about the rumors of her mother and the ranch owner - Andrew's father - having been a thing. And things just go from bad to worse.
Making these even harder is Anna's biological father - who never wanted much to do with Anna or her mother, but now does because she's rich. And he comes to the ranch, and he keeps the story alive, even while Anna, her mother Jennifer, Andrew, and his father Mitchell, are all trying to either let the story die or tell the truth.
The problem with all this animosity is that it's taking away from the original storyline of Anna going to see Andrew to learn how to be in the public eye. Maybe that's okay? I haven't quite figured it out yet.
April 16, 2023
Nerves and Reviews
I sent Dad's biography off today to the folks I had interviewed for it. There are 11 of them.
It will be interesting to see what their response is. I started with Dad's "autobiography" which was notes and pieces he'd written about his life. He'd also written a book called Extraordinary Events of My Life, which is also heavily referenced.
But much of what I've got in the biography is based on articles about my dad, books and magazine articles that he wrote or helped to write. And then my interpretation of what he was saying in those pieces and their impact.
Flavored throughout the biography is also tributes from various people that Dad knew in different stages of his career. I tried to spread them pretty evenly, but also use them where they related to the topic at hand.
I talked to my husband about how best to elicit reviews. I could post the file to a single directory or just email it - I chose to email it, figuring that getting to my Dropbox or Google Drive might be too much for some of these folks, who are older than I am! (We're not the tech generation). I also wondered whether it made more sense to share the Word file or a PDF. Eric's insight was that a PDF would allow people to comment, but not wordsmith. And that they might see the Word file as asking them to do "too much", whereas the PDF would be "friendlier". Because I do collaborative documents for a living, I'd actually been thinking about the Word file, which would have been a nightmare to track comments in - assuming people had left tracks changes on. So, the PDF is actually - from my perspective - easier. So, I'm glad Eric thought it was the right path to take.
I also shared the cover I've designed. If I'm successful in getting a publisher for the biography, I would assume they would want to develop their own cover. But for the purposes of self-publishing - at least to start - I wanted to have a cover that I liked. I used one of Dad's drawings on the cover (attached here), which I also think is poetic.
I've already heard back from two of the reviewers that they are excited to read the biography. I can only hope that they are still excited when they finish it.
It will be interesting to see what their response is. I started with Dad's "autobiography" which was notes and pieces he'd written about his life. He'd also written a book called Extraordinary Events of My Life, which is also heavily referenced.
But much of what I've got in the biography is based on articles about my dad, books and magazine articles that he wrote or helped to write. And then my interpretation of what he was saying in those pieces and their impact.
Flavored throughout the biography is also tributes from various people that Dad knew in different stages of his career. I tried to spread them pretty evenly, but also use them where they related to the topic at hand.
I talked to my husband about how best to elicit reviews. I could post the file to a single directory or just email it - I chose to email it, figuring that getting to my Dropbox or Google Drive might be too much for some of these folks, who are older than I am! (We're not the tech generation). I also wondered whether it made more sense to share the Word file or a PDF. Eric's insight was that a PDF would allow people to comment, but not wordsmith. And that they might see the Word file as asking them to do "too much", whereas the PDF would be "friendlier". Because I do collaborative documents for a living, I'd actually been thinking about the Word file, which would have been a nightmare to track comments in - assuming people had left tracks changes on. So, the PDF is actually - from my perspective - easier. So, I'm glad Eric thought it was the right path to take.
I also shared the cover I've designed. If I'm successful in getting a publisher for the biography, I would assume they would want to develop their own cover. But for the purposes of self-publishing - at least to start - I wanted to have a cover that I liked. I used one of Dad's drawings on the cover (attached here), which I also think is poetic.
I've already heard back from two of the reviewers that they are excited to read the biography. I can only hope that they are still excited when they finish it.
April 15, 2023
I May Be Done
At least with the first draft of Dad's biography. Today, I finished the principal writing on the book. I have a proof coming from Amazon.
In last week's blog on Rich People's Problems, I talked about wanting the book to be between 300-350 pages. Dad's biography is less than 200 pages right now. But I feel as though that's okay, because I feel as though I said what needed saying.
Now, the process will be for me to do an edit. I've ordered a paperback version, which I can use for the edit. But also will give me a sense of what the biography looks like. I've never published in color before, so I will be curious how that works, including the photographs throughout the book.
And I will also send the biography out for review by the people I interviewed. I've never done that before, either. Never let others review what I've written. But I've never written a biography before. And I'm not an architect or a neuroscientist. So, while I think I've gotten things right, I need the experts to review. Also, most of these folks worked for Dad - some several times. So, they will have a different perspective that way, as well.
I'm nervous as hell.
In last week's blog on Rich People's Problems, I talked about wanting the book to be between 300-350 pages. Dad's biography is less than 200 pages right now. But I feel as though that's okay, because I feel as though I said what needed saying.
Now, the process will be for me to do an edit. I've ordered a paperback version, which I can use for the edit. But also will give me a sense of what the biography looks like. I've never published in color before, so I will be curious how that works, including the photographs throughout the book.
And I will also send the biography out for review by the people I interviewed. I've never done that before, either. Never let others review what I've written. But I've never written a biography before. And I'm not an architect or a neuroscientist. So, while I think I've gotten things right, I need the experts to review. Also, most of these folks worked for Dad - some several times. So, they will have a different perspective that way, as well.
I'm nervous as hell.
April 9, 2023
Book Length
Generally, speaking, I try get my book lengths to about 300-350 pages.
I'm not sure why that length appeals to me so, but it does. It makes a book feel like a book.
It's also not so long that people will be intimidated to read it. My first book is closer to 600 pages, and it's a commitment to read it. It's written in three parts, that makes it a little more digestible. But still, 600 pages is a lot.
I have a couple of shorter books, coming in around 200-250 pages. Those seem almost too short, to me. Part of the reason for that is that the software that we use to publish books on KDP doesn't like to put a spine on a skinny book. And a book without a spine just seems wrong.
My current novel crossed 100 pages today. That's great!
However, according to the outline, we're about halfway through. I just finished writing Chapter 13 of 25. So, if you extrapolate, that would mean this book would be in the 200-250 range.
That thought has been bugging me. As I said at the outset, I prefer my books to be 300-350 pages.
But I also know me. I've changed the original outline a couple of times already. So, it's entirely likely that the next 12 chapters will expand to 24. Or I'll go back and add a few more chapters in an earlier part of the book.
I'm sure it'll get to 300 pages in the end. But still, I can't help but be a little concerned.
The truly silly part of all this is that, of course, I'm writing the darned thing. I can change the writing to fit my needs, right? Well, mostly. I still have a vision of the characters and the plot. And I'm not going to distort that just to get to a certain page length.
So, let's hope the plot expands a bit, or I think of something to add earlier. Bound to happen.
I'm not sure why that length appeals to me so, but it does. It makes a book feel like a book.
It's also not so long that people will be intimidated to read it. My first book is closer to 600 pages, and it's a commitment to read it. It's written in three parts, that makes it a little more digestible. But still, 600 pages is a lot.
I have a couple of shorter books, coming in around 200-250 pages. Those seem almost too short, to me. Part of the reason for that is that the software that we use to publish books on KDP doesn't like to put a spine on a skinny book. And a book without a spine just seems wrong.
My current novel crossed 100 pages today. That's great!
However, according to the outline, we're about halfway through. I just finished writing Chapter 13 of 25. So, if you extrapolate, that would mean this book would be in the 200-250 range.
That thought has been bugging me. As I said at the outset, I prefer my books to be 300-350 pages.
But I also know me. I've changed the original outline a couple of times already. So, it's entirely likely that the next 12 chapters will expand to 24. Or I'll go back and add a few more chapters in an earlier part of the book.
I'm sure it'll get to 300 pages in the end. But still, I can't help but be a little concerned.
The truly silly part of all this is that, of course, I'm writing the darned thing. I can change the writing to fit my needs, right? Well, mostly. I still have a vision of the characters and the plot. And I'm not going to distort that just to get to a certain page length.
So, let's hope the plot expands a bit, or I think of something to add earlier. Bound to happen.
April 8, 2023
Creating Drama
When I write a novel, I usually have only a rough outline of the major events. As I've written before, I let the details come to me as I write. I've learned that works well for me, and it allows the characters to take over sometimes - which I love.
My latest novel, "Rich People's Problems", was bubbling along, as the others have. It started with big drama as the female main character is revealed to the public to be a famous novelist. She'd used a pseudonym for all her writing, and only a select few people knew of her pseudonym. When she becomes famous, she escapes to where she grew up, at first for the comfort of "home". But then she realizes that the only famous person she knows lives there. Together, they help her come to grips with her newfound fame and the press attention that comes with it.
All that was great. I had a basic outline of the sequence of events. I added some drama with her biological father being a jerk, first by having left his pregnant girlfriend to raise their child alone and second by barely trying to be part of his daughter's life and usually just embarrassing her. Her mother turns out to have been gay all along, a fact she didn't really realize or accept in high school. Anyone who reads my books knows that I usually have at least one LGBTQ+ character, in keeping with my attempts to normalize differences.
But as I thought about the book a couple of weeks ago, I realized that there wasn't a dramatic arc to the story. To be sure, it starts with drama. And there is more along the way.
But there wasn't a real climax, when everything came to a head.
I've been wracking my brain about it for the last few weeks. And I finally came up with a climax, one that not only brings all the drama together, but also continues the secondary title "The Story of Raggedy Ann and Andy".
Today's task was to rework the outline and chapters to reflect this new climax. We'll see whether it really hits the mark when I get there in a couple more chapters.
My latest novel, "Rich People's Problems", was bubbling along, as the others have. It started with big drama as the female main character is revealed to the public to be a famous novelist. She'd used a pseudonym for all her writing, and only a select few people knew of her pseudonym. When she becomes famous, she escapes to where she grew up, at first for the comfort of "home". But then she realizes that the only famous person she knows lives there. Together, they help her come to grips with her newfound fame and the press attention that comes with it.
All that was great. I had a basic outline of the sequence of events. I added some drama with her biological father being a jerk, first by having left his pregnant girlfriend to raise their child alone and second by barely trying to be part of his daughter's life and usually just embarrassing her. Her mother turns out to have been gay all along, a fact she didn't really realize or accept in high school. Anyone who reads my books knows that I usually have at least one LGBTQ+ character, in keeping with my attempts to normalize differences.
But as I thought about the book a couple of weeks ago, I realized that there wasn't a dramatic arc to the story. To be sure, it starts with drama. And there is more along the way.
But there wasn't a real climax, when everything came to a head.
I've been wracking my brain about it for the last few weeks. And I finally came up with a climax, one that not only brings all the drama together, but also continues the secondary title "The Story of Raggedy Ann and Andy".
Today's task was to rework the outline and chapters to reflect this new climax. We'll see whether it really hits the mark when I get there in a couple more chapters.
