RELEASE WEEK - POST 2
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT
Many of my books are inspired by a place or time in my life that I wanted to capture in words the way I can’t capture in photographs. (I’m a truly garbage photographer.) I wrote JUST ONCE because I’d worked on a dude ranch; I wrote GOING THE DISTANCE because I’d lived in China.
Capturing the “feeling” of something without describing it like a travel brochure is easier said than done. My biggest weakness in writing is description. I never, ever describe settings. Like, ever. I always have to go back during edits and remember that no one can see my imagination if I don’t write it down. (In a writing class in university I wrote a short story about a girl who lived a boring life in a boring apartment. The chief criticism I got from literally everyone was that they did not know what she or the apartment looked like. I remedied this by saying the walls were painted eggshell white, and I genuinely believed that to be sufficient. It wasn’t.)
But describing something is more than just telling people what it looks like. It’s getting them to feel like they’re inside of it, so they can fill in the details of those eggshell white walls with sensory details from their own experience. When writing TEAM PLAYER I really wanted to be mindful of describing the game and the setting in a way that “felt” right. Not everyone loves baseball, and it’s not about convincing them how insane they are, it’s about showing why *I* love it, and I don’t love it because the grass is green and the seats are blue and the chicken strips are $14, I love it because of how it makes me feel. The energy of a Major League baseball stadium is obviously more intense than the feeling of stepping onto a field for a softball game, but I was lucky enough to play some games on fields where they play national championships, with manicured grass and stadium lights and towering bleachers and *that* feeling is what I wanted to get on the page.
I watch a ton of cooking shows, and when someone says they cook with love I always thought, “What on earth does that taste like?” But then I ate at this restaurant where the chef’s love for his work truly came through in every bite, and I finally understood. This week I’ve been proof-reading the paperback version of TEAM PLAYER, and that loving feeling has come through the pages, making me giddy for release day, and the start of the new baseball season. I hope you feel it too!
Many of my books are inspired by a place or time in my life that I wanted to capture in words the way I can’t capture in photographs. (I’m a truly garbage photographer.) I wrote JUST ONCE because I’d worked on a dude ranch; I wrote GOING THE DISTANCE because I’d lived in China.
Capturing the “feeling” of something without describing it like a travel brochure is easier said than done. My biggest weakness in writing is description. I never, ever describe settings. Like, ever. I always have to go back during edits and remember that no one can see my imagination if I don’t write it down. (In a writing class in university I wrote a short story about a girl who lived a boring life in a boring apartment. The chief criticism I got from literally everyone was that they did not know what she or the apartment looked like. I remedied this by saying the walls were painted eggshell white, and I genuinely believed that to be sufficient. It wasn’t.)
But describing something is more than just telling people what it looks like. It’s getting them to feel like they’re inside of it, so they can fill in the details of those eggshell white walls with sensory details from their own experience. When writing TEAM PLAYER I really wanted to be mindful of describing the game and the setting in a way that “felt” right. Not everyone loves baseball, and it’s not about convincing them how insane they are, it’s about showing why *I* love it, and I don’t love it because the grass is green and the seats are blue and the chicken strips are $14, I love it because of how it makes me feel. The energy of a Major League baseball stadium is obviously more intense than the feeling of stepping onto a field for a softball game, but I was lucky enough to play some games on fields where they play national championships, with manicured grass and stadium lights and towering bleachers and *that* feeling is what I wanted to get on the page.
I watch a ton of cooking shows, and when someone says they cook with love I always thought, “What on earth does that taste like?” But then I ate at this restaurant where the chef’s love for his work truly came through in every bite, and I finally understood. This week I’ve been proof-reading the paperback version of TEAM PLAYER, and that loving feeling has come through the pages, making me giddy for release day, and the start of the new baseball season. I hope you feel it too!
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