When I went to the John Mayer concert a couple of weeks ago, he played a new song he’d just written and everyone cheered loudly. I think recording artists do that at concerts because they have their fans right in front of them and it’s a good place to test out material. In a way, that’s why I’m sharing this with you, my blog fans, today. If you’ve been reading my musings for a while, I hope you’ll enjoy what’s coming next.
In these crazy times in which we live, I’ve found myself feeling overwhelmed and stuck with writing. A recession, local devestating tornadoes, and other recent fear inducing events have left me feeling a need to escape.
In the past, I focused my writing on faith-based topics, but lately, I’ve been drawn to more creative writing. I’m particularly interested in exploring what it means to be a Christian who expresses herself creatively.
That’s why I’m excited to be working on a new project, a fictional book that follows the coming-of-age journey of characters in the mid to late 90s. I’ve had my creative antenna up and started jotting down ideas. I got a new notebook (keeping with the theme, a 90’s looking Trapper Keeper) and began organizing my thoughts.
Then I had another idea for a related book that would tie those worlds together. While I don’t want to give too much away, I can tell you they’re both coming-of-age/contemporary fiction books with flash forwards and flashbacks.
I’ve already outlined the entire book, have a chapter list, and have written the first draft of the first chapter. I have no idea if anyone will ever read it besides me, but I know for sure that writing this book is a better way to spend my time than watching clips on YouTube about all the happenings in the world.
Whether I publish this book or not, I thought it would be fun to make it my summer project to take you along as I document my creative process in writing. Plus it will be good to have a record of how I wrote my first novel so I can go back to it one day if I want to repeat the process (and this blog will provide accountability).
Posts Coming Your Way Soon!
• My Writing Process
• How I Define the Theme, Genre, and Key Scenes for the Genre
• How I Create a Logline
• How I Map the Era and Build the World
• How I Outline the Book Writing Backwards
• How I Come up with the Chapters and Break them into Acts
• How and Why I Plot the Story 3 Different Ways
• How I Document Each Story in One Sheet
• How I Pick the Best Story
• How I Keep Myself Inspired
• How I Develop My Characters
• How I Write Long form
• How I Keep Improving as I Write
• My Favorite Podcast and Youtube Educators for Writers
• How I Think About Book Marketing as I Write
Join me as I escape the chaos and dive into a world of imagination and possibility. If you like to write, I hope these posts will help you along in your writing path as well.
Emily Peyton Cook 