When an Idea “Cuts in Line”

When an Idea “Cuts in Line”

By Dallas Woodburn

In 2017, my goal was to finish a novel manuscript. At the time, the Word document on my computer contained nothing more than a title, a handful of scenes, and a burgeoning sense of great possibility.

The idea for my young adult novel The Best Week That Never Happened was birthed the previous summer, when the first sentence hit me like the proverbial lightning bolt and I feverishly began to jot down character sketches and plot ideas. But then, as tends to happen, life got busy. I planned my wedding, got married and honeymooned. I began teaching a weekly creative writing class. I helped students brainstorm and edit their college essays.

The novel idea sat on my computer in a Word document, twiddling its thumbs.

When January rolled around, I felt burned out and exhausted. I had been so consumed with my work as a writing teacher and editor and coach, helping other people bring their beautiful words to life, that I had neglected to carve out and guard time for my own creative spirit—and I felt depleted. I decided that 2017 would be different. Mornings would be for writing. My own writing.

In January, I attended a writing conference to work on a separate novel idea. But the idea that would become The Best Week That Never Happened kept pushing its way to the forefront of my mind, like a rude child who refused to be ignored.

I’ve learned that if you have an idea that keeps cutting in line, begging for your attention, poking and prodding you all day and refusing to leave the back of your mind—you really should pay attention. That is the idea you should pursue. No matter if other, less vibrant or less exciting ideas have been lingering around the corners of your mind for a long time. Life is short, and we will not have time for all of our brilliant ideas. We need to give time to the ones that make us come alive.

So it was with my novel idea. When I returned from the writing conference at the end of January, I continued slogging away on the other novel that I had been working on. But my brain kept drifting to The Best Week That Never Happened. Eventually, I gave in. I told myself that I would work on both projects simultaneously. (Which was a total lie.) Perhaps some writers can do that. But I have a hard time holding together two expansive, spilling-over, messy novels in my head at the same time. My rough drafts are always a chaotic overflow. Trying to keep on top of two volcanoes at once was not sustainable.

And so, before too long, I was working solely on my insistent novel idea. I was fully invested. I was excited. Actually, more than excited—I was obsessed with my idea. I think that is a good rule of thumb about whether you should pursue an idea. Are you obsessed with it?

The Best Week That Never Happened took me six months to draft from start to finish, as opposed to a year spent meandering around trying to find a storyline and write the very rough draft of my thesis in grad school, and two-plus years drafting my other novels. It was also a much more enjoyable and less angsty process. I believe this was due to two main factors:

One, I have wholeheartedly embraced the advice that novelist Elizabeth Berg gave me many years ago at a writing conference: “First, please yourself.” Unlike grad school when I was writing a novel to impress my thesis committee, or in college when I was writing a novel hoping to become A Famous Author, now I write to please myself. I follow my own internal compass—especially during the drafting phase. Of course, I still wrote hoping to eventually get published and please readers. And let me be clear that my writing is far from perfect. After I have completed a first draft, editors and beta readers are invaluable gifts. But it stifles my creative process to think about any of those things when I am birthing a story.

The second reason this novel was different from any I had written before is that I truly committed to my schedule of writing time. Instead of flirting with various ideas, I got married to one idea. I was utterly immersed in the story, because I wrote diligently every single day. “Work on novel” was the most important thing on my To Do List. I treated my creative work with respect, and my idea responded generously. There were parts of the novel that were more difficult to write than others—I always feel stuck in the “muddy middle”—but I never struggled with writer’s block. I always had a sense of where I was going, and new ideas and connections were sparked constantly. Our creative brains are so incredible if we give them our time and attention and let them do their thing.

This February, my second novel—another YA contemporary titled Thanks, Carissa, For Ruining My Life—is making its debut into the world. A friend asked me recently if I feel like I am “getting the hang of” writing a novel, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. In my experience, every novel is different. I don’t think writing a novel is a formula you ever truly “get down.” Each novel is a whole new animal, a whole new experience—and, for me at least, that is part of the fun!

Author Bio:

Dallas Woodburn’s debut novel The Best Week That Never Happened was the Grand Prize Winner of the Dante Rossetti Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her new YA novel Thanks, Carissa, For Ruining My Life comes out February 8 from Immortal Works Publishing, and her short story collection How to Make Paper When the World is Ending will be published by Kohler Books in June. A former John Steinbeck Fellow in Creative Writing, her writing has been honored with the Cypress & Pine Short Fiction Award, the international Glass Woman Prize, and four Pushcart Prize nominations. When she’s not writing, Dallas hosts the podcast Overflowing Bookshelves, teaches writing classes for teens and adults, and unapologetically bakes pumpkin-spice everything all year round. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter.

Connect with Dallas on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and at her website.

 

THANKS, CARISSA, FOR RUINING MY LIFE

The person who ruined their lives just might bring them together…

Brad is ready for a perfect senior year: he has a seat at the popular lunch table, a gig co-hosting the school’s morning announcements, and a gorgeous girlfriend. But when Carissa breaks up with Brad, his carefully constructed life comes crashing down. Convinced everything would be perfect if only Carissa would take him back, Brad creates a “self-improvement plan” and vows to re-win her heart.

Rose wishes she were having a normal senior year like everyone else, but leave it to her twin sister Carissa to butt in and ruin her life. Carissa secretly nominated Rose for the reality TV show Help Me Lose Weight and Live Again—and now Rose is on her way to Texas for three months of calorie-counting, marathon-exercising hell. Rose already felt overshadowed by her “perfect” sister, and collapsing on a treadmill on national TV is not making things any better. Plus, Rose can’t squash feelings for her sister’s boyfriend Brad (even though she knows he would never see her as anything but a friend.)

For fans of friends-to-lovers romance comes a heartwarming novel about self-improvement, identity and acceptance in our image-obsessed culture.

PREORDER HERE 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips