All questions, no answers
A first draft is about figuring out what you don't know
After a four month break, I finally started writing again.
I’m at the very beginning, the part that involves more thinking than writing. I don’t yet know what shape this thing will take, how the plot will unfold, what the beats will be. I don’t even know, beyond a vague idea, what the central conflict is. What I do have is a theme, a vision of the kind of story I want to tell, and for now that’s enough.
Common writing advice says starting with theme is a bad idea. If you want to write literary fiction, you must start with a compelling character. If you want to write genre fiction, then plot is your best friend. Theme, on the other hand, is reserved for Very Special Episodes, and no one wants to read an after school special.
But rules are meant to be broken.
Jami Attenberg, author of the great newsletter Craft Talk, recently wrote about the art of starting again. “All you have to do is find your place at the beginning,” she says. “You don’t even have to write the thing you want to write. You just have to write about it.”
When I read that, I realized it’s exactly what I’ve doing. Each morning, I open a document that contains a working title and a few messy sentences explaining what this thing might be about. Themes, both specific and general, that I edit and refining as I go. Here’s what it looks like right now:
Community and isolation. Connection to the natural world. Internet celebrity. Faith and infidelity. Sacrifice and selfishness and self-righteousness. How the past is remembered and rewritten. Who can claim the truth?
There’s no character there, no backstory or conflict, no setting or time period. When I begin, the very first thing I need to know is what kind of story I want to tell. Or, as Jami describes, what I want this book to be about.
For my last project, I wanted to explore the theme of debt, real and imagined, and I ended up writing (in my opinion) a pretty good book from that starting point. For this project, I’m interested in community, how it can help us feel more connected or isolate us even further.
As I think about these themes, characters begin to emerge. A mother and father, two daughters close in age, who each remember the past differently. None of them got exactly what they wanted, and resentment rushes through them like a river.
This past week, when I finally started drafting a few potential scenes, I kept returning to those themes, that humble little paragraph at the top of the page. Why is the older daughter so self-righteous? How does the younger sister deal with internet celebrity? Have the parents always been faithful to one another? When did this family feel most connected? Why are they now so isolated?
It’s exciting to think about the different ways I can explore these ideas, the unique perspectives these characters will bring to the page, how their views will conflict with one another and push these themes to unexpected places.
That’s the secret to a starting with theme: it’s only problematic when your goal is to uphold a specific point-of-view. Lying is bad. Obedience is good. Celebrities are shallow. But when the goal is to explore, to look at an idea from all angles, to ask questions without knowing the answers—that’s when things get interesting. That’s where the story starts.
I’ll let you know what I find out.
Snack Break
My 40th birthday was roughly six weeks ago, but apparently I’m still celebrating. This time, my dearest friends in Wilmington threw me a belated birthday party. It was a lovely gathering of people from different corners of my life, and the weather was absolutely perfect. (A rare occurrence in North Carolina, let me tell you.) It wouldn’t be a party without cake, and my friend Dory knocked it out the park. Pictured above is a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, the whole thing sweetened exclusively with honey. 40 just keeps getting better. 🐝
Relatable Reads
Generation Amazing!!! How We’re Draining Language of Its Power 💬
“The internet, the great proliferator of communication, incentivizes no one to be speechless. If you’re not talking, you’re not there, so the more frequently you speak, the more real you are. Stop talking and you disappear.”
I loved this essay by my old workshop buddy, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza. Funny and smart and alarmingly relatable. (And no, I’m not being hyperbolic!!!)
Is TikTok the New Frontier in Book Publishing? 🎶
“As the BookTok space continues to get more attention, there are questions surfacing around if there’s such a thing as a ‘BookTok book,’ if publishers should put more energy into figuring out which titles could do especially well on the app, and if it shifts what it means to have ‘good’ book taste as we know it.”
I can’t bring myself to join TikTok, even as I recognize its importance in ~the culture.~ Keeping all my eggs in the newsletter basket for as long as I can.
5 Things You Should Always Block Time For In Your Calendar 📅
My favorite tip on this list was to make room for “intake time”:
“Whatever you do, this scheduled ‘intake time’ is about intaking information and new ideas to help you deepen and richen your intellectual life and help you to see the world with a new perspective.”
Coffee Club
Want to treat me to a ☕️ and support So Relatable? 💛 💃 🙌
Venmo: @Christine-Hennessey or PayPal Me.
Can’t afford a contribution? You can also click the ♡ below, forward this to a friend, or share the link on social media. Every little bit helps!
Thank you Chrissy, I really enjoyed reading this. I think your theme ideas are compelling and I’m interested to hear where they take you. I also love the in-take time idea. Thank you and good luck with your writing.
Loved reading this! I am trying to write a book and have lots of themes I’m interested in and always have been. Reading this has helped me think about how characters might form... thank you!