Inspiration

Without a doubt, music was my biggest inspiration for the novella, and it continues to stay rooted as I work on expanding it. The story takes place in New Jersey, my home state. I may be biased, but NJ definitely has one of the richest alternative music scenes in the US. Need proof? We created Bruce Springsteen!

I got the idea for the novella while reading an interview with the Bouncing Souls. I can't even put my finger on what exactly triggered the inspiration, but I knew right away that I wanted to write about a punk band from NJ. The band in the story is in no way based upon the Souls, but they set the stage for the scene in which the story takes place. Like the real band, my fictional one came up in the New Brunswick basement scene, which has a distinct DIY quality. Many bands from this scene continue making music for years, and so does the band in the novel.

At the start of each chapter, I included a song lyric from a New Jersey band. Some of my classmates in my creative writing capstone questioned why I would only consider bands from NJ for this, but the reason is simple: most of these bands have, at some point, inspired one another. It was only logical for me to root the action in this. In New Jersey, this scene is almost like a family, and I wanted that feeling to come across in my writing.

I've added a new page that mentions many of the bands that inspired this by name. As an aside, the title of the novella was taken from the Ramones.

There are obviously some aspects of the novel that were not influenced by music. Jarred's prescription drug addiction, for example, actually stemmed from a discussion we had in class after I shared the first chapter of the novella. Originally, I wrote him with a street drug dependency, but my classmates convinced me Oxycotin was more compelling and perhaps even more realistic. As I've mentioned in previous posts, this plot line required a lot of research.

My other influences have all been random things I've read or people I've encountered over the years.

Quick Update

I haven't had much time to write (or read, for that matter), this week, which is why I haven't made a real update. I did, however, add two new pages to the blog: About This Blog and Contact Me. Both can be accessed via the tabs at the top of the main site as well. Hopefully I'll have a more detailed bio up there at some point this week.

In the meantime, feel free to contact me with any ideas for posts you'd like to see! 

Research

One thing that kind of sucks about picking this manuscript up after a year and a half (aside from being reminded of how long ago I graduated college lol) is that I basically need to re-research everything. The narrator, Jarred, has an Oxycontin addiction. I, fortunately, have no firsthand experience with this, but that leaves me with a lot of information to find. What's an Oxy high like? What happens to you physiologically if you overdose? It's a lot to think about. How much does a bottle of pills cost, and how do users abuse them?

Fortunately, I found a rather nifty and incredibly easy-to-read memoir that I've been working off. If anyone's interested in reading it, it's called Pill Head: The Secret Life of a Painkiller Addict, and it's written by Joshua Lyon. As it turns out, one of my friends on Goodreads recently posted a review of it, and I knew it would be perfect for what I need. The book does a really good job of describing the prescription drug abuse culture and has helped me root my story in something much more realistic. It's also much more interesting to read than pharmaceutical and medical websites, which is where I did most of my research before.

The fun part of my research involves watching lots of band documentaries, reading interviews with musicians, etc. I hung out with a few bands in college, so I have a pretty good idea of how their dynamics work, but more research is always helpful! Sadly, I wish I had more time to do it.

I just reread the novella (which is called We're a Happy Family, by the way) from start to finish in an effort to figure out exactly where I should be adding stuff. I found a couple of spots that could use more development in the middle, but I think I'm mainly going to have to add on to the end. The toughest part is definitely figuring out what I want to do with the characters.

Thankfully, I left the ending fairly open after all the editing was said and done for the first part. It's actually less resolved than I thought it was, which should be a huge help. I think my biggest concern for the time being is how to avoid making it melodramatic. The plot is already extremely dark and deals with prescription drug addiction, sexual assault, and suicide, among other issues, and I know there's a fine line between making it compelling and turning it into a soap opera. It's also been a long time - almost two years - since I've done major research on painkiller addiction, so I'm going to have to pick that up again.

The good thing is, I'm really determined to do this! I forgot how much I love the story and the characters, and I really do want to challenge myself with this. It's going to be a massive undertaking with work and grad school, but I think I have the motivation I'm going to need.

Also, thanks to everyone who's started reading the blog so far! You guys will definitely be a motivating factor for me :)

Why this blog?

As I said in my bio, I love to write. Writing has been one of my biggest loves since I was a toddler; before I could put pencil to paper, I would literally dictate stories to my mom and have her write them down. I'm not just doing this as an outlet in which to write, though -- I'm actually in the process of writing a novel and thought this could be a nifty way to stick with it.

You see, when I took my creative writing capstone as a college senior, I wrote a 67-page novella. At the time, I would have liked to have written more, but that wasn't the assignment. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I really enjoyed the way it came out. As a result, I left it as is. It's pretty complete from beginning to end, and it definitely stands well on its own.

Sadly, there's no market for novellas these days (which, as an aside, I find to be remarkable -- in this on-the-go society, wouldn't shorter fiction be a great sell? Novellas are more developed than short stories but can easily be read in a short period of time. Perfect, right? But I digress.) That said, I'd love to get my work published...but in order to do that, I need to make it longer (by at least 40,000 words, give or take!). Considering that I work two jobs and go to grad school, that's a massive undertaking.

Honestly, the thought of expanding the novella occurred to me a few months ago. I wrote ten more pages or so before realizing that I need to come up with a plan of how to do this. So far, I have two ideas:

1. Add new chapters throughout, making the plotline more complex
 2. Add on to the end, and have the novella serve as a "Part I" or something

I'm leaning towards Option #2, but I haven't figured out an ending yet. Last year, I tended to get frustrated by this and gave up rather easily. I'm hoping that won't be the case in 2012. I'm not a New Year's resolution person by any means, but my goal for this year is to figure out what the hell I'm doing and turn this into a complete, cohesive, novel-length manuscript that I can start shopping around to publishers. Hopefully this blog will help me along the way.

Who am I?

Let's see. I graduated from college in 2010 with a degree in literature/creative writing and a minor in political science. After taking a year off, I decided to get my Master's in library science so I can become a children's librarian. As you can probably tell, I'm in love with the written word. Reading and writing are my thing and always have been.

Some of my other passions include music, being creative, sports, animals, and working out. I grew up in New Jersey, and New York City is probably my favorite place in the world. My family and friends mean everything to me. Although I'm fairly quiet, I love people and figuring out why they act the way they do.

I'm also horrible at writing about myself. Honestly, this post sounded much better in my head when I was thinking it over in the car. Hopefully, I'll come back and edit this when I'm feeling more inspired.