Boot Campin' and Other News

Hey, Friends!

Wow, has this spring been as eventful for you as it has been for me?

One of the big highlights for me writing-wise is that I participated in an authors’ “First 10 Pages” boot camp, which was offered through Writer’s Digest. For me, the primary appeal of the boot camp was being assigned to a professional literary agent to improve the first 10 pages of my story.

But the boot camp also included webinars to watch and a live chat room Q&A for everyone who was assigned to the same agent. Pretty cool!

My assigned agent, Amy, reviewed my pages, offered some really great advice and observations, and then gave a final critique of my work with the revisions I had made based on her input.

Agent Amy: You are very talented, and this is really well done.

Me: 🤯🤯🤯

Maybe Amy said nice things like this to everyone assigned to her through this boot camp. Either way, her emails have been posted on my sticky-note wall for whenever I need a little pick-me-up!

P.S. Ten formatted manuscript pages = roughly 2,500 words. I rewrote that section multiple times leading up to and during the workshop, but fewer than half of those words made it to my current draft and word count. *sigh*

In other news, I’m sorry to report that my aunt – Rose’s second born – passed away last month. Though she was almost 80, the loss was sudden. One of our last conversations centered on some of her fun childhood memories and my book. I’m saddened by the fact that she won’t be around to read it when it’s finally finished.

As I reflect on her passing, I am reminded that I’m not just writing “what happened to my grandma.” Our lives are intertwined with the lives of many others. And Rose’s relationships and circumstances helped shape her into the woman who became my fun and spunky Gram – just as my relationships and circumstances helped shape me into who I am today, and yours helped shaped you.

I am attempting to capture the essence of many ancestors I’ve never met, a way of life that no longer exists, and a significant period of American history that I didn’t live through.

So, yeah. Easy-peasy.

But without conveying those details, I might as well be writing a biography.

One of Agent Amy’s comments that has stuck with me relates to verisimilitude (coming across as realistic) in storytelling.

The stage for Rose’s story is set when her father dies unexpectedly, and she is sent to live with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

In the first draft I submitted for the boot camp, I included Rose’s thought about wanting to get into her father’s grave to be with him. Amy thought this did not ring true – that this sort of thing only happens in the movies.

I had not shared with Amy that my story is based on the personal experiences my grandmother directly relayed to me – that poor Rose literally tried to get into her father’s grave with him as they began scattering dirt over his casket.

So that makes me curious about your thoughts on the matter:

Should I leave something out of the story because it might be too hard to believe, even if it’s true?

I don’t want to bring about eye rolls and lose my readers (especially in the all-important first 10 pages!) but I also want to tell the story like it really happened.

Disclaimer: Any scene I’m working on now could end up on the cutting room floor by the time this is all said and done, so the graveside drama might be moot for the final manuscript anyway.

However, I’m sure other scenarios with somewhat questionable plausibility will come up throughout the book – Gram went through some pretty unbelievable circumstances after all (Hence, the book!) – so I need to consider how to handle those as they occur.

I have an aging-related cartoon for you this time. With my oldest nephew’s college graduation, with my middle nephew now wearing men’s shirts and shoe sizes, and after learning that my high school choir teacher – who was just beginning his career at that time – is now preparing to retire, aging is on my mind!

As always, thank you for your support. It means the world to me that you took precious time out of your day to read this update!

Have a wonderful summer,
Patty