Friday, December 27, 2013

Number 13

13. Finish writing a book with C.


At the end of May, C and I sat down over glasses of (one of) our favorite wine(s), and she asked me one of my favorite questions any one person can ever ask:

Will you write with me?

Specifically, she asked me to help her write a particular story she was burning to tell. It was a true story, but she planned to change names and embellish, making it what we dubbed faction (fact + fiction). So with the doors open, candles burning, and our planners wide open, we made a way to find enough hours over enough days to finish a book by the end of 2013.

The deadline, while unrealistic to some, was good for us. We both needed the pressure of a due date, but we didn't need to feel so pressured that we caved and gave up. Giving the book as a gift for Christmas was a perfect reason to finish, as well as a solid goal to work toward.

The process began pretty regularly: Wednesdays after work, there we were, writing and editing. We quickly realized that since it was her story, she should spend the week writing, and our time together would be spent editing and adding whatever I thought would be helpful or funny. We pedaled along pretty quickly with a title and 15 single-spaced pages before life interrupted.

Between our vacations and family get-togethers together (she's J's sister), we had events to tend to separately as well. She was embarking on a new journey of competitive running, while I was balancing my work and school. It started to look like someone was conspiring against us and our words, but somehow we still always found a way to meet. In some instances, we had to move the time; others the day. There were even some missed weeks here and there, but somehow we found ourselves in the dead of fall, 30 single-spaced pages in.

At the beginning of November, I was in full-blown new-job mode. On top of that, I had to balance a full load of grad classes. Inconveniently, Thanksgiving found its way into our schedule as well. We saw each other only twice that month, a striking difference from the normal 4-8 times a month we had seen each other since living in the same town. I felt horrible, not only for abandoning C, but for abandoning our book. It was our baby.

December rolled around, and shortly thereafter, I got an email from C.

"IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I knew she had been writing, but the last time I'd seen her, our little novella lay in the 30-something range. The piece she had just sent me was 20+ pages longer..... and all that was standing between releasing the book to our friends and family was my editing every single word with the same diligence I'd had in prior months. The only problem was I also had hundreds of papers to grade AND two giant projects due in less than a week. Shit.

In a zombified stupor, I got through all of my work duties and all of my projects. I started editing until my eyes bled, but it still took me three days to finish revising the final pages the way they deserved. I rushed over to C's house four days before her departure to the Great North where she'd be delving out the first round of the books on flash drives to the family. It was close, but somehow, we did it. And after all was said and done, we ended up with an 83-page novella.

Writing this little book taught me a lot about a lot. I had to learn to be ever-so-reliable because the success of C's story depended on my editorial skills. I had to learn to be patient because quality work takes time, despite my need for instant results. I had to learn to let go of the reigns because this wasn't my story, this was C's story. I had to learn how to work as a true professional team for the first time in my life because no one else has ever treated me as a professional equal before.

Our book might not be Gatsby or War and Peace, but it IS a labor of love (and a little Sedaris-y if I do say so myself). It is one of those gonnas we all talk about doing, and damn if we didn't actually do it.

I am glad I got to help my friend tell her story, but most of all, I am glad to know that with a solid friendship, anything is possible.

If you're interested in reading our little tale, I have a PDF version ready and raring to go! Email, as always, is imgonnadothatgirl@gmail.com.

14 comments:

  1. Congratulations! I'm so thrilled to see you accomplished this. Quite the achievement. I am very interested to read it. I shall email you.

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  2. It's something that lots of people talk about but few people really do, so u have my hearty congratulations. It's quite an accomplishment...so now what? You want to get published?

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    1. We're thinking about it! We're waiting to get feedback from our more ... skeptical ;) ... family/friends before we move forward. We may let this be our practice, then go for another as something we want published. Thanks for the congrats!

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  3. Rachel,

    Coooool. Inspirational too. Glad you finally got it this task out of the gates and done with!

    See you're all about Blogger now (like I was once upon a time). How are you going to merge things? Tumblr, WordPress, Quora, Google Plus?? If it's WordPress, happy to help figure things out.

    I'm new to BHB as well, so good to meet ya in a comment.

    Cheers,
    Greg

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    1. Nice to meet you as well, Greg! Thanks for your words :) I will most likely use Wordpress to merge them, but I'm still looking at all of my options. Love Blogger to death, it's just hard to add all the features I want without doing major surgery behind doors. Will absolutely let you know when I need help (and I DEFINITELY will)!

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  4. I'm striving to be the "all action, little talk" type myself. This upcoming year, I plan to finally show that the workout programs I rant about (P90X 3, etc.) actually work by following the exercise AND nutrition guide. Great work!

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    1. Go for it! It's not an easy transition, which is why I started a blog about it... but it does make it a lot easier when a whole audience is making you accountable ;)

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  5. Nice that you accomplished your goal. Congratulations. I find setting deadlines really helps!

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    1. It's hard to find the perfect one, though: not too far away so you won't do it at all, and not so close that you freak out and melt down! I tend to work better under pressure, but when I'm writing, I need a nice balance. Thanks for the congrats!

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  6. Congratulations. You have done what many talk about but never take the necessary steps to make their goals and dreams happen. So as Jacqueline says what next. It would interesting to see it come full circle by publishing it.

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    1. We're still thinking about it. This is more C's decision than mine, and I'm fine with whatever she decides. We're still waiting on feedback from ALL the initial readers, then we'll make a decision. We're thinking our NEXT venture, a compilation of funny short stories from both our lives, will be the one we want published. This was the warm-up; hold on for the real-deal ;) Thanks for the congrats!

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  7. Wow, congratulations on completing the book, that is very inspiring. I imagine it must have been strange to be editing and not writing, but doing it with a friend must have been fun.
    I love what you wrote that with a solid friendship, anything is possible. I believe that wholeheartedly! Im so glad I have found your blog.

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  8. Isn't it fun?! Great post.
    I did that with my Uncle Bob's book, From Rage to Redemption. As the Editor, I did 17 revisions before I went to print! (Kind of like my blog posts - ha!) But its a great legacy for our family, and maybe some day we will actually make a profit!

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  9. What a fabulous thing to accomplish. Between you both, you managed to pull off what many can't and be reliable in the end. I need to find a partnership like this to help me pull of something of this magnitude :)

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