Untitled OF romance by crestwood

[crestwood]

Hello! I’ve decided to start NaNo a day late this year, and I’m aiming for the 50k goal, despite regularly failing at it. 

As the title of this post suggests, I am working on an original novel this time and it roughly falls in the romance genre. I would call it literary fiction, but it is as much YA as anything and borrows quite a few of those tropes. 

I began this project with the pressing idea of naturalistic dialogue - and I’ve pulled a not-small amount from real conversations I had with my friends in high school - my characters were to talk about the things I did and fall victim to the same faulty ways of thinking I did when I was young. I knew that I wanted to draw plot from the well of characters rather than the other way around. 

So, I began with my main cast. 

Quency Caldwell is my protagonist - more commonly referred to as Q. He’s contemplative, anxious, and nurturing. Has been described as ‘gay to his bones.’ 

(the rest of the group)

Carter Bouvier seems quiet from the outside looking in, but he’s got the sharpest tongue of the group. A sarcastic, guarded enigma. 

Aria Burns is a problem solver, and notably much more well liked around school than the rest of the friends. The ambitious one who brings the best out of people. 

Dante Lawson is the resident weirdo. He’s a dedicated student and 80s post-punk encyclopedia. He tends to set the tone of the group’s interactions. 

(some other important roles)

Cherri Adams is Q’s aunt and an endlessly supportive figure in his life. Beloved by the group, frequent host of dinner parties. 

Ian Lopez - Affectionately dubbed 'Information Ian' by the group. A lovable guy who seems to know a little bit about everybody. 

Jasmine Powell - A friend of Q’s from history class. Acts as his guide to the ‘wider school.’ Very curious about Q and his friends, great conversation starter. 

Emmeline Besson is an elderly woman who got matched with Q in a cross-generational friendship program. Full of stories about her youth in Nice, where she was a model and small-time actress in films of the 70s. 

From there I began to reverse engineer a story. What would these characters get themselves into? 

I knew that Q’s parents had passed away before the events of the story, and that he would be new in town when we first met him. I was sure that we would know a lot more about the kind of story he was in than he would seem to. 

Eventually, I realized that there was a romance here, but on another level, it is a story about falling into friendships and the things that draw us to one another. Why do these characters like each other? Traumas past and present cast a shadow on the story - so much of what happens is in response to life's tragedies, big and small. 

What subplots happened beyond that? Dante wants to be valedictorian. Q writes a play in which his characters overcome tragedy and come out the other side better off. I felt almost as though my characters were writing their own arcs based on what they’d want most. 

The story kept expanding and eventually, once it grew so large that I felt I could add no more to it, I started to write and all of my carefully laid plans fell apart and put themselves back together. 

Now, I’m well aware that I have explained this terribly, and frankly it’s possible that none of this makes any sense at all, but if you have any questions I do love to answer them 

[inmyownlittlecorner]

Hi Joey!! I'm so excited that you are working on this project

You have such a knack for writing engaging ensemble pieces. Do the characters spring to life in your imagination that way--as a group? What's your process for character creation? 

I love that you mentioned that the characters are all writing their own arcs based on their dreams and desires. Has any character started to dominate the storyline? If so, was it the one you expected to dominate?

How is your writing going so far? 

I'm rooting for you--Happy writing!