I want to introduce you to my friend Amanda. She owns an interior design store in Manhattan Beach called The Chinoiserie Coast. She has the kind of style where you walk in tempted by the beautiful window displays and leave wanting to redesign your entire home. When she and her husband Nicholas moved to New Orleans, she didn’t close her flagship store but instead, opened another. Caribbean North, her Magazine Street location, feels like the first one’s more adventurous older sister. It’s tropical, layered, full of blue and white porcelain pieces, soft white and cream furniture, abstract oversized paintings, indoor palms and black and white tiled floors. It’s a special kind of luxury that makes you feel comfortable rather than intimidated.
As much as Amanda loves her business, nothing captures her heart as much as her husband and twin six-year-old daughters. Nicholas is endearing and handsome and when you meet him you understand immediately why he’s an actor on television. You would probably recognize him if I shared his name. Their daughters are mischievous and loving and Amanda’s eyes sparkle when she’s around them. She sometimes hangs their artwork on her gallery walls at Chinoiserie Coast with little signs boasting “Visiting Artist in Residence.”
Amanda enjoys reading mysteries, vacationing in warm climates, playing Mahjong on beautifully decorated tables, attending parent meetings at school, sipping cold brew coffee, exercising as long as she doesn’t have to run and the feeling of a beautiful home that hasn’t quite finished becoming itself yet.
Her new residence on State Street in Uptown New Orleans is still in transition from the previous owners to her family. On their very first night after moving in, police lights appeared out front. Their neighbor, a federal court judge, had died under suspicious circumstances. Most people in her circumstance would have locked the door and started googling. Amanda got dressed and went outside to introduce herself to the growing crowd of neighbors who were both friendly to her and upset about the judge.
Amanda is my protagonist. She has lived in my imagination for five years, waiting patiently while I built TellaDraft and launched On Fridays, We Write. Friday writing sessions are for women who have their own Amandas waiting inside them. And I owe Amanda a novel. I have owed her a novel for a long time.
This week, as I sat down to write Chapter 7 for the third time, the chapter about the messy middle, shiny object syndrome, and about what happens when you are exactly halfway through a manuscript and something more exciting catches your eye, I opened a new document and started writing about Amanda instead.
Please see the irony of that.
I was supposed to be writing about distraction for the third week in a row and I became the distraction once again.
This is the messy middle. I’m not using a metaphor or an example from one of the women I write with. This is me, at my kitchen island, doing the exact thing I am about to tell you not to do.
This week I am traveling and simultaneously distracting myself with words about people only I know in places I love like New Orleans and Manhattan Beach. It’s a great escape. It’s my prep work for 1,000 Words of Summer by Jami Attenberg that starts this weekend.
On Tuesday when I flew into LAX, I made a quick stop in Manhattan Beach and drove around after a delicious dinner at Esperanza. I love how the new beautiful modern beach homes are nestled in between the older beach cottages. The walk streets still lead to the dark blue depths of the Pacific Ocean and have always held a sense of adventure to me. There is a promise of a summer filled with beach volleyball when you look at the quiet beach. The pier reminds me of Christmas decorations during the holidays.
Manhattan Beach is mingled together in my memory, and the way those memories stay alive and honored is to write about them. The blue tiles on the downtown city street blocks are noted in my morning pages. The luxurious Strand homes live not only on the other side of the Southern California sand but in my character notes about Amanda. The turquoise aquarium is featured in my girls’ baby books about the city where they were brought home from the hospital at three days old.
The weight of a city that means so much to me is layered into Caribbean North, and I can’t wait to write those words when I am done with my current project. Do you have a character you think about writing? I would love to read about him or her in the comments.
WEEK 9 BOOK WRITING UPDATE
What’s working: Believe it or not, I’m on track. I am taking a circuitous route but I’m plodding forward.
What got done: Chapter 7 is complete. Chapter 8 is in the works. 9 and 10 have had their outlines transferred to the document and are being refined into a narration instead of bullet points.
What felt hard: This week is a heavy emotionally. (We are moving out the final furniture from my Mom’s home, my childhood home.) I am working to find balance even though I feel off kilter. Writing anchors me.
What surprised me: When I came back to Chapter 7 I was delighted by the opening that I completely forgot I had written. It was fun!
Next week: Finish 8-10.
Future weeks:
6/12: Start chapters 11 & 12
6/19: Finish chapters 11 & 12
6/26: Read through entire first draft revising daily
6/30: Compile first draft into one document
Still on target to talk to my publisher on 7/1, Jessica DeBry about next steps. My goal is to publish in Q4!