As I was finishing the last chapters of my first posted novel, Slow Motion Whirlwind, I was pondering how the book would do on the serialization site that I was posting it on. That’s a story for another post, but while all of that was happening, I was suddenly struck with an idea for a story that I’m sure could only work in serialized form (well, I think it would work best that way, at least).
The idea is what has become A Year in Mondays. This is another case of the concept for the book popping into my head almost fully formed. Of course I had to decide where I wanted to take the book and what I wanted to focus on, but Julie’s story of becoming a mother was formed already. I thought that kind of luck can’t be ignored, so I decided I had to write the story. I hope that her unique experiences will carry her story for others as they have for me.
So, like with Slow Motion Whirlwind, I have been struck with inspiration I really can’t describe or reproduce with any certainty (sorry). But unlike last time, I plotted this novel out quite a bit before I began. I did that for two reasons. First, that I wanted to make sure I had all of the important aspects of Julie’s story included in my work. And second, that this book is exactly what it sounds like – a whole year told only in Mondays.
The challenge for me is this: How do I tell the whole years’ story when I only have ~14% of the days and less than 5% of the hours to do it in? It is still a challenge even as I write it, but at the completion of chapter two, I am pretty happy with how it is going so far.
I’m looking forward to the challenge.
Only 50 chapters left to go!
What do you do when you are creating something that is different from what you usually create? How much of your creative process transfers from one medium to another? Do you think you could tell a year of someone’s life story using only snippets of one day each week?
Check out more posts about A Year in Mondays or click for details on my works in progress.
Eliza Solares 