As you may or may not have noticed, I've been mostly MIA for the last month from Wattpad. My apologies. I've got this ridiculous goal of getting this project done by August 20th (arbitrarily chosen last August 20th), so taking a month off wasn't the best idea, but we'll blame this on A) Life and B) Writer's Fatigue. So it goes.
Anyway, for your patience, I've decided to put together this little behind the scenes for how I'm actually constructing this story. Yes, it's a messy process (organization has never been my strong suit), but I thought you guys might like to see what this book looks like in its physical form.
I got really interested in the format of novels after I read The Ship of Theseus by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams, and if you ever get a chance, go read it. For aesthetics alone, it's a work of art. Basically, it's a story within a story, where the inner one is a novel, and then characters write notes about it in the margins. Which sounds pretty unexciting, but just go read it. (There are codes to break! Conspiracies! Intrigue! And it's so meta, it'll melt your brain!)
See? So pretty.
And now back to M.
Behold! My coffee table! This is the form the story starts out in. I write in chunks at work, hence various Post-its, napkins, scraps of paper, etc. (It looks much worse in person, actually, because this isn't all of it.) Then I scavenge for the pieces I need when I need them. I do not recommend this method of writing, but better this than no writing, right?
Still, it's not the best way to create M.'s story, so I bought a black Moleskine journal and some fancy pens for this project. I originally tried to write in my regular handwriting, but then it felt like I was writing this (which, yes, I am. But I don't want it to feel that way), so I ripped out those pages and brushed up on my cursive a little. Also, I had to dig through notes from college for when M. pretends to be taking notes (and figure out which classes she could take because she's not a math major like I was. Anyone have any guesses on what M. studies?) So the notes are the same content of classes I took in the past.
The inner cover. For those of you wondering, I didn't choose "M." because it's in the logo, though that is a happy coincidence.
Here's a map and the first page. I've always loved maps (due to my love of fantasy books, I think), so I decided to add one. Geography is one of the trickier parts of this story because M. plans on giving her confession to someone already familiar with campus... But better safe than sorry, right? Anything crosshatched is off-campus, though still relevant to the story.
In which M. takes notes (which were from a design class I took back in the day) and doodles. The ship in the upper right is a reference to The Ship of Theseus (a similar design is featured on the cover) because I like referencing things.
Hope you liked this little behind the scenes and thank you for reading!
—Mo