I have some questions for you
On the term slack-jawed, celebrity romances and the Notes app
You know when you get a new car and suddenly you start seeing that car everywhere you look?
That’s been happening to me with the phrase “slack-jawed.”
slack-jawed: having the mouth hanging loosely open as if in shock or confusion
I’m seeing it in every other book I read. Most people probably wouldn’t notice it, but when it pops up, my brain immediately replaces any details of the scene I’ve been imagining with a vision of a cartoon character– specifically Roger Rabbit or Wile E. Coyote– with an open mouth a mile long.
Does anyone else have this problem or is it just a me thing?
Have I ruined it for you now?
What I'm Reading
Here are three recent books where I've read this phrase:
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai — This! Book! A quietly devastating literary thriller that’s one part campus novel, had me rapt from the first page. Because of the writing, but also because the first page mentions Lerner and Lowe's Camelot, the current broadway cast album of which I cannot stop listening to, so much so that I did a free trial for BritBox on Amazon so I could watch the 1967 film adaptation, which was swoony and campy and glorious.
Okay, but the writing in I Have Some Questions for You is so lyrical and specific that I felt rooted to the place and story. There are sections where the narrator slips into second person that initially made me gasp– in a good way! Second person (addressing the reader with the pronoun "you") is extremely hard to pull off well. It it did so much to capture my curiosity in the early chapters. This is one of those books that will stay with me for a while.
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren: I will preface this by saying that somewhere in the time I moved to Los Angeles, I became a fan of the Bachelor franchise. Last year, I read a novel called One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London, in which a plus-sized blogger goes on a Bachelorette-type show. It was a heartwarming blast. So when I saw that the premise of The True Love Experiment was that a romance author goes on a dating show and falls for her producer, I thought, that book is for me, and I was right!
Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder: In Ava Wilder's first book, How to Fake it in Hollywood, a CW-type actress agrees to fake date an Ethan Hawke-type A-list actor to rehabilitate his image and increase her own star power. In Wilder’s most recent book, two former costars, and former lovers, reunite for the final season of their once hit show. The book is told from both of the costars' points of view, with occasional flashbacks to when they were together.
If it isn't clear, I love novels about fictional celebrities and TV shows.
Some others in this realm that I have loved and recommend:
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center - I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and read it in one sitting when my internet went out on a weekday. Hannah, a female bodyguard is hired to protect Jack, an actor with a mild stalker. But Jack is heading home to visit his sick mom and doesn’t want his family to worry, so naturally, Hannah has to pretend to be his girlfriend.
This book is SO delightful. A true rom com with all the tropes. I think about it all the time.
The Idea of You by Robinne Lee - I actually sat on the floor and sobbed after I finished this one. A chic, divorced, 40-something gallerist takes her teenage daughter to a boy band concert (think One Direction) and forges a connection with the 20-something lead singer (think Harry Styles). The book is set against the backdrop of all the fabulous places they travel, it's also... very steamy.
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan - In stark contrast to The Idea of You, I found this book incredibly soothing. A screenwriter writes an autobiographical script based on her marriage and divorce. The film is shooting on location at her house, and the actor playing her husband ends up staying with her and her (charming!) family. Romance ensues!
What I'm Writing
There are many days where my brain does not want to turn on. It is tired from my day job, from the news, from living my life. It does not have the energy to make things up. When this happens, I go for a walk– the movement of my body jumpstarting my brain.
It’s annoying when exercise is good for you, isn’t it?
There’s this route I like to walk on weekends that involves trudging up a hill where there are a lot of nice houses. Some have gates, some are hidden behind walls of flowers and rose bushes. I’ll listen to a podcast– the ones with two friends talking about movies or wholebrities or books— recently it was an interview with Emily Henry. Or occasionally music: cue Foolish One (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault).
As my brain unfurls and relaxes, I open the Notes app and thumb out some ideas for where I can expand my current novel. Think backstory, or pieces of dialogue. I have so many scenes written up in the Notes app from my walks or from those nights where my brain fires up right when I’m ready for bed (this happens… too often).
The thing about the Notes app is it’s thrillingly casual.
It’s Not a Big Deal.
I can write the whole scene in lower case. I can stop halfway through and list out bullet points for what I think should happen next but don’t want to write yet. I can make the whole scene just dialogue and not go into the characters’ heads.
In short, because it’s not in the official Google Doc (remember that episode of Sex and the City where Carrie’s Mac dies and she loses all of her columns? Cannot be me), I can do whatever I want!
And that’s freeing for me.
I did this with the first novel too, but I wasn’t as resistant to the page then. This novel (200 pages so far) has been written almost entirely on my phone or in long hand with a pencil in a notebook.
I wrote a whole chapter on a plane from Boston to Los Angeles (I can revisit this the next time I travel, but flying makes me feel weirdly creative).
Writing is hard until you find ways to make it easier.
It doesn’t have to be all “sit down at a typewriter and bleed” as Hemingway said. Though, honestly, it does feel like that sometimes.
A sample of notes/scene titles currently living on my phone:
brother (on a walk I decided I need to dig into the protagonist's family life so I made some notes about her relationship with her brother and gave them a scene together)
BEACH SCENE (i've been going to the beach a lot now that it's summer so i really wanted to set a scene at the beach in this novel!)
ADAM LUNCH (there are several notes that start with "Adam X," he's the primary antagonist so these scenes are more emotional and somehow have been the easiest to write)
Grad Week (this novel, like my last, has a dual timeline set in college, these scenes have also been easy to write)
PS (palm springs, i love moving the drama to a second location)
That's all from me– thanks for reading, and stay tuned!