The Daydreams
On the term yar, former teen stars and "having written" embarrassment
I’m in a group chat, filled with mostly people I don’t know, called “Notable Words.” The sole purpose of this chat is to text a word, and everyone either likes or dislikes it on the basis of whether they think it’s notable.
It’s random, and I love it.
Here are some recent examples of notable words I’ve liked in the chat:
chicanery
moribund
juvenilia
accouterments
palimpsest
There’s one word I sent to the chat that was mostly disliked that I’m still not over….
That word was yar.
It’s a nautical term that refers to the readiness and preparedness of a boat. It means she’s in shipshape, she is seaworthy. She’s giving SAIL AWAY WITH ME AND NEVER LOOK BACK!
What is not to like about this word?
Some of you have never seenThe Philadelphia Story and it shows.
What I’m Reading
The Daydreams by Laura Hankin - Every book Laura Hankin writes is a treat. They’ve all been so different from one another, but I know whatever the story is, I’ll be in good hands. The Daydreams is my favorite of the three I’ve read.
Four teens on a Glee-like show reunite for a reunion special 14 years after their disastrous series finale sent them all spinning in different directions. There was so much in here that had me in my feels in a way I did not expect to be!
For one, it’s largely a reckoning for how we treated the teen stars of the early 2000s (abominably, if you’ve forgotten). The way society at large feels it has a right to a woman’s body, the way it’s shaped and the way it’s used. The thorniness of jealousy within female friendships, the way (for so long…) we were conditioned to hate other women. But like in a fun, contextual way!
I felt so connected to these characters and the twists and turns of their friendships, I may or may not have teared up more than once.
Once More With Feeling by Elisa Sussman - Two former pop idols who had a romantic falling out back in the day, find themselves working together on a broadway show. This was the perfect hangover cure for The Daydreams, fluffy and easily consumable, like a short stack of pancakes. I basically read this in two sittings. This is also how I consumed Sussman’s first book Funny You Should Ask about a Chris Evans-type and the journalist who wrote a feature about him that went viral reuniting ten years later for another feature. And, perhaps, a second chance at romance.
Sea Wife by Amity Gage - I mentioned how much I liked the structure of this one last week, but I finished and loved it as a whole! It’s about a family that takes to the sea, with very little prior experience sailing, as their marriage is unraveling, and the aftermath of their voyage.
Another book about complicated friendship dynamics:
How Could She by Laura Mechling - Three former coworkers in their mid-30s find themselves realigning loyalties within their friendship now that they’re all living in the same city again. This book is filled with real talk about friendship and culture and media (they worked at a magazine). I found all of the women to be relatable and their friendships felt so real and lived in.
Another book in which a woman takes to the sea:
Float Plan by Trish Doller - I read this last year on a plane coming back from Hawaii. It was the perfect antidote to my leaving-paradise-blues. Think the romance version of Sea Wife.
After her fiancé dies, Anna decides to take the sailing trip they had planned together, but after one night on her own, it’s clear she is not equipped to captain the boat herself, so she hires Keane at a port to sail with her. Both going through their own kind of grief, they find solace in the sea, and each other (someone should hire me to write tag lines).
What I’m Writing
I finished the first read through of Novel 2, and I’m at the point where I’m not entirely sure this story will make sense to anyone who isn’t me. Like when you’re telling a story and you start to loose your audience and you realize it’s because you simply had to be there. But the there is inside my brain.
I’m wondering if the whole story happens too quickly, but when I looked back at my notes, the point at which I had commented “this might happen too fast…” was on page 99. So then the question becomes, why does it feel like we haven’t earned this yet? Perhaps I need to slow all the action down, to savor it. But then again, maybe it needs to be this propulsive to get us where we need to be by the end.
Pacing is tough!
You can’t give away too much too soon, but I have a lot of plot to get through and sometimes I feel impatient about just... getting to it.
We’ll see what happens when I let someone else read it (which won’t be for a minute because i’m also at that stage where i am deeply embarrassed by having written– does anyone else get this or is this a ME problem?). They might be like, and this is a direct quote from a note I got on Novel 1, “It's clear that you know the characters well, but sometimes that doesn't convey to the reader” (hi coleman). Novel 2 has been easier in that regard because I am only writing from one point of view, but I’m not sure if her relationships to the other characters are coming off the way I want them to.
Time will tell (i’m feeling slightly insane but it will wear off in a few days. it’s weird when half your brain is living in a fictional place).
An incomplete and growing list of my synonym searches:
insane (i’m always saying “that’s insane” but that’s not what i mean)
looming (this has a negative connotation that i am not looking for)
leaning (i always fallback on leaning…. lol)
heat (i read too many romance novels, it’s all heated face/skin etc.)
sliver (still unclear what i am trying to say)
sharp (what i meant was piercing)
Other recent searches:
Last names like Loesberg (this is the actual last name of my thesis professor which i use for the name of a thesis professor… i decided i’m just going to keep it, honestly there is no way he would ever read this…)
good french merlot wine (my jaw dropped when i found a bottle listed as $199.99)
names like stephen (just not it)
names like chelsea (i used this same name for several random characters???)
Unrelated to anything, while I was scrolling through my photos, I found one I took of my kindle screen (LOL) with this quote from The Rachel Incident that had me clutching my chest when I read it–
And the kiss was like– what was it like?
It was like finding your very favorite pair of boots under the bed. It was like finding them on the last day of your lease, the boxes already in the van, having assumed that they must have been left at an ex-lover’s house, or simply vanished by your own carelessness. Oh, these. Oh. Oh. I love these.
That’s all from me… stay tuned!