The following post contains spoilers for my new standalone romance, College Town, which I've placed beneath a cut for safe keeping. If you haven't read the book yet, and don't want to be spoiled, backspace now and come back later. If you're looking for a copy of the book, it's available for Kindle, paperback, Nook, and Kobo.
“Can’t have that.”
“Lawson. Do you have any idea how amazing that is?” He tips his head back toward the laptop.
“It’s weird.”
“Yeah, and that’s why it’s amazing. It’s you!”
“Because I’m weird. I get it.”
“No.” Tommy rolls his eyes. “Because it’s unique, and it’s full of your voice, and it’s alive. Your characters feel like people I know.”
“To be fair, there’s a fair bit of you in the Luke Thomas character.”
“Yeah.” Tommy snorts. “That’s kinda hard to miss.”
You know me: I love a good flashback. There's not much I love more about writing than incorporating the past, a character's beginning, his formative years, into the present action so that it creates a whole picture. Usually, this involves folding flashbacks and memories into the main action of the novel as I go; it's an organic process, and a spontaneous one: I don't know quite where I'll drop the information in until an opportunity arises within the text.
While the writing process with College Town was still organic in a word-to-word sense, I began it with a very clear idea of how I was going to reveal everything. I wanted to begin with Lawson at Coffee Town, this seeming-screw-up who has somehow not lived up to his potential, and then chapter by chapter we begin to see the whole picture. It was important to me to reveal Tommy as a kid, first, and, going forward, to carry that dual portrait for a stretch: Tommy the kid, and Tommy the wealthy adult. I wanted those sharp contrasts that slowly merge and blend until the audience can see that, like Lawson, he's fundamentally the same person, but heavily shaped by circumstance, and guarding himself carefully.
By the time we get to the scene in the teaser above, Tommy's deep-down sweetness and personality are shining through in full force - though there are still reveals to come. Twist ending, anyone? I loved having that ace up my sleeve and holding onto it until the very end.
With further regard to parallel flashback/present day structure, I felt it was important to spend the flashbacks building slowly to "the breakup," and then actually show the breakup in the midst of the present-day reconciliation; Lawson gets to look back at the past alongside the audience, and finally understand what "I can't" meant, armed with all these new revelations.
The other reveal - not as dramatic, but also important - was Lawson's father. I didn't want to info-dump the fact that his father is living post-stroke, and struggling with mobility and communication straight at the beginning. There's a quick mention of "Nancy," and the "chair." But we don't see or hear much from Dad until Tommy's fully back in the picture. It's a weightier reveal in that way: the audience understanding just as Tommy does.
I would say that all of my writing is purposeful: I'm very particular about my prose, and I say what I mean and mean what I say. But I'm not much of one for outlining ahead of time. College Town was the first time I did this much pre-planning for a story, and it enabled me to lay out the plot in a more deliberate way.
College Town is now live, and you can grab it at one of the links at the top of the post.
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