Latest / Jennifer with Coffee / Jennifer with Coffee - Episode 26 - Writing Update (Solo Episode)

Transcript

Jennifer with Coffee - Episode 26 - Writing Update (Solo Episode) · Jennifer with Coffee

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Jennifer with Coffee, a mindset podcast for people who are looking for real change.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jennifer Lauer, writer, yogi, and fitness fanatic.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Lately, I've been having lots of coffee meetups, long,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: honest conversations that delve into mindset,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: identity, choices, and habits that shape our lives.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I kept thinking how I wanted to share these conversations.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Each episode moves in three beats.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: An inspirational story,
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: an interview with thinkers,
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: builders, athletes, and artists, people who want to share their own transformations.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll end with a brief meditation to practice calming the nervous system.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been connecting with the stories and conversations here,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've also written some fiction that explore emotional spaces.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: One is an AI dystopia, and the others are part of a paranormal mystery series.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're ever curious, you can find them on my website, jenniferlauer.com.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Today's inspo comes from a conversation I was having with a friend after going to
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: a museum about what makes something an effective piece of art.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: In my mind, I think of art as three steps.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes art can get stuck at one level.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Certain levels are more difficult.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's something to think about if you are somebody who makes any kind of art,
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's fine art or if you're a writer or a musician,
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: what What is it that gets your art made?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: What is your process and when do you consider the piece complete?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: The way that I look at it is there are three parts.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, the idea.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, the making.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And number three, the sharing.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is like the ideating, the thinking, the idea.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like as a writer this part is one of the longest because when you come up
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: with an idea for a project you really need to think about
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: if this is something you're willing to commit to in order to get to the third part.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes ideas come and they go and And,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: while it could be a great idea,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: actually taking it through the entire process wasn't meant for you.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know how sometimes a movie will come out and there are three other movies about
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: the same subject at the same time.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: But they were all being made in different parts of the world or different companies
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: and different people were involved.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there is like a collective idea.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm in phase one, the idea phase, is this a story I need to tell?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is this something that I think has legs?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the thinking and idea part can be kind of a long time.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've had ideas that roll around for a couple of years.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: My notes app has about 7 million ideas.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I will say that I've come to a new feeling on when it comes to this phase,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: the idea phase, is I used to think we had limited ideas.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I used to feel worried that If I made something, I wouldn't have another something come up.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now I feel that I will never stop having ideas.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I am not worried about that at all.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: If anything,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: it's filtering through to find the ones I really want to sink some time and energy
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: and effort into because we are so limited by time,
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't think we're limited by ideas.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's just my own personal philosophy.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Phase two, the making.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is when you're actually doing the writing, making a painting.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sculpting the sculpture, recording the song.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: The making part can be like the most fun part or some prefer the idea.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: They like to come up with a really good idea and then muddling through making
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: the piece is really hard for them.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: They all have their pros and cons.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, really enjoy the idea and the thinking part and the making part.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it starts with the idea and then And that brings you
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: to number three I struggled with the most, which is the sharing.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: In part three, you are offering this thing that you made to other people to participate
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is the moment where your work meets an external source.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Releasing a piece of art to an audience, no matter the size, can be a nerve-wracking thing.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's something really beautiful in the response
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: from I feel like it really is the final strokes of the pen,
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: the final bit of a painting is when you share it with someone,
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: how they see it, how they feel about it.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: What they say about it.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many things.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: The sharing, like I said, has been a scary part for me in the past.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some artists,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: like there's this really famous painter who never released any of their paintings.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: They made hundreds of paintings.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I need to look up who this is.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put it in the show notes afterward.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: But there's this painter who made tons and tons of these really Incredible paintings
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: and never, ever released any of them.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Never showed anyone,
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: didn't do a gallery showing,
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: didn't have a social media account or any way for the world to see these paintings
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: until they passed away.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting thought.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Incubator, does a piece of art need to be shared in order to be art?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it does.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the setup I kind of give myself, being a storyteller.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think that a story is really important, but only if someone hears the story.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You could make up tons of stories,
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: and I do, but if you're not sharing them with anyone, is it really a story?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: These are questions I've asked myself.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: The conclusion I've come to about art that works for me is that this art in three parts.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: The idea
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Once you share it with others, it is no longer yours.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Once it leaves my little layer of the making,
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: for better or worse, so someone could hate it, someone could love it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Someone could have lots of thoughts about it.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: The more that someone wants to participate that's up to them.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: For me the sharing is like the moment it becomes a new thing.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Once I've come to I start again.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is just how I look at it and maybe this could be helpful to you.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you ever get stuck in one of these phases and if so how do you push past that
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: and get to the next one?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a fourth part?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you agree or disagree with this?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your thoughts.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is going to be a little bit of a writing process update.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't really talked too much about my process or what I'm working on,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: connected it to the podcast.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: So today I'm going to get into the things that I've been working on as a writer,
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: kind of give you a little peek into that world.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I currently have three projects I'm working on.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I do like to have multiple projects at the same time.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: This works for some people and then some people just think I'm totally loony.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: It works for me.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think what it does is I'm able to work on something And then if I get stuck
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: or bored or whatever, I can move to the next one.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing that I'm working on is I'm revising a feature film script.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited about this one.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: It is a relatively recent idea.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think I came up with it last year.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've basically got the whole thing written.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just have some revision to make a little bit of expanding.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is always my problem as a writer.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I am an underwriter.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can be too brief and concise and not really like lean into any extra peripheral material.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is how I write everything.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that I'm working on and you'll see there's going to be a theme
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: with all three of the projects that I'm working on.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very excited about the story.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It has themes of friendship and coming of age.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's mostly a friendship story, but that's all I can really say right now.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: The next one is a book and I've been working on this for about two years.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had it pretty much written.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's gone through some revisions.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: The main problem with it has been the structure.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, I'm doing a little remodel on this book.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I always start with third person and I always end up in first person, which is a lot of work.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't recommend it.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: However, that is just what keeps happening with these books.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I'm like, I'm going to write a third person story.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: First just feels closer,
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: you know, and I have to make some decisions if it's going to be dual POV.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: That one is taking up the most of my time.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I also have a similar thing with the film script that I'm working on where I need
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: to make it One of the little tricks that I've heard,
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: which I'm kind of leaning into along the way,
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: is really lean into the emotional scenes,
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: those big pivotal scenes,
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: and that has been really helpful to me because I think sometimes...
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: I will jump in and get to the meat of the scene and leave off the edges.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of like making a sandwich and then cutting off the crust.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some people really enjoy the crust.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: They enjoy the edges,
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: letting characters move around in their discomfort,
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: move around in their big emotional scenes,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: give more to them, allow the reader to really be immersed in the world.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is something that I'm really working on with this.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Really, I just need to pick my structure, my mechanism, finish this and get it out there.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that one I'm really excited about.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It is a fantasy novel.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: The third project is the next book in my Strange Chronicles series.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I have books one and two are out and book three.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what has happened with book three is This series is a five book series.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Five are planned.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: It may go on beyond that.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: This project all started with a podcast, the Strange Chronicles podcast.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a fiction podcast.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: There are 10 episodes.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So each episode was standalone.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's sort of like an undercurrent of the broader story of my characters.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast was really a workshop.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: As I was making the episodes...
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was writing them really quickly and getting them out very quickly.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: What started with maybe three stacked episodes.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Once we were airing them once a week, you know, that time went by so fast.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I caught up with myself and I was like really struggling to get them out
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: because they were released around the holidays.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I've really just wanted to get that Christmas episode out by Christmas,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: which was the final episode.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wanted it to have its Doctor Who moment.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that I did because the Christmas episode is definitely the most listened to of the pod.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I really love these characters.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Strange Chronicles centers on Detective Gray Cooper.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: She is a paranormal detective.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Her buddy, helper, insurance agent, Joe Nebraska.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's kind of got like a little scully on her shoulder and a little molder on her shoulder.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I very much was inspired by The X-Files.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: I loved that show.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I loved how some of the episodes were just about whatever cryptid storyline of
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: the week and then some of the episodes were about the government conspiracy and And
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: the kind of through line of his sister being abducted.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Having a detective investigating paranormal crimes.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Each episode is a standalone and I wanted that for the books as well.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the book series, I wanted to kind of talk about the origin of The Strange Chronicles.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like how did The Strange Chronicles come about?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast starts, each episode is a different case itself.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted the same thing for the book series.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to kind of tell the origin and also have that sort of one-off feel so
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: that you could read a book and it's just going to be one case.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also a lot of other things going on.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I will remind you of in each book.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you could kind of pick up any book,
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: but it's also satisfying for somebody who reads them in order.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: When I set out to write this series, I planned for five books.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the five books will get you to...
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: The beginning of the podcast and then the plan was if there is a demand
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: for it I'll write more strange chronicles that are just case files that happen after
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: the podcast.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was the ultimate plan.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: What has happened with book three is as I'm drafting this book I also went into
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: a deep research because the subject matter of this one's different.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Book one is the alien book Book two is the vampire book.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And book three, what can I say about it?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to tell too much, but it's the asylum book.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I heard about a real life paranormal thing that I wanted to include into this third book.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been doing all of this research,
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: got in the weeds with the research,
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: which actually I'm not mad at because I'm really excited that this one is going
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: to be Extra.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Every book I researched.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: First one I did a lot of research on the alien cases and there's like some mentions
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: of some government agencies in that first book that really exist.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: I referenced things that are true to life.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: I like to kind of mix in the fact and the fiction.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is a whole new kind of subject matter that I'm looking into.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, I go off on these little side quests, finding information.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully it will enrich the story and make it more interesting.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: I also realize, too, since I had set out these five books...
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of backstory and a lot of family information to do with Gray.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So Detective Gray Cooper comes from a paranormal family and I get into it
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: with her mother and And her grandmother.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Her dad also.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of family secrets come out in this third book.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: They need to because book four and five are just like a lot of the paranormal
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: of her bigger story.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: The government conspiracy episodes kind of explode in books four and five for
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: the Strange Chronicles.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Although they still will have that case at the center.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: The mystery being solved completely.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: That will also be there.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely the underlying personal story gets really big.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: The first two of this series,
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: and I was planning for all five to be novellas, so they're nice quick little reads.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if book three is going to be a novella or a full novel yet because with
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: the amount of work I'm doing so far,
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: it seems like this one could be a little bit bigger.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: My idea of what is long always ends out shorter than I think.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's my writing update right now.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So revisions on the feature film,
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: remodeling on the structure of the fantasy novel,
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: and really deep into some cool real-life paranormal research for book three
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: of Strange Chronicles.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: All I can say is all three of them I'm super proud of, super excited for.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like they could all be coming out kind of at a similar time.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Aside from the feature film, obviously that will take more time to produce.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: The books might be coming out close to the same time.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned for that.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have any questions about Writing,
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: what it takes to get your project through those three parts of the art that I talked
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: about in the beginning in the inspo.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always open to hear.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can reach me on my Instagram at jenniferlauer or on The Delicate Papers, my newsletter.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Answer any questions you might have or cheer you on in your process.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's all for now.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: I will talk to you soon.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today's breaths are grounding breaths.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want you to think about connecting to your inner groundedness, the steadiness inside.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: When you plant your feet firmly on the ground, the inner calm that you feel.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Everything will work out as it should.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And all is well.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Inhale.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hold it at the top.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And slow exhale.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Inhale again.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hold it at the top.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Exhale.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: One more inhale.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hold it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Exhale.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Remember to stay grounded in your own calm.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be well.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Jennifer with Coffee.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Follow us on Instagram at jenniferwithcoffee and on Substack.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a Kings of Content production.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Music by Oreo CC.