There was hardly any traffic out, and the night was still and peaceful. Olive turned on the radio, eventually finding an instrumental Christmas station. The song was “Away in a Manger”. It made Olive smile as she sung along. “When I was four years old, I sang this as a solo in church,” Olive explained. “I’m not making this up, but I remember someone telling my mom ‘she’s going to be a star someday.’” Her eyes were watering. “I know this is going to sound strange but I miss what things were like nobody knew my name. When I was just a kid with a guitar and a notebook and a dream.”
It's the winter of 1990 in suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Olive Sherman is a sophomore in high school, spending all of her free time writing songs, practicing guitar, acting in school plays, and dreaming of something more. She's might be the prettiest girl in school, but she still doesn't quite fit in. Her heart, mind and soul are elsewhere. When she gets an opportunity to perform in a community talent show, she doesn't think much of it. But important people are in the audience.
Spoiler! :
So, I am still not committing to write a full novel this month, not yet anyway, as it is a big undertaking. But, I know that I want to write this novel, and I know that I have a story here, and at the very least want to spend time figuring out what that story is going to be. When it comes to writing, I am most definitely a pantser. I was forced to outline all throughout college, and I don't like doing it, it doesn't inspire or stoke my creativity.
That being said, there are a few things I want to figure out this month. I posted before about finishing a draft of So Long, Farewell, but that's already done, but the fixes I wanted to make turned out to be a lot easier than I had anticipated, and I want to get feedback before I can do more, and maybe start writing some chapters, or maybe just go full chaos.
A few things I need to figure out:
1) The narrative structure of the book. Right now I'm leaning towards either a third-party biography of Olive. There isn't a equivalent word for "Mockumentary" but for a biography, but yeah, basically that. I don't think I'll want it in first person but I still want to keep things structurally fairly similar to All Our Yesterdays so they feel like they're in the same universe. I get the sense that this a non-linear narrative, I don't think I'll go first but we'll see. I know I want to end in 1998 or 1999 (after the December Star Oscar ceremony, so that Cole isn't even a factor.
2) Olive's rise to fame, and the specifics of her career. All Our Yesterdays is perfectly very non-specific about what Cole's music actually is, and it's less so for Olive. I think she always acted and wrote songs and played guitar. It makes sense that someone like her would get her break a Disney channel type show.
What I know for sure
1) Her daughter, Amelia, is not the first time she was pregnant. I think she probably had an abortion when she was a teenager, but I need to figure out the details of this.
2) She's from a working class, "white trash" family. I need to think about how this would affect her and bleed into her music. I do know that this would essentially be her character's path in December Star, so she'd be able to relate to it for that reason.
3) She has ben through hell in life, and I think was probably sexually assaulted at least once. I want to tread very carefully along social issues
4) She was probably introduced to alcohol and drugs very young
5) Her real name is Olive Sherman. I played with the idea of having her birth name be Olivia or have Olive be her middle name, but honestly, I like the idea of her having a unique and punchy name that showed she was born to be a star.
6) I'm leaning towards her having a Black boyfriend that the parents aren't too thrilled about, who I think is a great love of her life before she meets Ryan (her husband in AoY) and probably her muse for her songs. I think he is "the one that got away" and I want to make sure this portrayed with nuance and depth.
In regards to abortion and SA, I want to be very, very careful about how I tread with this stuff. I don't want to throw it in there for the sake of including social issues, only I know they're things she likely would have experienced, and I want to make sure it's represented properly.
Goals for this month
1) Live in the 90s a bit more -> The One I Loved alternates between 1989 and 1996, and All Our Yesterdays is 1999-2007, and this will be 1990-~1998/99.
2) Figure out the key characters and framing device/structure of the story, and post here as I do for accountability's sake
3) Research more into the personal lives of famous female pop stars, specifically Britney Spears and do some deep dive into fame in general
3) Write some? We'll see!
Anyway, it's going to be fun. It'll be a fun way to further develop this world while also creating something that can completely stand on its own. There's a part of me that feels like maybe I should be doing a completely original work instead of this. However, I also felt guilty for going so deep into the Eagle Rock world when I wrote the two sequels instead of something else. If anything I think this world is going to be stronger for it, like that series is.
I'm also still making it my goal to finish a draft of the feature adaptation! 42 pages in. Let's go! Whatever happens with all of this, I'm submitting the novel to the editor in January and publishing next summer. Things are going to happen no matter what.
More to come...
All Our Yesterdays Stuff
Cole's poetry
Main Spotify
Olive's Mixtape
Which All Our Yesterdays character are you?
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