Loveday Writing

I tried my best to progress Letters to a Future Me, but in all honesty I couldn’t.

The idea had developed, I knew I wanted to begin each chapter with a certain event going on in the girls’ lives, with the first one being Brooke’s wedding. Each word that I tried to write felt forced and contrived and in my heart I felt that I couldn’t continue with it. Even if I fail to meet the minimum word limit for NaNoWriMo, I want my heart to be in it and it wasn’t possible with this idea.

But I didn’t want to give up completely, so I tried to think of other ideas I have worked on. I decided to go with my idea, originally titled, ‘Eleven Lives and Loves’, which is the story of Lorraine Ramieres and her 10 adult children. I’ve changed the title to ‘How We Got Here’, the novel will be ten interconnected short stories in epistolary form and will revolve around Lorraine’s wedding to her long-time love, Travis Lincolnson.

The ten interconnected stories will be letters to Lorraine from all of her children, focusing on a crucial moment both in their individual and family’s lives.

I wrote a brief blurb (which is very rough) on the NaNoWriMo website about the novel, which you can read below:

 

Lorraine Ramieres is marrying her long time love, Travis Lincolnson, at 49, with her adult children in attendance.

But Lorraine isn’t your average bride-to-be, she is the mother of ten adult children, having her first at 17 with her first love and eventual husband, Markus Ramieres. After experiencing the unexpected but unconditional joy of being a mother to ten children, she experienced tragedy when she lost Markus, two years after the birth of their last child.

Lorraine thought she would never find love again after the loss of her husband and tried her best as a mother, but questioned her abilities. What she doesn’t know is that all of her children have written letters to her, detailing not only their love for her but what the defining moments of her motherhood and their family were to them.

From the eldest, Michael, who took on the fatherly role after Markus’ death, to the third-born Gwendolyn, who courted controversy when she fell in love with uni professor,  to the youngest, Bethie, who never knew her father. How We Got Here tells an uplifting story of unconditional maternal love and the ups-and-downs of large family life.

 

This novel won’t be completely epistolary, the prologue and the epilogue will be told from Lorraine’s perspective. I have already written the prologue, but I can’t include it in my word count as I wrote it in March. The novel will continue with Michael’s short story/letter to Lorraine.

Stay tuned….