tall order

putting these poems/stories in order has been harder than I thought

If you’ve been keeping up, you know I recently finished the draft of my collection of poems and short stories. And after a break where I recovered from feeling burned out and the craziness of the holiday season, I’m back at it.

So I got some painter’s tape, made an espresso, and started taping my poems to the wall (something I’ve always wanted to do because it looks so satisfying). And it was satisfying.

I also went through an initial round of edits while I went through my printed poems. While putting each individual piece in order, I thought this was going to be pretty easy, but it was trickier than I realized! I didn’t want to section the book into just happy stories, then sad stories, and so on. I wanted them to weave in and out of each other (so no one section was too depressing). I wanted to create ups and downs, just like life—since these poems and stories are all inspired by life. The wonderful, the wild, the exciting, the raw, the rage-y, the mystical, and the unreal.

Some stories were so similar in theme or lesson that I didn’t want them to end up too close to one another. And another couple poems are related, but I didn’t want those next to each other either. I wanted the reader to come to the realization they’re related without making it so obvious.

what I’m learning?

There is no right order and there is no wrong order.

Many poems and stories would work in a lot of different orders and between many different stories. The order that I’ve landed on as of right now—I believe—is the one. I don’t doubt that I’ll switch a story or two here and there, but I am confident enough in the order I have that I can start dragging and dropping each piece into a formatted document.

You know what that means!

But if you don’t, I’ll tell you…

That means I’m thiiiiis much closer to getting the exact dimensions for my cover, so that part can move forward soon.

And I’ve tackled (or started) some of the other tasks too; the copyright page, author bio, acknowledgements page, and an author’s note. We’re getting so close gang!

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I’m revealing my release date soon—stay tuned!

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Raise your demitasse cups,

Natalie