Bleeding Between the Lines - Karaoke Night

A behind the scenes look at my first novel and how it came to be

In terms of publishing, I was something of a late bloomer, seeing my first book come to fruition at the tender age of 51. In the 7 years since, I have published a lot and made a lot of great author friends along the way. The latter has been my favorite part of this journey, as I get a little glimpse inside the minds of the people whose work I admire. I am endlessly fascinated by the writing process of others and where their ideas come from. With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to create a series where I talk about all of that stuff for each of my books, so let’s head back to the beginning with Karaoke Night.

Where the Idea of Karaoke Night Was Born

The first seed of an idea came while out drinking with a pair of friends. One of them is a musician, and we got talking about his performances, specifically how it feels singing the same songs over and over again. This got me thinking about karaoke and how the singers tend to stick to one specific song. Is it because they know it so well or because there is a deeper meaning. I went with the latter, and an idea was born. I would tell the stories behind the songs in a series of short tales.

Random Facts About the Process

The easiest way to organize these thoughts is with bullet points, so let’s go that route:

• From about age 13, short stories were my thing, so I decided to make Karaoke Night a collection of shorts.

• Since NaNoWriMo had always been a goal of mine, I spent a few weeks outlining prior to the Nov 1 start date.

• I wanted 10 songs, but only really had ideas for about 3. I had my wife read out a list of the top 100 karaoke songs, and if an idea sprang to mind from the title, it went on the list of possibles. I ended up with 11, for a reason I will tell you about in a moment.

• I have always believed that dialog is my weakness, so I decided to write the entire book in transcript form.

• I had my graphic designer friend create a cover, and an author friend write a foreword. Having those in hand meant that I would be more likely to push through when I felt like quitting.

• Once the actual writing started, I realized that I was almost unconsciously connecting the stories. That changed everything, and I decided to interconnect them all, which also gave me the ending that I really wanted.

• This decision meant adding another song, but this one came to me immediately.

• When I finished the manuscript, 3 days ahead of schedule, I decided to print a hard copy and set it aside. I did, though, let my wife read it. She pushed me to edit it ASAP and shop it. This was also important, as while she is my biggest fan, she is also my harshest critic and will tell me where changes need to be made.

• Another author friend suggested a small indie publisher to me. I contacted the owner to see if they were interested in an aging unpublished author, which they were.

• After making the necessary edits, I submitted the final manuscript and waited less than a week to receive acceptance and a contract to sign.

I was very lucky to have so many people on my side through all of this, and I believe that I might have failed otherwise. Writing is such a lonely art, but I never once felt alone through the entire creation of Karaoke Night. The book did well and is still my most popular, but that success brought pressure for my next release, which I will talk about next time.