Joining me today is my friend NC Barton, author of The Now In Forever, a romance set along the picturesque Oregon Coast. We discuss her process, inspirations, and how a working mom finds time to write.
Watch or listen to this podcast at the options provided. I think you’ll enjoy our chat.
Edited excerpts of our conversation:
SER: Can you tell us a bit about the book, what inspired it, and the process in writing it?
NC BARTON: Yeah, definitely. It was inspired by the Before trilogy, the Richard Linklater movies. Have you ever seen those movies?
SER: Yes.
NC BARTON: Yeah. Thank you. A lot of times I’ll ask that, it’ll be crickets, and I’ll be like, oh, no.
SER: They actually tended to come out literally with developments in my own life. So the first one, I was in college. And then the second one came out right after I met my wife. And then the third came out right when my son was born.
NC BARTON: Yeah, I love those movies.And so it was kind of inspired by the first movie and the second movie, mostly because they agree to meet in six months. And then in the second book, like she tracks him down at his book signing. And you find out they didn’t meet in six months and whatever.
And so in my book, the two main characters are Hattie and Ed. They spent a perfect day together 10 years ago. And [like in Before Sunrise], they agree to meet in six months, but through circumstances, they don't.
It’s a dual timeline. So you get to see snippets of their perfect day and what happened there. And then snippets of the present timeline where after the book signing, they go their separate ways again. Then a few years later, they’re kind of stuck together on the Oregon coast with a group of friends for the summer.
SER: Have you ever had a perfect day?
NC BARTON: You know, I’ve had some perfect moments. I think it’s hard to carry a whole day. You know, that’s a lot of pressure. I’ve definitely had perfect moments, and maybe through the haze of nostalgia and retrospect, it feels like maybe it was a perfect day.
SER: You have a job outside of writing, you have a family. How do you find the time?Virginia Woolf said you could only write fiction with a room of your own and a lot of money.
NC BARTON: I do have a room where I can shut the door but that’s not where I write because that’s not where it is accessible to me. I write at four in the morning because my daughter is an early riser. If i wake up at four, then I’m up before her for maybe an hour or sometimes two. Now sometimes she sleeps in until like six, which is amazing.
So that gives me like a chunk of time in the morning where I get to write in my own brain space and with silence and coffee.
It’s not sustainable for like everybody and not everybody is a morning person, but I naturally wake up early, so for me, it really sets the tone of my day really nicely where I got to do something on my own and I got to do something that I chose to do. So that’s how I fit it in.
I just kind of chip away at it. I can’t set super lofty word count goals because I don’t like failing. So usually if I’m in the middle of a project, I’ll set like a thousand words a day, and that’s pretty doable for me. I use Scrivener, and as soon as you set your word count goal, the little bar turns green. As soon as it turns green, I’m good. And eventually you get a book.
SER: What are some other works in the genre that have inspired you?
NC BARTON: I have read Beach Read by Emily Henry probably 10 billion times. I reference it in this book even. I love it so much. And I love it because she takes all the tropes that we all love, but they feel new and they feel refreshed. They feel so real with the characters that she builds up.
And the way she uses language is amazing. Like even in the first page — “sunlight lances through the car window” … That’s so wonderful. That’s so lovely. Her writing just elevates everything.
I’ve also read One Night On The Island by Josie Silver a billion times, and that one is so good. It has a large cast and has a found family kind of feel to it, but it never feels too large and each character feels really distinct. I feel like that’s a really hard thing to do. It is a romance, and you do get the happily ever after, but it almost feels more like a heroine’s journey. She’s looking more to find herself than to find the partner, which I find interesting. It’s also set on a fictional island, which is just gorgeous.
You can connect with NC Barton on Instagram at ncbartonwrites. Check out her own newsletter,
