Beth’s story was the last one I came up with, but it makes sense—she’s the quiet one in the group, calmly waiting for her turn, giving others what time and space they need first.
Following Darcy’s unfiltered story, Lauren’s driven (if stumbling) journey, and Zoe’s foray into new experiences, Beth finds herself a bit at a loss. Not only is her pursuit of love going, well, let’s just say it’s not going that great, she’s also in a professional rut. And everyone around her seems to be improving aspects of their lives in a way she’d like her own to change, but it’s simply not working out.
I guess that Beth’s story, in a way, came to be from the personal experience of having friends venturing into different projects and experiencing very different things: moving, getting married, having kids, changing careers, and other significant changes.
While I’m not Beth and I haven’t based her on anyone I know, I can, in a way, understand why she showed up in my mind. Well, this is actually true for all four ladies and every character that inhabits each of the stories, but I digress.
In any case, Beth’s job came to be because I have designer friends and I could send many, many texts and voice notes asking about the profession (so I really hope I did an acceptable job with the portrayal). Cody’s job, pretty much the same (I’m fairly certain I annoyed a person or two with my questions, but it is what it is and in any case I enjoyed the conversations a lot, so there’s that).
And while I started developing the story during Covid and since then AI has changed things in a way I don’t super love, I chose to ignore both the pandemic and all the current changes we’re facing. Why? Well, I chose to ignore Covid in Everlong, so the timeline didn’t work to add it in The Nearness of You, and I didn’t feel like rewriting the whole story after the final draft had been done. I wanted Beth to have a simpler time—she’s already coping with plenty.
And if you’ve followed Patton Oswalt’s standup shows, you’ll know that I “borrowed” (can’t think of a better word) part of his experience of losing his wife and breaking the news to their daughter. The way he described the situation and the reasoning behind it really resonated with me—I still remember it years later. I guess I felt that Beth’s mom would act similarly. I hope it’s okay and that I haven’t offended anyone.
Beth’s story brings the series (which, as a single book, was titled Everything’s Fine, Thankyouverymuch) to an end that I’m quite happy with. Hopefully the ride’s been as good for you reading it as it was for me to write it!
