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Wellll, I listed it all last night in my journal – one of the tasks was to answer that very question! I am so much more open to just trying new things with my art, and am more receptive to opportunities as they crop up. I feel brave enough to look at my pieces in progress with a critical eye, and trust that it’ll improve. I also am actively reaching for community and making, constantly.
Here’s a list of everything I’ve done since beginning the book in January (pandemic slowed my roll and turned this three month thing into a six month one…):
– I finished a short story I’ve spent nearly 2 years on (and dramatically revised it until it’s essentially a new story)
– I started another story
– I finished novel edits
– I submitted a Zoom play for consideration
– I re-taught myself guitar
– I wrote new songs with my husband
– I taught myself the glockenspiel
– I’ve started dreaming bigger about my career and future
– I’ve decided to move to Spain in the next 12-24 months
– I started a new yoga habit
– I did a whole alkaline body cleanse
– I asked for a raise with one of my clients
– I quit a “safe” client that wasn’t serving my further ambitions
– I got back involved with community theater
– I started studying Spanish again
– I finally started advocating for my own schedule instead of catering to others’It’s a long list, but that’s all the ways I’ve grown in six months! I would have been happy to do a third of that in a year before the book! Everything just feels so possible. It’s a revolution, seriously. And those health things may seem irrelevant, but they feel so closely aligned with my creative capacity. I can’t add enough exclamation points!!
Hi, sweet friends!
No publication news – but submission news. After literally years of tinkering with this short story, I have *finally* sent “Such a Peach” off into the void. Y’all have all probably read it at least once at this point.
But Joe H., you recently gave me some advice that completely changed its trajectory. A few months back you mentioned the lack of consequences in my piece, so I started thinking about the different ways consequences would impact the story, and have ended up with something completely fresh and (I think) much more successful.
Anyway, I just submitted it to three different places for consideration, and wanted to 1), thank y’all for helping me out with it so much off and on, and 2), put the PDF here if anyone were so inclined to read it to see how much it’s changed!
I hope everyone’s doing as well as you can in all the mayhem, and are carving out moments to write.
<3 <3 <3The Artist’s Way is on that list, and let me tell you – I’m on Week 10 of it right now and it has very thoroughly changed my life! I can’t believe it!
I seriously can’t recommend it enough, for everyone here. Super revolutionary (if a little woowoo at times).
Wow, Joe! That’s wonderful that you have at least a point to start with and so many words fluttering around. It sounds like you need to look at your story from a whole new angle. Maybe writing each scene on a post-it or index card could help you figure out how to best rearrange them into a plot and arc, or writing letters from one character to another to better understand the shapes and sides of your story. It’ll come, whatever it’s supposed to be. It sounds like you have no lack of ideas and possibilities in this world you’re building.
I know exactly what scene LeGuin was talking about when she described that passage of Woolf’s. “Orlando” changed me both as a person and a reader, which in turn shaped me as a writer. LeGuin’s right, she does transport you somewhere new. It’s so beautiful to think that Woolf’s fantastical understanding of the past shaped LeGuin’s versions of the future. We’re all just carving worlds out of worlds and drafting something fresh out of old feelings again and again and again and…
If you ever want to have a Zoom talk to just kind of unload all the ideas and see if you could arrange them in any direction, I’d love to talk.Ohhh, that’s too spooky. I don’t think I could read that book right now, but I imagine others will find a lot of dread/solace in it!
Joe, I love this poem, even in its draft state. The budding stress of just being in line, and even our strange camaraderie, all bleeds through. I also think you’re capturing that same heart Pound was talking about with charity and life. Your personal necessities were so relatable, and spoke to those indulgent parts of us that I hope we’re all honoring right now. It’s a beautiful draft :).
We are all creating something right now – even if it’s just reflections to polish in a kinder time. You’re absolutely right: the “more” will come. Now we just have to navigate this shaky future with a pen in our pocket to jot down any observations we can.
I actually started using an app I used to use years ago called One Second Everyday, and it’s been helping me find moments of joy each day. Like the title says, you just take a one second clip every day, and it will compile those for you into a month or year-long video. It’s a really beautiful little way to showcase your daily life. So far, I’ve had a lot of peace from it. Sometimes, it reminds me to just do something beautiful or step out for some fresh air. It could be nice for other people right now, too.
Hey, Joe!
Sorry to be so late to the game. I’m sure you know exactly what I mean when I say that time is irrelevant and feels like some kind of slinky that’s trapped me and I can’t figure out how to rearrange myself and straighten it all out. So, I’m just now getting to this, despite checking the forum being a thing that’s graced my to-do list for about two weeks now.
You are always so full of insight and reflection, and have a handful of quotes by your elbow at all times. It’s admirable and soothing, especially now. Miller’s advice is so true. We need to fill our cups and draw from the well of life if we’re going to write about it at all. Maybe, instead of thinking about what you should write about, you should follow Hemingway’s advice and write down the truest sentence you know – and just let the rest flow. Sometimes even just writing by hand for the sake of writing, free of a finished product, can be enough to remind you that yes, you’re a writer and yes, your time will come when it does!
I’m honestly aghast that I had *no* idea LeGuin wrote a book on writing. I have to order it and read it as soon as possible! It makes me happy to hear you’re getting so much out of her words.
Likewise, I listened to Saunders read his story on The New Yorker podcast last week. It was a little too apt, but reminded me, at least, that we get to keep writing and keep making art.
I hope this week has gone a little easier for you, and been gentle and kind.
It really does feel wonderful to hear from others that it’s okay to just move on when stuck. I know that this short story I’m still *almost* finished with is one I’ve been working on off and on for two years! I’ll pick it up, set it down, and then come back to it when I feel ready. I finally feel like this is the last iteration.
That research for your new book sounds fascinating! I’d love to hear your book idea and how it’s going. And what serendipity about Le Guin. She’s one of my favorite authors. Her books stir me. They’re concise and revolutionary in one go, and that magic is hard to come by. I’ll have to read the book you’re reading – I didn’t even know she wrote a book on writing, to be honest, so that’s a big one for me.
Isolation is hard, but I’m glad you and your family are taking care and doing what you need to. We’ll all come out the other side together 🙂
Hi, Sally!
I think there’s totally no pressure to write right now, and that we’re all a little stuck. I’m full of ideas that are half-formed and get caught against my teeth before emerging. I think that’s pretty normal.
I’ve never read any of those books! If I had to choose one, which one would you say I should pick up?
Likewise, I haven’t been able to write anything about COVID, although I definitely admire folks who can. That poem by Mahon ripped through me! There’s definitely just a jumble of grief, staring into space, and refreshing my news feed all day. It’s not exactly healthy, but I think we’re doing our best, right?
Gosh, a week goes by without responding, and in corona-time it feels like a month.Thank you. I can’t wait to give this the proper attention it deserves this evening! I’ll circle back with my thoughts – and I’d love to hear yours, if you have any!
I am so guilty of this – and the way the quotes allude to the glory that’s just out of reach speak to what I’m attempting to work through now. I have a goal this week to finish a short story I’ve been working on for nearly 2 (two!) years now. It’s not that I haven’t worked on it, it’s that I understand I can do better, if I only put a few more hours into it.
I thought writing as a job and cranking out articles on topics I love would help, but instead I find myself spending hours on an article, aching over each syllable…for a vibrator company.
It’s exhausting. The past few weeks I’ve thought a lot about the way perfectionism has held me back, and in just a few weeks since trying to break that habit, I’ve finished two songs with my husband (that I wrote), auditioned for two plays, and picked up a novel I started last year that I’d been too scared to dive back into. It’s a slow road to recovery, but one I’m learning to let myself embrace.
Thanks for this. A brilliant (and scalding) reminder to keep myself moving forward.
