The novel beckons
I said I’d give the summer to essays, and there are a few essay drafts I’d still like to button up and get out there, but now it is fall and the novel beckons.
Not the pond novel (sorry to my agent), but my bigger project, the one that haunts me. I do think, when making art, it makes most sense to give into your own perseverations.
The question now is how to approach a project I’ve been away from for so long. I have over 100k words. In the spring of 2023, I sorted them into “keep,” “working,” and “cut,” and the “keep” section is about a quarter of that. The reckless part of me wants to burn it all down and start from scratch, but then I dip in and out of chapters and realize there is still magic here. Do I read the whole thing and try to figure it out, like a puzzle? Or do I trust the obsession that’s pulling me back in and pick up where I left off?
I was talking to my sister yesterday and she mentioned that she has been doing a specific kind of therapeutic journaling for thirty minutes every morning, following a protocol that purports to help with chronic pain. What she described sounded very much like morning pages, and it made me wonder if I should recommit to morning pages, though I can’t stand them. Maybe even do The Artist’s Way, the whole 12-week shebang. I’ve been out of any sort of practice, and consistent practice is what a novel needs.
I like to begin things with the beginning of a month. Perhaps Tuesday, October 1. (Have you done The Artist’s Way? Do you do morning pages? Do you detest them also?)
This week in Leave news
Another yes from a blurber!
Most of the rest of my to-dos need to wait until the preorder is live, and then there will be a flurry of activity.
This week in writing
I’ve been traveling for work and not writing much, aside from tinkering with my Rockford essay and taking lots of notes on my phone.
This week in reading
The good thing about traveling is lots of time on trains and planes to read. What I’m loving lately:
Log Off by Kristen Felicetti, which takes the form of a teenage girl’s early 2000s LiveJournal
100 Swims: Last Summer’s Diaries by Hurley Winkler, a documentary zine about living a creative life
Sad Grownups by Amy Stuber, a story collection with some truly fantastic characters
An Image of My Name Enters America by Lucy Ives, an essay collection that comes out October 15 is so, so good
Love to you all,
Shayne