We Are Having Fun Now! 💃🏻

No second-guessing with this pond novel. Just writing new words each day, building on the words from the day before. Some days there aren’t a lot of words, but it’s because I’m taking a long walk and talking to a friend, not because I’m staring at a word processor, waffling. Feels good to move forward.

I made this chart to track my progress, because I like the visual representation of momentum.

We’re still at the very beginning, so there are story decisions being made every day. We decided to shift the setting to central or western Massachusetts, which, if you ask me, will necessitate at least one research weekend this fall. Berkshires, here we come! Then we decided that the camp at the center of the novel will be, specifically, an Irish folk music camp, because I used to sing in an Irish folk band and I want an excuse to submerge myself in that music again. With every choice that must be made, my instinct is to move toward fun.

There’s a pond novel playlist in the works. We’ve got a mood board. I’m researching weird bugs of Massachusetts and loving every minute of it.

Some recommendations:

• I’m not the first one to say this because it was longlisted for a National Book Award this week, but All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews is really, really good. Like, really, really good.

• I recently subscribed to Marlee Grace’s Monday Monday and it’s full of juicy creativity vibes.

• Incredibly talented artist and all-around wonderful human Kelly Bjork just restocked the iconic Butt Island print so get it while it’s hot!

Love to you all. ♥️

p.s. Next week I am getting into themes of the new novel, so make sure you are subscribed…