My birthday is this month! I finally looked up my moon and rising signs (Gemini and Virgo) though I still have very little idea what they mean. To celebrate another year, I’m doing a giveaway. Scroll down for details under Author Updates!
I usually don’t know what my newsletter will be about until I sit down in front of a Google doc and vomit out some words about Richard Linklater films or dreampop from the 1990s. That’s kind of the way I like it. This is my own free and chaotic space to talk about whatever feels right!
Occasionally, however, that approach will bite me in the ass. I’ve been drafting Book 3 (more on that below) so I don’t have many thoughts left in my head for creative nonfiction-type writing. Yet I’ve managed to send out a newsletter for six months in a row and it would be a shame to break that streak! I also want this issue to be positive-ish so what better use of it than to talk about things that have brought me joy this year?
Drafting without expectations
I keep promising to do a newsletter about drafting, and I’m even trying to take notes and remember what my brain is doing while I’m working on this book. But the truth is I’m not a big person for writing about how I write. Some writers have a tried-and-true Process: they outline every plot point and character arc, they light candles or only draft on the AlphaSmart, they write scenes starting from the climax and working backward, etc. etc. But for me, I’m not sure there is any one set of steps that will work for every book.
I’ll tell you a secret: I had never written an entire original novel before The Other Me1. Sometimes I feel like I should have given myself more practice, but by the time I was trying to get published the book had taken 4 years and I was like Hey, I’m not getting any younger, we’ll just see what happens. If the book that became TOM hadn’t gotten me an agent or found a publisher, I surely would have trunked it and written another2.
So now, writing my third novel, I find myself very much still figuring out how the hell you write a novel. I’m told this is common even among seasoned writers, so I’m in good company. Also, every book is different! The experience of writing my last novel was probably more angst-ridden than it needed to be, so I made a conscious decision to follow my bliss with this one. (A significant part of this is writing all the backstory and sex scenes I feel like, knowing much of that material will be cut—but may find its way into one of these here newsletters.)
Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell, especially the section on first drafts, has been enormously helpful with keeping my process exploratory and fun and the opposite of homework. Is drafting still hard and slow and frustrating? Do I still hit some dead ends? Absolutely. But I think of those dead ends less as wasted time and more my needing to discover what this book isn’t before I can find out what it is.
A big part of finding joy in writing is trusting that even if I get stuck, I just need to keep coming at the problem in different ways and eventually I’ll work it out. Of course, this loosey-goosey writing process is a luxury of not being on contract/deadline so we’ll see how well it works going forward!
The WGA strike is over, and writers are fighting the encroachment of AI on our work
After 148 days (almost five months!!), the writers’ strike finally ended on terms quite favorable to the screenwriters union. I’m not a member, but I believe the conditions screenwriters work under have repercussions for all writers and writing as a profession. Especially of concern was the use of generative AI to replace or devalue writers’ work—including the creation of works that could be used as “source material” for screen adaptations, which might cut down on novels being optioned.
People with a stake in AI (plus those who enjoy trolling tech skeptics) are forever saying that AI is inevitable and we need to accept it and adapt. I mean, okay, but I’m not sure if everyone realizes what will happen to stories once they are so cheap that humans can literally no longer afford to write them (spoiler: nothing good). In addition, AI companies have shown a startling disregard for copyright law in their training of generative AI models, training them on hundreds of thousands of pirated e-books without compensating the authors. So not only are writers training their replacements, they’re doing it without getting paid (or even giving consent). Which is why I’m relieved to see authors fighting back in the courts. AI is already coming for my day job, and I would not make it in plumbing school, okay? I have clumsy hands and no patience for working in small spaces.
Seeing online friends offline
I didn’t do much writing related travel this year, but I did manage to get together with some of my favorite authors this summer! I plan to attend at least a few events in 2024, and I’m hoping to catch up with old friends and make new ones.
Traveling with family
Part of the reason I didn’t do much author travel in 2023 was to save PTO for other trips. We managed to hit places as far away as Tokyo and as close as St. Augustine. I took a long weekend with my mom and sister, which we haven’t gotten to do all together in over a decade, and I had my first East Coast cannoli and learned how to pronounce Faneuil (still not 100% sure I have it right tbh!) Plus the older my daughter gets, the more I appreciate the memories we make with her and the fact that we have the ability to give her these experiences.
Bonus joy: Chris Pine’s coffee run aesthetic
It’s like he knew my birthday was coming up.
Author updates
Congrats on making it through this even-more-rambling-than-usual newsletter! I’m giving away a signed paperback of my debut novel, The Other Me, to a randomly selected subscriber who emails or comments telling me about something that brought you joy this year. (US shipping addresses only, please.)
Request When I’m Her on NetGalley
Are you a NetGalley reviewer? When I’m Her is available for request!
Reading/watching/listening
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I’ve read Charlotte and Emily’s novels, but was inspired to pick up Anne’s by the references to it in Victor LaValle’s Lone Women—which I highly recommend.
The new season of Sex Education is hilarious and delightful and very, very cringey.
I’m reacquainting myself with Lucinda Williams’ entire discography for book reasons and it’s as amazing as I remember.
If you enjoy my ramblings, you might like my books!
The Other Me, which PopSugar called a “Black Mirror-esque rabbit hole,” is an inventive page-turner about the choices we make and the ones made for us.
When I’m Her asks the question: How far would you go to get even with the woman who ruined your life? Out March 26, 2024.
I had written 200k+ of fanfiction, a good portion of that being multi-chapter works with entire plots and character arcs that had nothing to do with the source material, so I count those as my trunk novels.
I probably would not have tried to self-publish, though many authors have found success that way. My book was so weird and between genres that I would have had no idea how to sell it to readers. And although (or maybe because) my day job is marketing-adjacent, I just can’t maintain the hustle when it comes to my author brand (as you can see from my Instagram). I’m lazy af and I embrace it!
Happy birthday!!! I wrote down the title of that Matt Bell book to check it out. I similarly don't always love to write about writing, because like you said, the process is so different from person to person and even from book to book that I don't always know what to say about it that's relevant. Happy I got to be one of the online friends you saw offline!!