Hi friends. I keep thinking about how I want to reboot this newsletter — what the big idea of it all is — and sometimes I think the answer is just to scale it down entirely. Stop trying to frame it in some digestible narrative and just talk very simply about what you’re doing.
Jami, I’m not a writer, but for some reason I love your weekly updates. I do make things (I’m a potter), I also have a weekly newsletter I write of my own, so maybe I am a writer…in any case, these newsletters make me feel less alone in my struggle to figure out the world and my work, and I appreciate you put into it.
These first few lines, are, for some reason, the bit that made me finally become a paid subscriber. I think I often feel pressured to write in the context of some larger narrative, so the idea of just boiling down to the simple facts of what I'm doing felt, for me, timely. It's strange what piques our interest, isn't it?
"When we are making our art we must bend all of the resources and possibilities to work for us, not the other way around."
Felt this today! Thank you for sharing as always. I agree with Tim down in the thread that "This book, this fucking book" would look great on a sweatshirt or t-shirt.
I look forward to your newsletter and always always come away with a sense of writers' community and ideas to chew on. Thank you for that and for being there! (And most excellent on solving problem #1. I've been noticing that as soon as I say an issue/problem out loud, some sort of answer or lead comes. Kinda like my brain goes, "oh, wait, you wanted an answer? I didn't hear you so well before. Here you go.")
This is the one that signed me up to compensate you for letting me be inside your head with you. Your posts are terrific. I’m writing but not the 1,000 words. But I’m so happy to be involved with you.
I love the open, companionable way you talk about your writing—you honor it (without, you know, going all high-priestess-of-art) . It makes me want to get back to work! Thank you!
Jami, I'm so grateful that your newsletter popped up in my inbox today. I have COVID. My husband has COVID. He was in hospital last week for five days and we are both gutted...exhausted...shunted sidewise by a virus that we avoided for more than two years thanks to our vaccines and boosters. My plan for last week—to get some substantial new writing done on my novel—was also shunted sidewise. Now all I can do is hope for enough energy to get through the day. But then I read your newsletter and I was reminded that I'm writing a novel! I'm a writer! I'm ill right now, but I'll get through this and get back to it. This has been my particular problem. And while it's in no way solved yet, your newsletter reminded me of what I was doing before I became ill.
Hi Jami. The best to you with your book. You've got me thinking about my father whose middle name was Rocco. Love the name. My grandmother named him after San Rocco, protector of travellers, of people infected with the plague, and who is the patron saint of dogs, no less. 8/16, his bday, is the day the annual Feast of Saint Roch (Rocco) is celebrated. The name is of German origin and means to rest, which is what I want to do today, but having read your post, I am going to work on a poem instead. I will consider today to be the first of my newly devised writing calendar. TY! And I adore what you mentioned about writing being "just the story you're telling." This simplifies everything. Have a lovely week as well. Teresa
And are we going to have to read the book to find out? I guess so! Anyway, what are they reading, seems so important to me, too, even if, as you describe, your character is just going to put the book in her bag and not read it. Maybe especially then! In the book I'm working on, there are three women, a mother and her two grown daughters. They read, but not the same things. The younger daughter says to her older sister, you never read enough, but she does read, it's just, not the literary fiction her younger sister reads, and that whole conversation was important to who they are and how they see themselves and you can bet I spent some time on the titles.
I'm dragging a bit, so I hope reboot for the next #1000 words. Thank you for this morning's craft talk, for #1000words, and, as always, for Sid pictures, this time with cute special guest.
Hi everyone! I solved problem #1. Please read this thread! https://twitter.com/jamiattenberg/status/1551566005704577027
Jami, I’m not a writer, but for some reason I love your weekly updates. I do make things (I’m a potter), I also have a weekly newsletter I write of my own, so maybe I am a writer…in any case, these newsletters make me feel less alone in my struggle to figure out the world and my work, and I appreciate you put into it.
These first few lines, are, for some reason, the bit that made me finally become a paid subscriber. I think I often feel pressured to write in the context of some larger narrative, so the idea of just boiling down to the simple facts of what I'm doing felt, for me, timely. It's strange what piques our interest, isn't it?
Thanks for all you do!
"When we are making our art we must bend all of the resources and possibilities to work for us, not the other way around."
Felt this today! Thank you for sharing as always. I agree with Tim down in the thread that "This book, this fucking book" would look great on a sweatshirt or t-shirt.
"Thanks for showing up" gave me goosebumps. Thanks for giving us a place to be.
"This book, this fucking book" feels like the perfect thing for next summer's sweatshirt.
I have been fondling calling my WIP a “novel-creature” for the last six months because “novel” felt somehow not quite right.
I look forward to your newsletter and always always come away with a sense of writers' community and ideas to chew on. Thank you for that and for being there! (And most excellent on solving problem #1. I've been noticing that as soon as I say an issue/problem out loud, some sort of answer or lead comes. Kinda like my brain goes, "oh, wait, you wanted an answer? I didn't hear you so well before. Here you go.")
This is the one that signed me up to compensate you for letting me be inside your head with you. Your posts are terrific. I’m writing but not the 1,000 words. But I’m so happy to be involved with you.
I love the open, companionable way you talk about your writing—you honor it (without, you know, going all high-priestess-of-art) . It makes me want to get back to work! Thank you!
Jami, I'm so grateful that your newsletter popped up in my inbox today. I have COVID. My husband has COVID. He was in hospital last week for five days and we are both gutted...exhausted...shunted sidewise by a virus that we avoided for more than two years thanks to our vaccines and boosters. My plan for last week—to get some substantial new writing done on my novel—was also shunted sidewise. Now all I can do is hope for enough energy to get through the day. But then I read your newsletter and I was reminded that I'm writing a novel! I'm a writer! I'm ill right now, but I'll get through this and get back to it. This has been my particular problem. And while it's in no way solved yet, your newsletter reminded me of what I was doing before I became ill.
So thank you.
-Marci
Hi Jami. The best to you with your book. You've got me thinking about my father whose middle name was Rocco. Love the name. My grandmother named him after San Rocco, protector of travellers, of people infected with the plague, and who is the patron saint of dogs, no less. 8/16, his bday, is the day the annual Feast of Saint Roch (Rocco) is celebrated. The name is of German origin and means to rest, which is what I want to do today, but having read your post, I am going to work on a poem instead. I will consider today to be the first of my newly devised writing calendar. TY! And I adore what you mentioned about writing being "just the story you're telling." This simplifies everything. Have a lovely week as well. Teresa
And are we going to have to read the book to find out? I guess so! Anyway, what are they reading, seems so important to me, too, even if, as you describe, your character is just going to put the book in her bag and not read it. Maybe especially then! In the book I'm working on, there are three women, a mother and her two grown daughters. They read, but not the same things. The younger daughter says to her older sister, you never read enough, but she does read, it's just, not the literary fiction her younger sister reads, and that whole conversation was important to who they are and how they see themselves and you can bet I spent some time on the titles.
I'm dragging a bit, so I hope reboot for the next #1000 words. Thank you for this morning's craft talk, for #1000words, and, as always, for Sid pictures, this time with cute special guest.
"Everything is a problem until you solve it." THAT is going on the wall above my laptop.
as Tim already said here Thanks for giving us a place to be
Maybe an AS Byatt novel ? Possession was popular early 90s.