How to Get Your Engine Going

Getting back into the work after some time away.

Hi friends.

I took a little time yesterday to drive out to see my friend Douglas Bourgeois, about an hour outside of the city. I met him right after I moved to New Orleans, maybe in 2017, at a talk he was giving at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and we’ve kept in touch over the years. I admire his work greatly. I even bought a piece of his a while back in honor of publishing the 1000 Words book.

During our visit I got to tell him about how that particular artwork inspired something specific in my novel, which is always a fun conversation to have. But then we got to talking a little bit about process, and of course I always love those kinds of conversations between artists of different mediums. Where we intersect, where we veer apart, what we can learn from each other.

We sat in DB’s quiet kitchen that had the same linoleum floor I had when I was growing up. He served me crawfish pies and boudin kolaches. I regret now that I did not take a donut.

“Our Lady of the Monster Beats” from DB’s show “Spirit in the Dark” at the Arthur Rogers Galley

We talked about the challenges of starting over after time away from a project. He told me that for years he had all kinds of saved papers and ephemera, music magazines and the like, back when print magazines were aplenty, and if he needed inspiration getting into his work again he could just sift through them all. Now he has thousands of images saved from the internet that he can just flip through to get his engine going.

I suppose it’s the same for me when I read someone else’s work, even if it’s only a few pages of something. Just reading some good sentences or seeing how someone is setting up an emotional moment or a longer thread in a book can get my brain working.

Just that morning I had been thinking about how to get my own engine going as I start up work on this novel again after some time away. I had brainstormed some ideas and made a list that I thought I’d share. (Who knows if these things ever help, but I like to try anyway.)