How We Are Wired

A writing prompt for the weekend.

This Sunday I’ll be in conversation in New Orleans with Daniel Kraus about his new book Angel Down at Blue Cypress Books at 5:30 pm.

This is a long ways away but I woke up this morning excited about it so I thought I’d mention: I’ll be reading with my buddies Maris Kreizman and Jason Diamond in Brooklyn on October 20. Save that date for a real good time.

You can find all other events for me here and if you’d like to order a signed copy of 1000 Words or any of my 10 books, order here.

---

Hi friends.

I had to take a few days off to do other things and clear my head for a second. Everything’s fine, but sometimes a lot of things happen at once, even if it’s just that I’m having a bunch of ideas. As it turns out, I’m writing something new, and need to have my mornings free to let my brain hum, and also I did a long podcast interview this week, and another interview for a magazine about a friend’s work, and then when I sat down to write to you I could not quite find a way to swim through it all to get to the finer point I wanted to make. It’s just how I’m wired. I have to write the thing that’s first, that’s right in front of me, before I can get to anything else.

And I am too generative right now—sometimes you just need to be—to refine the ideas. My brain wants to be wild and free and on fire. So things will be a little loosey-goosey in my communication with you for the next few weeks. I may send out some letters from the deep archives that some of you who are new here might have missed. I will keep things light. We all have plenty to do these days anyways, I think.

And if you want to join me in one of these wildly generative moments, I’ll be doing another Mini 1000, which runs from August 15-17.

But I do have a writing prompt for you today. One that occurred to me this week and which I gave to myself. It was so generative and simple and easy that I thought you might enjoy it too.

I had to go to the mall this week to run an errand. In summer I always find myself drifting to the mall a little bit more because of the air conditioning and also because it feels so familiar to me. At my core, I am a suburban girl. This is part of my youth.

Malls are a part of my source code, I was thinking to myself as I drove out there. Part of my fundamental programming. I’m a Midwestern Gen-X lady, after all. I grew up a half hour from Woodfield Mall.

So then, in the parking lot of a mall in the suburbs of New Orleans, I found myself brainstorming other parts of my source code.

Swirled frozen yogurt, cold and covered in sprinkles. Tall, nervous men who like indie rock. Dusty mass market paperbacks you can buy for a quarter. White v-neck t-shirts, worn and shrunk and fresh from the dryer. Slow walks around the block at sunset because that’s all there is to do. Dogs, any kind at all. Dark, rumbly dry laughter. Crinkle-cut french fries. Cigar smoke. Leather backpacks. The game of Scrabble. And willow trees.

So what’s your source code? What are the things that are quintessentially you, that trigger some kind of memory in you, that make you feel a certain kind of feeling. The little details that you always return to in your life, and which you do not question or would try to alter. That are just a part of how you are programmed, how you are wired.

Maybe this brainstorming session won’t lead you to anywhere but a sense of comfort. Take the comfort, though. Take it where you can find it.

Have a nice weekend.

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.