I love this so much. This happens to me all the time—the “main” project (that feels right on paper) ends up just being a decoy for my brain to find the “actual” project (that feels right in my soul). Sometimes I think about this as the doodles my brain makes in the margins of my notebook. The doodles always reveal something I didn’t even know I was thinking about.
On a personal note, I’ve been reading Craft Talk for years and this is my first time commenting. Thank you so much for all the love & wisdom you pour into these letters.
I'm working on final edits for my memoir in poems and I keep getting new, but actually very old material trying to push in. I keep asking thesr stories to wait, thinking they must be linked to the next project I'll work on after this book is done. But after reading your note here this morning, I can't help but wonder if what they really want is to be included in this book. (Which isn't at all what you're sharing but somehow resting your thoughts are bringing this up for me) I've thought about it before but it would be so much more work to incorporate it all, and it would take the book into a whole other place and dimension, it's hard to tell if it needs it's own space to breathe, to be it's own weird and wild story. So I guess what's happening while I'm doing something else today is that there's these pieces of these stories I've written, which I call my subconscious dream stories that want attention. And for some reason I'm feeling the need to share that here!
I always find my writing goes better when I let myself pursue the things I'm most drawn toward.
Also, as far as things happening when we're busy doing something else, I find that's so true in life in general. I'll have things I want in life—relationships, work stuff, etc.—and often it's when I stop trying to make them happen and focus on something else that they fall into place. This is why I love writing: so many lessons that apply to life more broadly.
I am about to tackle a rewrite. I’m on version 7 and had an editor give a fresh read, which is just what I needed. I flounder in the rewrite stage, get too attached to things, don’t know what’s not working, and lose my way. So, I’m going to print it out and read it like a reader, lay the whole thing out on the floor, look at each chapter, highlight, make notes, and get to work.
I hope your rewrite goes well! I still haven't printed mine out because I'm tweaking scenes! I can't stop trying to get it "perfect" before a major rewrite. Good luck to us both.
This is exactly how I got the idea for the book I am just muddling my way through writing now. I saw an interesting piece of news that turned out to be fake (!) and then two random comments and they all coalesced and sent my imagination set off down this scary path of writing again. It is absolutely my “escape from the present tense” (such a glorious phrase, Jami) and my goal is to touch it every day. Not necessarily 1000 words but some words, some planning, some opening of the document that triggers the need to save it.
"It feels like falling in love again. It calms me down to have a new project, a place to put all my energy and feelings and ideas." I love this, it's so true. I'm still trying to get in the groove of editing the novel I've been working on and still haven't quite found the rhythm for the process.
I'm working on the discipline of finishing, so am tying up a small booklet of poems - a collection of "right in front of my face"s from over the last ten years. I'm looking forward to completing that (almost closure in a sense to that chapter of my life) and being ready to "fall in love again" with what's next.
I'm still casting around trying to find the right new project. Do I revise and finish the existing book I've put down for the last couple of years? Do I pick up one of the other projects? Because I'm not itching to do any of these, I'm thinking no. But I'm also aware that I need to start moving on something. Maybe the answer is "Action inspires motivation" rather than sitting around waiting for inspiration?
I submitted the first draft of my MFA thesis novel yesterday and plan to spend my October doing revisions on a novel I wrote outside of my program. Very different projects and nice to jump between them only when I have a long stretch of time.
I too have been chipping away at a nonfiction/memoir-shaped book, but like you said, I too may not be quite ready to go there yet. I'm also in the final stages of my second children's book. And there's an older fiction project that snuck back into my world recently that keeps coaxing me back to its streets. It's not my usual fare, but... it's just so... Fun. And if I can find the voice again I think I'll return to it. Because we always take things so seriously with writing, don't we? And I feel like sometimes it just needs to be fun. Bring us joy. And give us somewhere where the stakes are a little lower than pouring our entire souls into the work. Sometimes we need a break too lol.
I’m having a hard time knowing what’s right in front of my face . Sometimes I have so many things floating through me, I don’t know what to write . It’s as if I have too many options and my brain can’t settle on anything. So instead, I get overwhelmed and do nothing . Although, I think I’d also like to hide in fiction a while longer . Just having a hard time getting started . For what it’s worth, I don’t think it makes you a coward . ❤️
I was going gangbusters on a nonfiction piece this summer, and then suddenly it stalled, and I don't know where to go with it. It's not supposed to be about me, and yet I need to figure out where my own viewpoint is situated in order to have the voice that will bring it to life. Hoping that if I keep circling around and poking it something will occur to me. But I do keep poking.
I’m trying to figure out how to balance my life so that writing my own work is a consistent part of it. I have a short story finished recently and have dozens of poems that need to be edited/organized, plus another short story idea and a whisper of a nonfiction book that I have been outlining- and I am struggling to commit and really dive in.
I’m working on a sequel of sorts, or at least with the same cast of characters so there’s some connective tissue. It also wants to come out in third person following multiple characters which I have not done before so it feels exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.
I love this so much. This happens to me all the time—the “main” project (that feels right on paper) ends up just being a decoy for my brain to find the “actual” project (that feels right in my soul). Sometimes I think about this as the doodles my brain makes in the margins of my notebook. The doodles always reveal something I didn’t even know I was thinking about.
On a personal note, I’ve been reading Craft Talk for years and this is my first time commenting. Thank you so much for all the love & wisdom you pour into these letters.
Aw! Thanks Dylan!
I'm working on final edits for my memoir in poems and I keep getting new, but actually very old material trying to push in. I keep asking thesr stories to wait, thinking they must be linked to the next project I'll work on after this book is done. But after reading your note here this morning, I can't help but wonder if what they really want is to be included in this book. (Which isn't at all what you're sharing but somehow resting your thoughts are bringing this up for me) I've thought about it before but it would be so much more work to incorporate it all, and it would take the book into a whole other place and dimension, it's hard to tell if it needs it's own space to breathe, to be it's own weird and wild story. So I guess what's happening while I'm doing something else today is that there's these pieces of these stories I've written, which I call my subconscious dream stories that want attention. And for some reason I'm feeling the need to share that here!
I always find my writing goes better when I let myself pursue the things I'm most drawn toward.
Also, as far as things happening when we're busy doing something else, I find that's so true in life in general. I'll have things I want in life—relationships, work stuff, etc.—and often it's when I stop trying to make them happen and focus on something else that they fall into place. This is why I love writing: so many lessons that apply to life more broadly.
I am about to tackle a rewrite. I’m on version 7 and had an editor give a fresh read, which is just what I needed. I flounder in the rewrite stage, get too attached to things, don’t know what’s not working, and lose my way. So, I’m going to print it out and read it like a reader, lay the whole thing out on the floor, look at each chapter, highlight, make notes, and get to work.
I feel this deeply as I'm working on edits and feel like I often lose my way. I hope this rewrite goes well for you using this fresh perspective!
I hope your rewrite goes well! I still haven't printed mine out because I'm tweaking scenes! I can't stop trying to get it "perfect" before a major rewrite. Good luck to us both.
This is exactly how I got the idea for the book I am just muddling my way through writing now. I saw an interesting piece of news that turned out to be fake (!) and then two random comments and they all coalesced and sent my imagination set off down this scary path of writing again. It is absolutely my “escape from the present tense” (such a glorious phrase, Jami) and my goal is to touch it every day. Not necessarily 1000 words but some words, some planning, some opening of the document that triggers the need to save it.
"It feels like falling in love again. It calms me down to have a new project, a place to put all my energy and feelings and ideas." I love this, it's so true. I'm still trying to get in the groove of editing the novel I've been working on and still haven't quite found the rhythm for the process.
I'm working on the discipline of finishing, so am tying up a small booklet of poems - a collection of "right in front of my face"s from over the last ten years. I'm looking forward to completing that (almost closure in a sense to that chapter of my life) and being ready to "fall in love again" with what's next.
I love this!
I'm still casting around trying to find the right new project. Do I revise and finish the existing book I've put down for the last couple of years? Do I pick up one of the other projects? Because I'm not itching to do any of these, I'm thinking no. But I'm also aware that I need to start moving on something. Maybe the answer is "Action inspires motivation" rather than sitting around waiting for inspiration?
I submitted the first draft of my MFA thesis novel yesterday and plan to spend my October doing revisions on a novel I wrote outside of my program. Very different projects and nice to jump between them only when I have a long stretch of time.
I too have been chipping away at a nonfiction/memoir-shaped book, but like you said, I too may not be quite ready to go there yet. I'm also in the final stages of my second children's book. And there's an older fiction project that snuck back into my world recently that keeps coaxing me back to its streets. It's not my usual fare, but... it's just so... Fun. And if I can find the voice again I think I'll return to it. Because we always take things so seriously with writing, don't we? And I feel like sometimes it just needs to be fun. Bring us joy. And give us somewhere where the stakes are a little lower than pouring our entire souls into the work. Sometimes we need a break too lol.
I’m having a hard time knowing what’s right in front of my face . Sometimes I have so many things floating through me, I don’t know what to write . It’s as if I have too many options and my brain can’t settle on anything. So instead, I get overwhelmed and do nothing . Although, I think I’d also like to hide in fiction a while longer . Just having a hard time getting started . For what it’s worth, I don’t think it makes you a coward . ❤️
I was going gangbusters on a nonfiction piece this summer, and then suddenly it stalled, and I don't know where to go with it. It's not supposed to be about me, and yet I need to figure out where my own viewpoint is situated in order to have the voice that will bring it to life. Hoping that if I keep circling around and poking it something will occur to me. But I do keep poking.
I’m trying to figure out how to balance my life so that writing my own work is a consistent part of it. I have a short story finished recently and have dozens of poems that need to be edited/organized, plus another short story idea and a whisper of a nonfiction book that I have been outlining- and I am struggling to commit and really dive in.
That’s where I am!!!!
I’m working on a sequel of sorts, or at least with the same cast of characters so there’s some connective tissue. It also wants to come out in third person following multiple characters which I have not done before so it feels exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.
Congrats Jami! Over here...seems like I am finally about to have an in person writing group again, and that is lovely!
Oooh I’m so happy for you!
Just started something brand new last night. The idea has been swimming around in my head for a little bit. Book seven, here we go!