Hi friends. I am going to Europe on tour, can you believe it? It’s true. I was supposed to do this exact same tour two years ago, except twice as long. We are all just dipping our toes in the water of public events — with great care. I am hopeful and optimistic things will work out.
Thanks for sending me back to the pile of words that is my WIP, created last summer during #1000wordsofsummer. "The desert. Years later, she can still smell it. Rocks, sand, the hot breath of the earth. The sandalwood incense they’d burn to cover up the stench from their unwashed bodies and clothes, from the latrines out back. Frances’ White Shoulders perfume—the cloying smell of gardenias laced with musk, like Frances herself—sweet but strong."
Jami, your newsletter is really important to me -- and I feel like I get something I need from it every time. Thank you. Since you asked, I'll share that my favorite detail right now in the memoir I'm working on is about the rectangle of gauze a nurse used to wipe tears from my face before surgery. How it was rough on my face and moved my tears around my eyes, rather than absorbing them. It brings me joy to think about the roughness and softness of the gesture and how probably a hospital is one of the few places someone might try to dry your tears with this kind of fabric. I'm going to think about this thing you mention -- if maybe there's a way to call back this feeling, this meaning of the hole-y gauze, this fabric meant to mend us. Anyway, I'm thankful for you today and if I ever meet you out in the world, I promise to say hello. <3
The last 1000 words jaunt really got a lot of work done for me, so thank you. I just added a slew of details about a character, all at once:
“He saw my uncle on the courthouse steps and told him he needed a job, any job, so my uncle brought him home. His eyes were very blue, and so small. He had such little, little blue eyes! He always wore alpargatas. And he had a hump on his back that he said was from a tree falling on him. His room was on the top floor, next to the furnace. He had to put coal in it all day, to make the water hot for the house. It was so hot up there, I don’t know how he could stand it. Every morning he came downstairs at five and made the table for everyone, and after, when everyone was gone, he took all the leftovers to his room and ate them.
He told us that he had walked from Columbia to Ecuador through the jungle, and that he had to kill a tiger. And because he killed it, he ate the meat. Whenever someone woke up in a bad mood, and acted ferocious, he asked, ‘What did you eat last night? Tiger meat?’”
Thank you for the duck dish moment. All of the joy I find in writing comes from those intimate observations of something new to me - even though I have seen, heard, smelled, or felt it 1,000 times before. That's how I know I am in the present. Safe travels!
I love this idea, like a comedian with a perfect callback joke to close a set. My favorite detail from my current project is a nickname - and the inappropriate level of intimacy that it indicates between the two characters.
I needed to read this today, because what I read in Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD yesterday also reminded me to capture the details that crack a scene open. Trying to paint a delightful woman:
“I shared an adjacent cubicle with a woman named Cat who would sometimes paint her toenails or alter dresses for her clothing line on her desk. She talked fast and loudly and laughed as if this job could kiss her whole ass at any moment.”
I wish you were coming to Amsterdam! I've been doing #1000wordsofsummer for the last four years, so it would be great to hear you talk. Those events and the newsletter make me feel like a distant friend is helping me out. But Germany isn't too far to go!
My favorite detail right now is about someone seeing a punk show for the first time, the energy and the people. I haven't looked at that scene in months, so this week I will go back and see what to add.
I wish you were coming to Amsterdam! I've been doing #1000wordsofsummer for the last four years, so it would be great to hear you talk. Those events and the newsletter make me feel like a distant friend is helping me out. But Germany isn't too far to go!
My favorite detail right now is about someone seeing a punk show for the first time, the energy and the people. I haven't looked at that scene in months, so this week I will go back and see what to add.
Hi Jami, I get something from every one of your newsletters. Thanks. I find the sense of community that #1000words engenders a great motivator, am looking forward to this years event! Any chance you could travel to Dublin after Belfast?
I was writing a scene about how in middle school, in the early nineties, we traded boyfriends like the Lip Smacker flavors we kept lodged in our back pockets. Then I was remembering that it was actually Kissing Coolers. I went back and adjusted. Lip Smacker still seem to exist. Kissing Coolers I believe are no longer available. It targets the specific time frame perfectly. Anyone remember Kissing Coolers? :) I kept them also in my Caboodle.
"Beautifully fucking askew" on a T-shirt. I can see it. <3 Thanks for this.
Thanks for sending me back to the pile of words that is my WIP, created last summer during #1000wordsofsummer. "The desert. Years later, she can still smell it. Rocks, sand, the hot breath of the earth. The sandalwood incense they’d burn to cover up the stench from their unwashed bodies and clothes, from the latrines out back. Frances’ White Shoulders perfume—the cloying smell of gardenias laced with musk, like Frances herself—sweet but strong."
Jami, your newsletter is really important to me -- and I feel like I get something I need from it every time. Thank you. Since you asked, I'll share that my favorite detail right now in the memoir I'm working on is about the rectangle of gauze a nurse used to wipe tears from my face before surgery. How it was rough on my face and moved my tears around my eyes, rather than absorbing them. It brings me joy to think about the roughness and softness of the gesture and how probably a hospital is one of the few places someone might try to dry your tears with this kind of fabric. I'm going to think about this thing you mention -- if maybe there's a way to call back this feeling, this meaning of the hole-y gauze, this fabric meant to mend us. Anyway, I'm thankful for you today and if I ever meet you out in the world, I promise to say hello. <3
The last 1000 words jaunt really got a lot of work done for me, so thank you. I just added a slew of details about a character, all at once:
“He saw my uncle on the courthouse steps and told him he needed a job, any job, so my uncle brought him home. His eyes were very blue, and so small. He had such little, little blue eyes! He always wore alpargatas. And he had a hump on his back that he said was from a tree falling on him. His room was on the top floor, next to the furnace. He had to put coal in it all day, to make the water hot for the house. It was so hot up there, I don’t know how he could stand it. Every morning he came downstairs at five and made the table for everyone, and after, when everyone was gone, he took all the leftovers to his room and ate them.
He told us that he had walked from Columbia to Ecuador through the jungle, and that he had to kill a tiger. And because he killed it, he ate the meat. Whenever someone woke up in a bad mood, and acted ferocious, he asked, ‘What did you eat last night? Tiger meat?’”
Thank you for the duck dish moment. All of the joy I find in writing comes from those intimate observations of something new to me - even though I have seen, heard, smelled, or felt it 1,000 times before. That's how I know I am in the present. Safe travels!
I love this idea, like a comedian with a perfect callback joke to close a set. My favorite detail from my current project is a nickname - and the inappropriate level of intimacy that it indicates between the two characters.
I needed to read this today, because what I read in Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD yesterday also reminded me to capture the details that crack a scene open. Trying to paint a delightful woman:
“I shared an adjacent cubicle with a woman named Cat who would sometimes paint her toenails or alter dresses for her clothing line on her desk. She talked fast and loudly and laughed as if this job could kiss her whole ass at any moment.”
I wish you were coming to Amsterdam! I've been doing #1000wordsofsummer for the last four years, so it would be great to hear you talk. Those events and the newsletter make me feel like a distant friend is helping me out. But Germany isn't too far to go!
My favorite detail right now is about someone seeing a punk show for the first time, the energy and the people. I haven't looked at that scene in months, so this week I will go back and see what to add.
I wish you were coming to Amsterdam! I've been doing #1000wordsofsummer for the last four years, so it would be great to hear you talk. Those events and the newsletter make me feel like a distant friend is helping me out. But Germany isn't too far to go!
My favorite detail right now is about someone seeing a punk show for the first time, the energy and the people. I haven't looked at that scene in months, so this week I will go back and see what to add.
I have no detail to share, but I am SO EXCITED to get to see you in London!
Hi Jami, I get something from every one of your newsletters. Thanks. I find the sense of community that #1000words engenders a great motivator, am looking forward to this years event! Any chance you could travel to Dublin after Belfast?
such a good idea
any Berlin dates on the agenda?
I was writing a scene about how in middle school, in the early nineties, we traded boyfriends like the Lip Smacker flavors we kept lodged in our back pockets. Then I was remembering that it was actually Kissing Coolers. I went back and adjusted. Lip Smacker still seem to exist. Kissing Coolers I believe are no longer available. It targets the specific time frame perfectly. Anyone remember Kissing Coolers? :) I kept them also in my Caboodle.