You Wrote Those Sentences and No One Else

I’m launching this new novel of mine across America, starting on September 22 with a party in New Orleans with Patricia Lockwood (tickets), a reading in Boston with Courtney Sullivan, and then a chat in New York City with Mary H.K. Choi (tickets). You can find all my dates here.

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Hi friends.

I woke up this morning and it was 71 degrees and I was like that’s it, I’m calling it, it’s fall. Even if it’s only fall until noon, when it’s back to eighty degrees again, it sure feels like a season change to me. So I put on my favorite pair of Marni pants that I always put on the first day of fall. God, I love those pants.

I got them at Bird on Grand Street (RIP you and your beautiful overpriced clothes) at a closet sale the owner threw as a fundraiser for Cynthia Nixon’s gubernatorial race in 2018. These pants act as a historical document not just of the time when, out of the blue, the “Sex and the City” lady ran for governor of the state of New York, but also of a moment where I was still spending enough time in Brooklyn where I could casually go to sales like these and find a perfect pair of pants I will probably own for the rest of my life. (“What do you miss most about New York?” “The sales.”)

They are magic pants. They fit me well no matter my weight. They are navy, they are wide-legged, they are made of a thick cotton, they look great with sweaters or long sleeved shirts but tank tops not as much, mostly because they feel incongruous to the material. These pants are cozy as fuck. So they are fall to me, and I love them and I was happy to put them on this morning.

I thought about clothes and what they mean to my characters as they change their appearance over forty years in my new book. If you are into thinking about fashion and how it impacts the lives of women in particular, I just thought I’d mention it.

And also if you are looking for a writing prompt this morning, I’d suggest a deep dive into thinking about what you or a character you are writing is wearing.

It’s all just another way into the emotional truth. A peek behind the scenes.

Anyway so we are onto fall here, and thinking about it in terms of writing and creative cycles. It’s such an excellent time to assess where you’ve been and where you’re going. Shift things around. If you amassed a big pile of words this summer and you’re trying to figure out what to do with it and you’re at all feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone.

Today might be a good day to sit down and think about the thruline of your project. Hunt for it in the text, maybe. What I did a few weeks ago, as I was revising the first third of my novel-in-progress, was I looked for sentences I liked in it. Sentences I was proud of, that spoke to me. They sort of brighten for you on the page.

Sometimes we have to stop producing the words and reflect on what we’ve done before we can progress. It’s OK to take a beat and look around. You’ve been working hard. And you wrote those sentences and no one else. A little burst of pride could take you to the next place with your work.

OK that’s it for me this Sunday. I’m going to go walk these streets in the best pair of pants I own.

Jami

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