What to expect when you're expecting a book.

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So I'm between projects. 

And in between projects? I forget how to work on projects. Between drafts, I forget how to draft. Between books, I forget just how big and comprehensive a book is.

What do you even call that? Work amnesia? I have work amnesia.

I finished my last draft on the 23rd; I'll be starting my next project's first draft on the 15th. 

Are interims ever comfortable? 

The super-nice thing is that I'll be writing the sequel to the first project. (Ooh! Sequel! I've never done a sequel before. I'm having a writer-geek moment. ... ... ... Okay. Done.)

So even though I'm between projects, the conveyor belt of my imagination is still moving forward, pulling in ideas and images, and treasure-hunting in the attic of all my old unused concepts. 

I'm brushing off my "idea files," which have been passively gathering ideas for years. They're like handy little rain buckets. I've been slowly filling them with ideas for names, characters, situations, settings, and images--all unconnected to any particular project.

So as I get ready for this next book, I'm wading through all those words, pulling out the ones that sound and feel right.

All this to say, it feels mysterious, this part of the process. It makes me jittery, edgy, excited. I've never been pregnant in my body, but I've been pregnant in my mind many times, ready to birth a book. And it's an uncomfortable, nervous, bloated, strange, giddy sort of experience.

Not easy. Not straightforward or simple. Definitely messy.

But it's also one of the reasons why I write. I can never be certain what's going to appear in my mind for a story. Every character, every scene, every story has the capacity to surprise and move me.

Oh the unpredictability. It snags my heart every time.

So I'm getting excited for you, oh sequel of mine. I'm decorating the nursery--ahem, I mean the office. I'm pulling out the colors and characters and ideas that I think you'll like. I'll make all my funny faces at you, and I'll sing you crazy lullabies. And we'll figure this out.

Because we always grow up a bit together, these projects and me.

What about you--what are you up to? What projects are you facing? What's incubating in those sticky, in-between stages of development? Uncertainty loves company: let me know what's up in the comments.

You had me at September.

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Oh my gosh. It's finally September.

I belong to that group that counts autumn as their favorite season. I always wish that it were one of the longer seasons... instead of a little blip between sweating and shivering. But I'll celebrate every day of it as soon as it's here!

To be honest, September usually runs pretty warm: we're basically in the upper 70s til October. Seriously. That should not be. 

Summer just hangs on around here. I start getting that itchy feeling you get when you're trapped in a corner talking to someone that mayyyyybe you're ready to be done talking to? That anxious sort of uh-huh-uh-huh-I-really-need-to-move-on-now head nod and wincing grin? 

Yeah, summer. That's what I'm doing. Time to move on.

I'm edging toward fall, as best I can. It's still gonna be awhile before I can get away with wearing an alpaca scarf (rats!), but until then, here's a not-at-all complete list of everything I'll be embracing this autumn:

  1. apple cider

  2. sweaters!

  3. and, of course, scarves, alpaca or otherwise

  4. rainy days

  5. knitting!! okay, crocheting, you too. Let's get granny-squaring.

  6. curling up with an Agatha Christie mystery

  7. (or really, any mystery at all)

  8. watching college football with the fam... yelling at the TV has its therapeutic effect.

  9. long walks in our neighborhood with cooler weather... no more sweating!

  10. frost

  11. watching our sweet gum turn every possible color... 

  12. bringing out all the wintery afghans

  13. that long-division, back-to-school feel in the air makes me feel vicariously industrious

  14. have I mentioned knitting??

  15. pumpkin EVERYTHING... doughnuts, bread, cookies, pie, mashed potatoes (really!), and of course,

  16. the fall coffee drinks. YES. Yes I would like extra cinnamon on top, thank you.

  17. also? MAPLE. 

  18. the sounds of leaves crunching underfoot

  19. boots!!

  20. kettle corn

  21. visiting the local apple orchards... the dizzying scent of sun on ripe apples, mmmmmm...

  22. all those fall pies, baby. Pear-Fig-Hazelnut, Cranberry-Pear, Caramel-Apple, Pecan...

  23. did I mention rainy days?? My heart lifts off every time it rains. 

  24. the sounds of our high school marching band, practicing across town... so many memories!

  25. sitting around a bonfire with friends, under a cool night sky

  26. and oh, it's comfort food season again! (Basically everything that happens in an autumn kitchen: I adore.)

  27. time to rewatch Anne of Green Gables, am I right?

  28. and a host of other fall movies... Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom come to mind. Oh! And the spooky Tim Burton flicks. (Corpse Bride, anyone?) 

  29. the sound of the wind in the pine trees by my window... oh, the blustery days of autumn!

  30. caramel apples?? Caramel apples. 

  31. and time to start scheming for Christmas! (Did I actually say that.)

... Well that was stupid. Now I'm practically hyperventilating, and it's still suffocating summer-mode outside. 

Sigh.

Help me wait by sharing some autumn love! What are you excited about?? Tell me what's on your list in the comments.

Blowing out candles, making wishes.

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Blowing out candles, making wishes.

So... tomorrow morning, I turn thirty. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT.

This isn't just a run-of-the-mill, another year of twentysomethingness kind of birthday. This is a milestone. A new number in my tens column! Kind of a big deal.

I'm probably going to lose my mind somewhat tomorrow. In spite of my best intentions. It's gonna be a life planning frenzy.

For past birthdays, I always wanted to rehash what it was I wanted to do. Habits to introduce, ways to mold my days into a better shape. I work from home, for myself, and so I'm my own boss as well. Which means: all the cards go on the table. What do I want to do as a writer, an artist, a friend, a crafty person, a musician, a learner, an explorer, a sister, an aunt, a daughter, a citizen?? 

I make big lists, y'all. And then changes happen. Usually subtle ones. I've learned (the hard way) that aiming for gradual change is best. Small corrections add up. Little adjustments actually do change your overall course.

For turning thirty, though, I have a slightly different focus. 

Instead of adding new habits and goals and hopes, I'm a lot more interested in stripping away. Detox the habits. Purge the schedule. 

I want to get down to the essential me. To what I know I've been designed to do. To throw out the time wasting habits that I'm not really proud of, to dump the clutter that's collected in the corners of my writing process and office space.

What do I want to bring into this new decade? What do I want to stop doing and thinking?

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The seclusion illusion.

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The seclusion illusion.

My life is full of so many lovely people, so many good relationships. And I couldn't survive without them. But sometimes... 

Sometimes there are so many voices, so many conversations, and so much activity that my solitude-craving inner introvert just flips out a little. And I start to crave a getaway.

Right now, I deeply desire a bit of isolation.

Now honestly, this doesn't work so well in practice. I spent most of two weeks on my own once, and ended up crying into the carpet. I need people. 

So I cultivate the idea of isolation instead. I snoop through photos that conjure up a mood of loneliness, that feeling of a big fat moat between me and the noisy world. And if I borrow enough austerity, maybe it will bring my mind back to a clear, calm, focused place.

I did some online exploring and rounded up seven places where I can imagine myself into a solitary writing getaway... Which one tempts you the most?

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Quincy

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Last week was a week of words.

A lot. A lot of words. 

And last night, I crossed the finish line on Draft Two of my work-in-progress. Woo hoo!! I didn't have any balloons to blow up, or champagne... but I danced around a lot and laughed giddily.

So today I don't have many words left: I think I spent them all.

Last Sunday I went on a mini road trip with my family--celebrating my mom's birthday by exploring Quincy, Illinois: a historic city up on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River.

Just three hours in a car on a foggy, cloudy day; talking with family; wandering the historical district; taking silly pictures with my older sister; listening to old songs in the car and proving that we still knew the words after all these years. 

It was a day for the low-key, for the what are you in the mood for, for being open to detours, for no expectations. 

Sometimes I need to remember that most scenes happen in real life, in three dimensions, in real time. That settings are bricks and cobblestones and hundred-year-old trees before they ever become words on a page. 

Good to live in the body, and not just in the brain. 

Thirty Days of Good Advice: the round-up.

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Thirty Days of Good Advice: the round-up.

I don't know about you, but these thirty days of writing advice have been a good, constant challenge to me. And I must have internalized it somehow, because I've just finished six days in a row of awesome work. Keeping a good balance, a healthy mindset, moving forward, making progress...

Getting stuff done. 

It's such an exhilarating feeling. I'm getting my writing superpowers back, y'all. (Or, at least, I've re-harnessed my ability to deeply revise half-a-dozen pages while sitting up in bed, glugging coffee. That's the same thing.)

So I do think that this mini-festival of writing quotes has plowed some good ground in me. It's been the happy party that I hoped it would be! 

But you know how things are after a fabulous get-together. Just before your guests trickle out the door, it's good to snap a group pic or two, right? We were all here, in the same place, at the same time. Let's document it!

So that's this post. The group picture.

Here's the roundup of links to each post in the series, for your browsing pleasure.

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Beating the writer's paradox.

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Beating the writer's paradox.

This is one of those quotes that's both comforting and infuriating.

Comforting, because it totally tallies with my own experience. And I tend to assume that I'm crazy, or doing things wrong, and this was a big vote for You're-normal-like-other-writers-are-normal. 

But infuriating too. Because it keeps coming true, and I don't want it to come true. 

Frankly, I'd like to have a big splashy full life (think long dinner table outside surrounded by family and friends and huuuuge platters of food, Italian style), and a big splashy full writing career (a lot of published novels on the shelf, a lot).

I'm the kid at the candy counter saying, "I want two of each!! With extra chocolate!!"

I read writing memoirs and interviews with writers, trying to figure out how they do it, if they do it. 

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Let's be clear-thinking kids.

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Let's be clear-thinking kids.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. -- Epictetus

Deceptively simple-sounding quote. Right? My first reaction was, "Astute observation, Captain Epictetus of the Obvious Brigade."

But then I realized how many times my sense of "what I would be" has shifted, without the "what I would do" following suit. How many times I've stumbled forward with a previous plan, when my internal compass has swiveled. 

I get a growing sense of frustration and displacement, but it can take me a while to put my finger on what has slipped out of place.

Ringing any bells for you too?

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Being scared of the right thing.

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A good reminder before Monday comes knocking:

Failure is never as frightening as regret. So risk the failure; don't risk the regret. | lucyflint.com

This week, I need to make serious tracks in revising my current work-in-progress. Some scenes just need a bit of tidying, but others... 

Let's just say, there will be a massive amount of re-imagining this week. 

And I can already feel that hovercraft of uncertainty skimming around in my mind. Rewriting is always a tricky business. I know that the old draft needs major reworking, but I'm always sure I'm making things worse. Sucking out the magic of the first draft, and replacing it with ponderous cluttered paragraphs.

Yikes.

But I want to face that head on this week. To risk it. 

I'd always regret it if I didn't tackle this draft. I mean, I freaking love this story. These crazy characters. All the messes they make, the trouble they get into, their narrow escapes. I even love the setting, which is a pretty big deal for me.

And I know I'd regret it if I didn't roll up my sleeves and keep working, until it's as polished and brilliant as I can make it. I need to be motivated by that possible regret. I need to stare down the possibility of failure, until it flinches first.

That's right, story of mine. I'm talking about you. This week, we'll get better together.

Failure is never as frightening as regret. -- Stefan G. Bucher

So how about you? How about your projects? Let's do this together, okay? This week, let's take a plunge. Let's be willing to risk.

Keep your superhero cape handy.

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Keep your superhero cape handy.

This is the quote that I need when my writing dries up, my characters sound like one more item on a long to-do list, and nothing in my imagination captivates:

Learn your craft, by any and all means. ... Then practice it with all the art and magic you can muster. Be worthy of your vocation, which is, after all is said and done, truly a career of danger and daring. -- George Garrett

That--like so many other quotes in this series--could be an entire writing class. 

It reminds me again of just what is possible between the covers of a book.

And it shows me that I've tamed my vocation again. I turned it into something undernourished and miserable and bleak and grey.

Instead of a career of danger and daring.

Daring?? Sitting there in my pajamas thinking through the next few paragraphs?

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