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I recently completed a copyediting job for a 100k-word project. The book was written over the course of a year-plus, first as a series of blog posts detailing an around-the-world journey.

What stood out to me as I read and edited this wonderful account is that the author stuck with it. At no time (evident to me anyway) did her spirits flag. She kept writing, with humor and great detail.

That's the thing with writing: You have to keep with it, regardless of your talent. You could be Shakespeare reincarnate but if you don't write (and keep writing), it won't matter.

That really is the secret to writing: just do it--over and over again. It's not sexy or earth-shattering, but it always impresses me when I see that someone has consistently shown up to the page. That's how magic eventually happens.

Idea: If you're having trouble making time to write, block out 15 minutes on your calendar a few times this week. Keep these writing appointments. And next week, stretch those meetings to 20 minutes. Novels, memoirs, how-to books can absolutely be written in little chips of time like this. You can do it.

Listen.

"Write the way you can, not the way you think you're supposed to." Susanna Clarke

I listened to an interview last week with Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Ladies of Grace Adieu, and Piranesi. The interview took place on the New York Times Book Review podcast, which has unfortunately gone subscriber-only. Still, if you do subscribe to the NYT, it's worth a listen!

Clarke talks about how she came to writing, relatively late in life (though are one's 40s "late"?) and how her strange, wonderful book, which she thought only a few would read, became a surprise hit. And that's how she came to say, "Write the way you can, not the way you think you're supposed to."

There are so many "supposed tos" in writing from grammar, to story structure, to when and how and where to write, to--yes--when you are supposed to have first published. Conventions are conventions for a reason: they work for a whole lot of people, but they don't mean they are the only way to write.

All these things we're supposed to do can keep writers caught like a deer in headlights (oh, we aren't supposed to use tired clichés?). Don't let the weight of convention or the temptation to prove your own intelligence* to yourself or anyone else keep you from writing the story you're dying to write. Even if it takes years. Even if you don't anticipate reaching a wide audience.

*What do I mean by proving your own intelligence? For some of us, the fear of being wrong or allowing our own ignorance to show up in our work or just not being as smart as the great writers of yore means that our creative output is rigid and unimaginative, perhaps even too obviously trying to prove something instead creating a great story.

Read.

1. ​I love this method of tracking your reading and synthesizing the quotes that make you feel "awake to life."
2. ​Leigh Stein makes an argument for why ending book blurbs is a bad thing:

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Write.

I've been watching the latest season of Severance on Apple TV, and there's something about it that reminds a little bit of Lost. There's a real presence of the uncanny. The viewer can't help but wonder what is really going on.

Think about your current work in progress: How can you supercharge your reader's imagination and curiosity? Take one chapter or even one scene and rewrite it with an eye toward the strange or mysterious. Work it into the chapter or the scene even if you don't feel like it really fits. This is just play, after all. The delete button is right there, never fear!

The uncanny is just one way to spark curiosity in a reader, and it might not be the right tone or element for your final work, but just as footballers practice ballet, testing your writer's ear with a new style is good practice. Have fun with it!

Here's another nudge to make those writing appointments with yourself this week!

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