Strange Things Will Happen
Lately I’ve been thinking about beginnings. How some are soft, quiet. What makes one dynamic. Because there seems to be a collective intolerance for work that doesn’t immediately grab us. How dry this one is. Nothing to pull you in and entice you to keep reading.
This month marks a new chapter of my life (maybe that sounds too big? The kind of declarative statement that begs for context— an explanation?). But sometimes beginnings don’t give you much to go on. Some give you no choice but to stumble forward into the unknown, to be ready for whatever strange, heartbreaking, beautiful thing comes next.
I’ve been reading a lot of beginnings because I’ve been immersing myself in short stories. But also I now abandon anything I’m not loving. (Maybe that’s what this next chapter is: a time of Marie Kondo-ing my life, setting aside anything that doesn’t spark joy?)
I struggle to start any new writing project. The pressure to lay a hearty foundation makes me freeze, knowing I need something to hold whatever will happen in the story (something I won’t know until writing it). I much prefer editing my work to writing it. Even continuing to write is okay, but the blank page terrorizes me.
Jami Attenberg recently hosted a six-day 1000 Words Mini, an offshoot of 1000 Words of Summer. Borrowing a fun idea from my friend Shayne Terry, who wrote fourteen short story openings in June, I spent those six days writing six new beginnings and reporting my progress via Slack to a group of fellow writers who were encouraging one another throughout the Mini. A few liked the idea of also doing the same, so I’ve decided to lead a version of that.
Plenty of logistics to still figure out, but here is the beginning of an idea. We’ll start mid-January since the end of the year gets busy. And there won’t be a word count target— the goal simply to generate new work, be that a page, paragraph, or a single sentence.
Let me explain why I want us to do it together: what’s so cool about what Jami has built with 1000 Words is the collective energy. Because most nights I’d try to come up with something to write the next morning and had no ideas— zilch, but then I’d wake with some flash of character or voice and bam, I’d somehow get somewhere. I can’t explain how writing fiction works for me except to say most of the time it’s a total slog, but occasionally it feels like magic. Those six days felt magical— the way what I needed popped up at just the right moment. If I had to guess, I’d say that’s the power of community.
So let’s build that together! At least for five days. Details to come. Stay tuned.
Reading Recommendations
Online: Shannon Sanders published a fantastic essay on balancing parenthood and publishing in Lit Hub called "Writing on Prepaid Time." If you’re both a writer and a parent, you should definitely check this one out.
Amelia Brunkskill wrote about her decision to write Wolfpack in verse in "The Big Pivot: Changing a Manuscript From Prose to Verse," published in Chicago Review of Books. Amelia’s story of experimenting on the page will be helpful for anyone considering making a terrifyingly big change to their writing project. (We’ve all been there, haven’t we?)
And I’ve got to plug one more Chicago Review of Books piece because we’re killing it, in my biased opinion, and Farooq Chaudhry wrote a very beautiful and moving essay about the Frankfurt Book Fair’s decision to cancel the ceremony to award Adania Shibli the 2023 LiBeraturpreis award for her novel Minor Detail and the occupation of language in "Minor Detail and the Logic of Occupation."
Recently read: I gobbled up Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments. It reminded me a bit of Hanif Abdurraqib's They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, but rather than centering music, Nezhukumatathil uses living creatures like plants and birds. It’s smart and beautiful and such a great read.
Currently reading: There’s a new Jhumpa Lahiri story collection! This is not a drill. Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my very favorite writers, but somehow I had no idea this collection was coming out, but her latest, Roman Stories, is here. Like her last novel, she wrote it in Italian then translated it into English* because she’s brilliant like that. (*Todd Portnowitz also edited some stories.)
Up next: The literary riches just keep coming. Another one of my very favorite writers is Jesmyn Ward and she’s got a new novel out, too! I can’t wait to dig into Let Us Descend.
Preorder alert: Caroline Shannon, Alex Alberto, and K.G. Strayer all have forthcoming books coming out on the publishing collective, Quilted Press, which you can support by preordering their books on their Kickstarter. I was lucky to get a sneak peak thanks to a beautiful zine they sent me with excerpts from the books, and I’m very excited about all three. And please don’t wait— only six more days to support this campaign!
The title for this post came from this song I’ve been listening to on repeat:
Hope the beginning of your weekend is off to a fantastic start! <3