Dear writers,
Lately we've been thinking about systems and processes, methods and tools. It's application season—lots of people are applying to fellowships and grants, residencies, graduate programs, and more. It's back-to-school season, and some of us are figuring out how to organize our work as teachers and as students. We offer to you: "HOUSE OF HIGHLIGHTS: an afternoon walk conversation." (soundtrack note: the Labor Day party music they play in the parking lot of the northern part of
our favorite park
).
Q: It's summer, and yesterday I was looking at House of Highlights on Instagram 🙌🏾 and wondering where the hell all the great baseball plays were (no offense to basketball, but the cusp of October always brings my mind to baseball). When I was younger, I was an excellent baseball player. Like, really really good. At 10 or 11 years old, only a few kids really understand the rules of any sport, and even fewer can actually play. I was that kid who would dive or leap to make an amazing catch or an unbelievable throw. I would hear parents around me gasp and talk—how did he do that!—but what they didn't know is that I practiced sliding and running and jumping for catches thousands of times a week, all day every day at home. By the time I got to a game, it just felt like second nature.
S: [Rolls her eyes because she's heard all this before.]
Q: So what I've been thinking about lately is this: discipline, practice, putting in the work is what truly helps you become a better writer.
S: I mean, obviously you can't write without writing. But discipline alone is not quite it, at least not for me. As an artist, I'm totally used to “putting in the work.” I can go to the studio every day. I can do what it takes to get things done. But writing is different: simply showing up is not enough. I have to figure out how to get into some other state, beyond my thinking self, to find a way to intuit my way forward and then transcribe that intuition. And that process requires something more from me than just discipline.
Q: Good point. But that's exactly why writing regularly is so important for me. It's like I'm kicking a ball uphill—
S: Wait, more sports?
Q: —and if I spend some time with my book every day, the worst that can happen is I won't get any further, I'll stay in more or less the same place. But if I don't show up, the ball starts rolling back down the hill and then I'll have so much more work to do just to get back to where I was.
I'll switch to a different metaphor: the challenge is to keep the fire going, and imagination is the fire. When you're writing a novel, keeping it alive is crucial—once it dies, you have to think all that stuff up again.
S: I get it. In one of the interviews I was reading last week, with the hilarious novelist Mary H.K. Choi, she said something I found very astute:
Let go or get dragged. It’s healthy and realistic to have a consistent practice but I’ve also learned that every piece of work has its own particular rhythms that you’d do well to honor. I’ve wasted a lot of time setting agendas that the writing is largely indifferent to
.
I'm not trying to get dragged, which means sometimes I do have to let go. And letting go looks like reading, or researching, or playing in relation to my work.
Q: I don't disagree. My point is that when you're in the zone, intellection feels easy, not like work. It is the letting go.
Lately I have been using generative writing and prompts to help with that—giving myself the freedom to play with language. One of the first prompts I added to the prompt library in together.atlouisplace.com ("Lips thumped, thick as thugs throughout the night") is one I turned to last week when I had one eye on my work, one eye on the waiting room during morning writing sessions.
Speaking of generative writing; speaking of morning writing sessions—
Friends, it's been such a pleasure to read and learn more about the work of our new members 🤩. For the last week or so, we've been hustling nonstop to get
together.atlouisplace.com
ready for you—and we finally opened our doors today.
Members, check your inboxes for your invitations.
Everybody else: ready to join us? Why not now? Everyone is welcome.
