I hope that by the time this goes out, I’ll have finished drafting the novella I started last spring. At that point, I’ll have been drafting almost solidly since April 2023, alternating two very different books – a contemporary dark fantasy about a toxic found family, and a nineteenth-century weird tale – thanks to various event timings and submission deadlines. That’s far from my preferred way to work: the switches in focus do nothing for my concentration, and led to long periods where I was struggling to squeeze out 500 words on a writing day.
I’ve got plenty of ideas, both for things I want to tweak, fix and flesh out during the revisions stages of these projects, and for what I want to write next. But the excitement I’d normally feel about that is on the other side of a three-foot-thick stone wall.
In other words, my head is fucking cooked.
Later in the spring, I’ll be going on an honest-to-God holiday abroad, renew your passport and get on Duolingo kind of thing, for the first time in maybe seven years. Normally, the thought of being without my laptop for a fortnight-plus would fill me with dread, however fun the reason. Not-writing is usually a weird, itchy, uncomfortable state that I try to escape as soon as possible. Right now, I can’t wait for it. My brain feels like a jar of peanut butter that’s been scraped dry apart from the unpleasant, gummy bits around the top. Is that a bad simile? I can’t tell anymore.
But the late spring is still a way away. So in the meantime, what to do about it?
1. First thing’s first: for the next week, I will do no writing, no editing, no research. Just reading, relaxing, and refilling the well. Go to a museum or something.
2. Once I feel up to it, I’ll revisit the novel I finished in December and s l o w l y ease myself into revisions. I’m hoping that it’s partly having been in draft mode for two years that’s exhausting me. Maybe getting back into a different part of the writing process will help shake something loose.
3. Vary up my reading a bit. Over the past couple of years, I’ve fallen into the habit of reading recent fiction, a sprinkling of poetry and manga, and not much else. My non-fiction reading fell off in a big way after I finished my PhD, for obvious reasons, but this might be a good time to get back on the horse. I definitely want to get back into the habit of reading poetry regularly instead of a couple of times a month. Might even pick up something published before 2000.
I think it’s important to read widely, not just the same kind of thing that I write. Without that it’s easy to lose the joy of it, to read everything through the lens of, ‘How can I use this to inform my own craft?’ Plus, when I only read what my immediate peers are putting out, I end up drawing from exactly the same well of ideas as everyone else, and that can make for pretty stale work. I’m not setting myself a target or making a reading list, just trying to grant myself the freedom to follow my own interests over keeping up with the buzzy new releases.
As you might’ve gathered from the above, there’s no mini-essay this month. Instead, I’m off to faceplant into a large pile of non-edifying books.
Writing news
All quiet on the publishing and submitting front, but I did review Kat Dunn’s
Carmilla
retelling,
, for
Ancillary Review of Books
. It’s a lush, atmospheric vampire tale full of feminist rage, and well worth a read. You can read the full review at the ARB site.
What (else) I’ve been reading
Currently I’m about ⅔ into Kelly Link’s
which is charming, eerie, and features a cast of all-too-relatable teenage wannabe rockstars, but perhaps doesn’t quite need all of its 600 pages.
What I’ve been watching
We caught Osgood Perkins’ new movie
at the cinema this month. It’s tonally weird in a very similar way to
Longlegs
, but that weirdness worked better for me here in a nasty horror-comedy than it did in an attempt at an arty crime thriller.
What I’ve been listening to
There was a new Manics album out this month, so do you really need to ask? After how much I loved The Ultra Vivid Lament, I was sort of expecting Critical Thinking to disappoint, but I’m pretty fond of it so far, especially the post-punky title track.
That's all from me this month. 'Til next time.
JL