Pony Tricks etc.

Kill Your Darlings Reading Series, A virtual no nonsense get it done March retreat, and a missive on teaching your scene ponies more than one trick

Hi, hello. How is it?

I didn’t mean to go so long without writing to you. I’ve been in hiding a little inside of my book, really keeping as much time as I can to write because I feel like I’m close to the end of this draft, that if I just sprint through with hyper focus for a few more months, I’ll get to the end and have a cohesive FINISHED thing. I’ll be ready for readers outside of my beloved and insanely helpful writers group (hi guys ILYSM). So that’s where I’ve been. I mean, it’s rough out there. Sometimes we all need to lock ourselves inside of the bunker of our own imaginations. I’m not sure how else a new world gets built and it sure seems like that’s something we should be thinking about how to do.

In big news, I finally finished watching The Mentalist, which, if you were reading a few months back, you’ll remember I was pretty obsessed with. Despite the last episode probably being the worst hour of television I’ve ever seen, I’m desperately sad that it’s over and 10/10 recommend to anyone interested in studying story structure. Those writers really milked a formula. I was and still am very impressed. Just goes to show how much a writing prompt can give you — a story can really thrive within the confines of some limitations.

Last weekend, I got to go to All Feel’s EP release party which made me feel great in two directions: one because Candace is one of my oldest and bestest and it just rules so hard to watch someone you’ve known and loved for a long time killing it at the thing they’re doing and two because whether I love and know Candace or not she’s making some of the most moving and interesting music I’ve heard in a long time.

I’m reading Wuthering Heights for the first time, in preparation for going to see the newest movie version (Margot Robbie I would follow you everywhere), and it’s been a delight. I’m having a great time. I’m about halfway through and am finding it wild and intense and hilarious and sometimes super boring and confusing but decidedly not sexy so we’ll see how it goes.

Before that I listened to I Who Have Never Known Men on audiobook and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hate basically every single second of it, but I also can’t stop thinking about it and it’s been weeks. So if that doesn’t make a good book, I don’t know what does.

That’s the happs. But today, I wanna talk to you about:

Pony Tricks

OK I’ve never read this graphic novel, but stumbled across it trying to find a cute picture of a pony doing tricks for you all and think it looks really rad and now I want to read it. Have you? Tell me what you thought.

I’m in the zone with the writing. I’m deep in the third draft of my novel, and after a pretty grueling few months working hard to land what I hope is a close to final version of the beginning, I am now sprinting through the middle chunk. How’s it going with you and your work? Where are you at? Would love to hear about it.

The writing is feeling easier because finally, finally, finally, I have settled on wtf the plot of this thing is and so the work for me right now is about figuring out the specific beats of each scene via brainstorming and note taking, and then getting that all on the page. Plan then write, rinse wash repeat. It’s been a dream, just exactly the way my brain loves to work. The feeling around in the dark of early drafts is just not my favorite.

In moving through this draft in this way, what I’m discovering about my older drafts is that most of those scenes are one trick ponies. The primary thing I am after in this new draft is efficiency, which means the scenes need to be ponies that know multiple tricks. Right now they are very good at performing their one trick: introducing two characters for the first time, creating one beat of conflict, exploiting one power dynamic, teaching the reader new things about one character, or maybe only teaching the reader about setting. But this book has a million moving parts. We can’t be looking at them one at a time.

Teaching my scene ponies extra tricks feels a lot like solving a delicious logic puzzle. Now, in this new draft, in that scene where two characters meet, I’m not just launching their relationship but I’m also seeding motivation for the next thing to happen between them, and also establishing setting. A scene where one character discovers an unwanted pregnancy also seeds a conflict with that same character’s bestie AND points to her anxiety about starting a new job instead of just introducing the pregnancy. One scene that existed purely to set up the next gets combined with something else.

Now that I know everything that’s ahead of me as I write ahead in this draft, I can account for something I know will happen in 100 pages in a way I wasn’t able to do before. The nicest part about this, is that while it requires I cut or generously reimagined old writing that I worked very hard on, I don’t think what I’m cutting is shit. I see how it served me. I’m grateful for its service. I wouldn’t be where I am without it.

The TLDR of this whole thing is this: I’m out of the woods of the first draft and am finding that each scene can perform in a more dynamic way than I originally thought. I am getting a lot out of making my scenes do more than one job. Maybe that sort of thinking is helpful to you, too.

Speaking of Dead Darlings: NEW READING SERIES ALERT

Introducing: the Kill Your Darlings Reading Series brought to you by the illustrious Emily Lackey, Rachel Lyon, and myself (all formerly of the Dreamaway Reading series)

Reading will be held every other month at Darlings Bar and Cafe in Easthampton, MA. Saturdays from 4-6. Readers will have a 15 minute slot to dazzle us all, at the beginning of which they’ll share a “dead darling” that used to belong to the polished piece they’ll read before getting into it. I’m so excited about this. I’m down for any opportunity to see behind the curtain of someone else’s creative process.

The first one will launch on March 21st and features a stunner line-up: Elena Azzoni, Sara Rauch, and Shea Mowat. Follow us on instagram @kill_your_darlings_series for all real time updates, but of course I’ll keep you posted here. It’s going to be dazzling.

Get That Shit Done: March 15 Retreat

I still think about my time at Vermont Studio Center almost daily. It ruined me for real life in a way, having that much time to focus on my creative work. But it also made me realize that some things I just can’t do properly in one hour bursts, that I need to block off whole days sometimes to get through a tough or complicated part of the work. However, I’ve been reluctant to block off a full weekend day on the calendar. So, I scheduled a retreat to force myself into it and now you’re on the hook with me.

I’m running a 5 hour virtual retreat on Sunday March 15. It’s $60. I’ll give you a stack of prompts, but if you’re not a writer but wanna snag this community time I think this set up will serve you just as well. Musicians, visual artists, join us. We’re getting to work.

We’ll gather at noon and tell each other about our planned scope of work, then disperse to get after it, a background screen of black boxes spurring us onward accountability/camaraderie style, and then from 4:15 - 5 or so we’ll reconvene to debrief and make plans for what comes next. No feedback or occasion for sharing this time. Just heads down, getting the shit done, the winds of productivity beneath our collective wings. Or something like that.

It’ll be fun. And we’ll all feel good about ourself afterwards. So come hang.

If you’re interested, here’s the link to register. You can tack on a 30 minute 1:1 coaching session with me if you want some extra extra support.

I hope to see you soon.

Stay safe out there. I’m rooting for you.

XO