August 2024 Update
The more I write, the more I am convinced that the most important trait required is grit. Natural talent and curiosity give you a place to start, but even the most gifted person won't finish their book without grit. There are so many pitfalls and barriers — “I don't have any idea what should happen next,” “I don't like anything I've been able to draft,” “I don't feel inspired.” — and the only thing that gets you past them is to just keep pushing on, no matter how feeble or uninspired your efforts feel. Keep doing it every day, and when you break your daily streak, just pick it up again instead of punishing yourself.
Book 2/3
With all that said, I am now at the point of finally starting to put the climax draft material into the computer. Instead of a mounting excitement, I feel a strange detachment, which I hope will help me construct it in a satisfying way. It's as if I am trying to keep the whole book in my head as I write and re-write and edit it. I should like to work at it in total immersion, but as a parent I just can't. But I trust God to cover my efforts in grace as he always does. I think the nuts and bolts of “the process”, as much as we enjoy talking about them, are far less important than we think they are.
Audiobook
Speaking of picking up broken streaks.... Yeah. I've got to pick this one up. Making a promise to myself to try and record at least one chapter this month.
Music
Have been taking my guitar playing more seriously, and feel like I've been able to add more color to my playing, which has consisted of just the minor pentatonic scale and the most basic chords for about 10 years. I haven't recorded many songs, but I've made some progress in writing a couple that I only had fragments of. I think I have enough for Lit Songs now (10+). I just need to decide how I want to record and release it, and keep my expectations realistic.
Reading
Started “The Possessed/Demons” by Dostoevsky, and then ran out of renewals... So now reading “Middlemarch” by George Eliot in between. If you know how long Middlemarch is you are probably laughing at me, but I am a reading octopus. I read far too many books at a time. It is a weakness. But I have been enjoying both. Dostoevsky is a whirlpool. His prose (as translated by Constance Garnet et al.) is like a strong current that sucks you under. George Eliot is more like a bricklayer. Her sentences are bricks that I think a lot of people bounce off of, but they are laid so carefully and expertly that you cannot question her paragraphs. They are tall towers, monoliths that the reader climbs to see the vista of her story and characters. George Eliot is also very quotable because she makes many asides that modern editors would sneer at, and yet they are what make her fun to read. Here are some examples:
“When a man has seen the woman whom he would have chosen if he had intended to marry speedily, his remaining a bachelor will usually depend on her resolution rather than on his.”
and
“A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards. And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.”
and much, much more.
Listening
Went back to Clancy, Twenty One Pilots' new album, and officially accepted it into my head canon. I think it is almost above Blurryface for me. And I think that makes sense, since Tyler is around the same age and also has kids, and I relate to a lot of the songs on Clancy because they seem to be about being a parent and pushing through. Clancy is Blurryface for parents. As for the sound of the album, I didn't love it at first, since Tyler incorporates a lot of genres I don't normally listen to — but it has really grown on me. I love the alt-pop flavor of Midwest Indigo, and the absolutely massive backing distortion in At the Risk of Feeling Dumb, and the signature “I don't know even know what genre is anymore but I really like this” sound of Oldies Station.
Until next month, “push on through...”
Thank you for reading! I greatly regret that I will most likely never be able to meet you in person and shake your hand, but perhaps we can virtually shake hands via my newsletter, social media, or a cup of coffee sent over the wire. They are poor substitutes, but they can be a real grace in this intractable world.
Send me a kind word or a cup of coffee: