Writing Again

It looks like it's my habit now to post a writing update every two months, which in These Times continues to feel like so much longer. Part of the reason for this pattern is that it's about as often as I have anything to say, because my writing focus has been very on-again, off-again.

At the time of my last report, I was working on a story I was really enjoying, and approaching what wanted to be the end, but with no conclusion in mind. I never did come up with an ending, and after leaving it unfinished, I had many uncreative weeks.

I should reread that last story soon and see if the time away gives me a new insight, but happily, I'm preoccupied with something else now. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a whole story in three days, all the way to an end this time. I'm revising it now, and I think it's pretty good!

Non-writing life is as okay as it can be, considering. California is on fire, and that's a terribleness on top of the existing terribleness of the pandemic, but my personal impact is nothing compared to people who have lost their homes or lives. I live in the middle of an urban area not in direct fire risk. The air quality has been awful throughout the Bay Area for the past week and a half, so I haven't been able to get outside as much as I'm accustomed to, but the smoke comes and goes as the wind shifts, and I got to take several walks this week. Firefighting crews are gradually containing the many wildfires of what I've only just learned is amazingly named the "August Lightning Siege," so that's good news all around.

I'm off to write more on my story now, and when I have something new to share, I'll write again!

Good Stuff Out There:

→ Charlie Jane Anders addresses the question of what to write about when the world is broken: "The past few years, I've had the same conversation a bunch of times, with other authors who couldn't write what they were 'supposed' to be writing. Maybe they were trying to finish a serious, intense military fantasy book, but they kept 'cheating' and writing a fluffy rom-com about magical chipmunk princesses in love. Or maybe they were trying to write something light and escapist, to get their mind off current events, but all that came out was a dark reflection of our real-life nightmares." Anders is posting a whole series of essays on this topic at Tor.com, and I'm eager to read them all!

→ At The New York Times, Amitava Kumar shares writing advice inscribed by authors in their books: "When I started asking writers I knew or met at literary festivals to sign their books with a piece of valuable advice, I began to see it not as self-help but, instead, as a glimpse into that particular writer's mind."