Category Archives: Writing the first book

Go Tell It on the Mountain of Post-Its

Every piece of writing advice ever swirled around my head this past week. Every story and article and essay I’ve read. Every movie and show I’ve watched. Every song, every conversation, every moment.

It’s terrible.

Maybe this is all a sign that I’m ready to stop getting ready and start getting started. Continue reading Go Tell It on the Mountain of Post-Its

The Real Dealth, Bad Hair Weeks, and MIB

I do most of my prewriting by hand, and much of my work this week involved exploring the concept of “death” – which I keep adding the letter “l” to and writing as dealth. I looked up “dealth” and learned it is an obsolete word meaning “a share dealt out.”

Obsolete words are such a romantic thing, reinforcing the idea of language being a living thing. The word “obsolete” itself was the first vocabulary word-of-the-day (we called them “Super Words”) we had back in sixth grade. Tip of the hat to Mrs. Proctor, and no, I don’t remember what the other 179 words were.

Which is all just to say that I fell down a few rabbit holes this week.

Continue reading The Real Dealth, Bad Hair Weeks, and MIB

Young Eczema Cream

I better understand how it can take a lifetime to write a book, especially how getting stuck or fearful can lead to online moodling and learning what your rap name is (“Young” plus the last thing you purchased.) Continue reading Young Eczema Cream