Chapter 1: Sweet spot

Learning how to stay there longer

Goooooooooooood morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you might happen to be!

After getting flattened by an Unidentified Bug (I tested negative for COVID, but who knows?), I’m happy to be back on my feet and full of energy this week. It’s perfect timing, too, since I’ve needed a lot of it! First there was that interview for BBC Radio 4 last week (lots of scrambling was involved), and now I’m facing multiple writing projects that all need tackling.

And I love it.

Now all I need to do is find that sweet spot where I can flow while flitting between projects….

The need to nap

I was chatting with my doctoral student about how important it is to take breaks from writing in order to get that writing done. Serendipitously, this was precisely the topic that

Kara Cutruzzula

was covering in her own ‘Brass Ring Daily’ newsletter that same day! In ‘Permission to nap’, she writes about the importance of moments of ease, and how they can help the creative process along. I’m not much of a nap-taker, but I am a walker, baker, binge-watcher, reader, and starer into space—all of these have on occasion helped me to break through a block of some kind in my work, or to bump into a bit of inspiration. So whatever moment of ease works for you, give yourself permission to seize it!

LEMONS

I had to clear out one of our freezers the other week and discovered I had a massive cache of frozen lemons. Sometime in the last few months I discovered that you can freeze citrus fruits, and I got a little too enthusiastic about it. So I hunted around for a recipe to use up these yellow suckers, and the Barefoot Contess saved the day with her beautiful ‘Lemon Yogurt Cake’. It’s so simple that when my eight-year-old fell in love with it, I was able to make it two more times in the same week (much to his delight) without breaking a sweat. Now that the lemons are gone, I’m going to have to stock up again so I can keep making it….

HTWAB returns!

Don’t forget to register for the next ‘How to Write a Book Workshop’ on ‘Managing Multiple Projects’, which will take place on 26 September at 8pm CEST (7pm GMT and 2pm EST)! It will feature none other than the amazing Professor Carissa Harris of Temple University. The author and editor of some truly outstanding scholarly books and articles, as well as thought-provoking public-facing essays, Professor Harris will be talking with me about how to write a book while managing multiple projects. You can register right here!

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VB,

M