Chapter 1: The *good* stages of writing

Take the time to enjoy them

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

So much of writing seems to be made up of the messy, ugly bits—the shitty first drafts, the slightly less embarrassing rough second drafts, the waiting for feedback, the painstaking revisions, the waiting for feedback all over again…. Sometimes it can be hard to stay positive.

When it gets good

Don’t lose heart! There are good moments in the writing process, too. Maybe you got the proofs for a forthcoming publication. Maybe an editor expressed interest in a proposal of yours. Maybe you just had a great day when your writing started to floooow. Whatever the case might be, when the good moments happen, make the most of them! Tell a friend or colleague! Treat yourself to an ice cream! Do something to celebrate and enjoy the moment.

I’m saying this as someone who always feels the need to look ahead to the next thing on my writing to-do list. Simply allowing myself to savour the good moments is hard for me. But when I had a good writing day this past week, lemme tell you: I went out and got myself the biggest ice cream I could buy. The fact that we’re at the peak of an epic heat wave made it an easy decision.

HTWAB!

I’m delighted to announce that the next ‘How to Write a Book’ workshop 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. As always, PBP subscribers will get first crack at registering for the workshop, so watch this space!

A good laugh

I absolutely loved this piece by Laura K. Duncan: ‘How to Defuse a Bomb, According to My Mother’ (though I was also a little embarrassed by how closely the tone of this piece resembled my approach to baking with my 8-year-old Gremlin). Enjoy!

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VB,

M