Dear newsletter friend,

I'm writing this as a letter this time, to see if perhaps that form suits us better. The old way, with headings and whatnot, isn't that enjoyable to me. I personally prefer reading something that feels like a letter than something that feels like a business pitch. (Also Dan Wang does it, which gives me a weird sense of validation.)

I've been away on a writing retreat with my friend Gina, at this cute bach in Hatepe, near Taupō:

While I was there I spent a lot of time writing in one single notebook, in pencil. Just working on everything in one place. Three pages at a time. Four pages. Writing fast, not stopping. It eventually got to the point where my hand felt loose and sort of on tap with the words I was writing. I enjoyed the sensations of this so much that I'm still doing all my writing in there.

That's got me thinking about creativity generally: what works and what doesn't work, what gets you into the vibey flow and what makes you feel like you are trying too hard. Formal typing of a first draft into a scene structure in Scrivener feels hard, false, contrived. The weird tap-opening on paper feels like the opposite. The trick therefore, for me anyway, is to keep the full flow happening, but finding a way to later wrangle what I've written, and to not be overwhelmed by it.

I don't know if this is the best way, but what I'm trying to do right now is to go back through what I wrote over this period. Everywhere I wrote "I love..." or "I'd love to..." or something along those lines, I'd highlight it. Ditto with ideas for stories or jobs or future adventures, or if I by chance used an interesting turn of phrase, or identified some bit of process that worked for me. Highlight. Sometimes it's hard to remember (awash in text) what it was that made my heart flutter. I'm trying to pay attention to those things. Highlighting them is a easy way to draw them back to my attention.

With fiction, it's highlighting interesting sentences, or a good idea, or way forward through something you're working on. You don't have to type up the whole bit, though of course you can (see more below on this)!

So basically, compulsive notebook writing, with an element of reflection. Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron are proponents of course, but another book that talks a lot about writing by hand is Priscilla Long's The Writer's Portable Mentor, which is incredible, practical, clever, and helpful. Over the last week I've filled mine with morning pages, analysis of dramatic structure, story work, some "here and now" descriptions of the cute place we stayed in; even thoughts on a Wang Wei poem, and letters to my own version of Isaac Newton's "rhetorical fiction"; a.k.a. a writer's imaginary friend. (There's so much to say on this front I'd better not start. Maybe next time.)

Most of the time it's obvious what I can use these highlighted bits for. The others that I'm not sure about, I will type up--all in one document--and see if they lend themselves to anything.

If anything, it's a wonderful way to just focus, with no distractions. A way into the "deep work" that Cal Newport talks about. And if you come to the page a little more unfocused, you never know what little nuggets will turn up; what things will be revealed that will you might later be able to realise as being important.

It was interesting to note that when I started a writing session thinking specifically about a piece of fiction, more often than not I was able to often launch into a scene and transition to the fictive writing relatively easily. I think again that the weird flow state is key.

My friend Gina has taken it a step even further: she identifies themes in her notebook-writing, and scribbles those down at the top of the page. She's recently been working her way through twenty-three notebooks, and creating an index card (with reference to the notebook and page of each entry) for each theme. She's using this to inform a lot of her next novel. It's really interesting to see her process, and how she's using these flow-state writings to build upon her fiction.

Anyway, that's my "call to action" for you. If you aren't already doing so, have a go--get a crappy notebook and a pencil--go super cheap--and see how quickly you can fill it up. If you get stuck just draw spirals like Lynda Barry, or type "tick tick tick" (also Lynda Barry) until the thoughts resume. If you are already writing in a notebook, see if you can work on getting yourself into the weird tap-on state and see if you can discover any new insights. Come to the notebook compulsively, obsessively. Write in different ways, styles, points-of-view. It doesn't have to be a diary. It can be descriptions, brain-dumps, brainstorming.

If you're working on fiction, Priscilla Long reckons you should type those notes up immediately, and keep working on them, edit them down and then keep going on the scene. It doesn't all have to be in the notebook, but I think it can all start from the notebook. Natalie Goldberg talks about how she writes her novels completely from writing practice, including the editing process. It's in her Thunder and Lightning book if you want to read more. (Shaun Levin does the same; only he types things up, puts everything in a binder, then when he's working on a section of his manuscript he'll take it out of the binder, edit the text, re-type it up, and then print it out again and add it back to the binder. Everyone works so differently, but it's interesting how many people still need the manual, tactile process.)

(Another technique (though so simple you could barely call it that) is what Tim Clare likes to do as part of his writing sessions, is after he's finished in his notebook he reads back over what he's written and then adds a "Thoughts and Feels" addendum. What do you think and feel about what you've just written? Potentially that's a way you could move forward with the flow-piece if you wanted to work towards something more formal.)

Anyway. Notebooks.

Apart from these ponderings I'm enjoying Maggie Nelson's Bluets, Ray Nayler's The Mountain In the Sea, the serial killer meets Romeo and Juliet KDrama "Come and Hug Me," and playing lots of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch. I'm also working hard on Trash Planet and a fungus short story for our next anthology.

I'm also contemplating moving back to Buttondown, (currently testing out templates and such). It's just so much more friendly towards my workflow, which involves writing up my text in markdown, which ConvertKit struggles with for some reason. If you have any concerns about me importing your details to another platform, please let me know and we can try to work something out.

And I think that's it! Let me know if you have any particular feelings about this whole letter format, or how it goes if you go down the notebook rabbit hole and how it works out!

Take care!

Jess

As always, if you’re interested in further supporting my writing you can find my wee books either in my ​ko-fi store​ or via my ​Amazon Author page​.

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