your writing prompts

(but not for bonus content; i love you all)

Dear readers,

This week on Instagram, I asked my followers what they’d like to hear about in my next newsletter—with one caveat, which is that I can’t do bonus content on a short turnaround time, because I am famously (in my own mind) slow at such things.

When I sent that question into the Instagram ether, I genuinely thought I’d get only a couple of responses, but I was so excited that so many great ideas came in. I’ve screenshotted them all and am keeping them in my back pocket for future newsletters, so if I don’t cover something you asked for in your reply, stay tuned!

what i’m writing

LOTS of your prompts were for updates on what’s next for me. In my last newsletter, I talked about my recently-completed eighth (!!!) novel, The Other Side of Disappearing: it’s big angst, big emotions, and it’s my first road trip romance, and I’m very excited to tell you now that we have a release date: March 26, 2024. I’ll be dropping the cover and full description here as soon as I have it (and permission to share it), so make sure you’re subscribed. The image below shows the manuscript when I was editing it; why yes that is my neurotically tidy handwriting all blurred out (but notably color-coded)!

pls ignore that rogue dog hair and also the fact that there’s a new air filter for my car in the background these were desperate times OKAY

But a lot of your writing questions were also about my process—both the creative side of it (how do I come up with characters, etc.) and the more practical side of it (what time of day do I write, etc). I’m on record as saying that my process seems pretty garbage, 1 out of 10 do not recommend, very chaotic and frustrating, but also! But also, when I take a step back, I can see some method to it, a method that gets the books written in a way I am always proud of. And I can also see the conditions of my life that make the process what it is, and I thought—prompted by a few of your questions about balancing writing and a day job—I’d tell you a little about that today. I thought maybe it might help some of you to hear about it.

Like a lot of writers, I have a full-time job outside of the home, and while it is a job that at times affords me a good deal of flexibility in comparative terms, it is also an intense job that I’m often bringing home with me. In my working life outside of writing, I have seasons that are so, so busy—where there’s a lot to be done and not a lot of time to do it in, where the demands of the work are intellectually challenging and exhausting. In addition to that work, I have responsibilities in my household: my husband also has a time-intensive career, and while we don’t have children, we balance together all the various moving parts of maintaining our work, our home, our senior (🥺) pup, our relationship with each other and with our family and friends.

I say all this not because my circumstances are in any way unique or even particularly challenging in the scheme of things; I am very privileged! Instead I say it so that you know something essential about my process, such as it is: it has always been shaped by the space I’m able to give to my writing, which is sometimes pretty marginal. There are days where I don’t think in any meaningful way about what story I’m working on. There are days where I manage a few shower notes (best invention!) and that’s it. There are days where I’m typing text into my phone’s Notes app in between meetings. There are weekends where writing happens alongside laundry and cleaning and whatever other chores need to get done. And there are some days—pretty rare days, lately—that I get to spend the entire day with what I’m working on. And you know what? Some of those days are terrible, full of false starts and frustrations with the sentences I’m writing, me texting a friend and saying, I think I’ve lost my touch.

Everything I’ve written above sounds overwhelmingly mechanical, when the full picture of my writing life is defined by the joy and comfort I take in this magnificent genre. But often when we talk about creativity—nourishing it, aspiring to it, whatever—we forget or avoid talking about the context of it, which varies widely among creatives. When I decided to try writing a novel, I was hungry to hear from people who were doing it in the margins of their lives, from people who loved and/or needed their jobs outside of writing. I wanted to know their systems and their stumbles. I definitely wanted to know if they felt like what they were doing was sustainable.

So of all the prompts you sent me about my writing process, this was the one I wanted to address first. There is no creativity in this world separate from context; there is no act of creation that isn’t shaped by circumstance. If you are a creative person (you are! everyone is), and you have a goal to make art, I guess the main thing I would say is to be mindful of your context and be kind to yourself about it. What is my system? Well, it’s mostly to accept that my context doesn’t currently allow me to have a consistent system. What are my stumbles? Myriad (especially when it comes to setting writing schedules, hahasob), and mostly they mean I have to give myself a lot of grace.

What sustains me?

The books, and our relationship to them as readers: the way a great romance makes me feel, and my hunger to make other people feel the same. The way a great book can help you find a great friend or set of friends. And the way stories are one of the few things in life that can let you live in someone else’s context for awhile.

There’s a lot more I could say about this, probably, but let me save some of your wonderful prompts about writing for later newsletters. After all, I’m doing laundry. 😉

what i’m reading/watching

Speaking of reading, my reading life gets absolutely WRECKED when I’m very busy, so I’m often like, gremlin-reading favorites during 2 am insomnia time (does anyone else do this?!). I do love audiobooks though, and just finished the audio of Lorraine Heath’s latest, The Counterfeit Scoundrel. This man fakes having affairs with unhappily married ladies so they can get a divorce! Frankly I enjoyed him! He likes flowers and also chocolate dip and that seems great. Any audiobooks you’ve loved lately?

Also sorry to brag but I am about to start this one in print and I am very excited about it because I really loved Love on the Brain (another A+ Levi in that book):

I’ll be doing an event (it’s hybrid!) with Ali at East City Books on Thursday, June 15th, and I am EXCITED. So many of my faves are on this panel: Andie J. Christopher, Nisha Sharma, Nikki Payne. And guess what, I’m moderating! I’m gonna ask the most annoying questions (ex: what is your favorite nonstandard use of punctuation for stylistic effect in a sex scene?). Can’t wait to bring the house down with these queries!

I have also been watching this; if you are too, please let’s discuss:

Keri Russell! God I love her. For all the (sexist) talk of her hair throughout her career I must say her hair is doing some real work in this series in its various states of dishevelment; it’s quite subversive!

if you’ve read this far…

Thanks to all of you who asked about my very good dog, who is darling and sweet and quite old, and who wakes me up every day at 4 am these days, because being old is confusing sometimes! He is hanging in there with the help of arthritis meds and comfy beds and a very cheerful disposition. It’s day by day!

love y’all so and hope to hear from you in the comments.

xoxo

kate 🖤