I wrote a book, and now I want to publish it. This newsletter is the start of documenting that journey, though it’s far from the beginning of it all. Actually, it’s hard to pinpoint the beginning: it goes back to before I wrote the first sentence, before I hiked the trail with the unsolved murder from the 1800s that the book is based on, before the stories I made up on boring days at my greenhouse summer job and scribbled on paper bags. This newsletter is the beginning of a slice of the writing journey.
Because writing is one endless, exciting journey, and I’d like to share some of it. When I thought about beginning this newsletter, I worried for a minute: what if I don’t publish the book? What if I do, and only sell ten copies? But the response to all these “what-ifs” is that writing is a conversation, and most of what writers do is bounce conversations back and forth in their mind until they allow some of it to spill onto the page. Then their private conversation starts communicating with others. The hand is talking and the eyes are listening.
I’m learning so much and enjoying getting ready to take the leap towards publishing that I want to invite others into this conversation. Hopefully, you’ll find inspiration or guidance, whether by following what was successful or avoiding the mistakes I make.
I’m aiming to get my book traditionally published, and will get into why traditional and not self-published, along with all the other pieces that fall into the writing journey: my process, steps I take, strategies I use, recommendations that help and inspire me, and lots of favorites (pens, podcasts, places in NYC to write…).
No one’s writing journey is a formula. It can’t be found in a rulebook. You cannot follow the exact path of Stephen King to find success because you are not Stephen King! What works for me is not necessarily going to work for you. Or maybe it will, but only a small part of it. The point is, this newsletter aims to share a snapshot of my writing journey so that you can glean exactly what you need from it, and maybe enjoy a dose of entertainment or inspiration for a minute of your day. Really, the ultimate fate of my book doesn’t matter as much as the entire process does.
There’s a bigger truth to starting this newsletter, too; one of those truths that you hear and repeat to yourself, or write down and pin up on a bulletin board but don’t fully understand until you’ve really experienced it. You can intellectually understand something, but not fully get it until, well, you do. And it’s a lightbulb moment when it happens. The truth I’m trying to get to is the lightbulb: that writing itself is the goal. Writing for life, not for a book. It doesn’t actually matter if it’s published or not, in this truth. That isn’t the point. It is absolutely a goal for me, but it isn’t the point of writing.
Another major point of writing is conversation. That means sharing what you write. This is one of those truths that I’ve heard and said “yeah ok I get it,” but it’s an ongoing process to really, fully get. Because I also really really do want to publish a book. But to zoom way out from my little corner of Substack and my personal writing process for a second: all of humanity is one continuous conversation, and therefore sharing stories—true ones and made up ones (which can speak a truth closer than any factual retelling)—is part of that.
How I think this will go:
You won’t get a lot of emails from me, something like twice monthly. Some months I might send out once a week. I don’t know, I’ve never done a personal newsletter before!
In each issue, besides telling you about an aspect of the writing and hope-to-be-published journey, I will recommend at least one thing, from writing materials to podcasts to spots in NYC I like to write.
Stuff I like
I recently read Everyone Has What It Takes by William Kenower. If anyone is wondering if their book is good enough to publish, needs general encouragement, or a lifting of the veil, this is the book for you.