As I said last week, my plan for the first newsletter of January was to take stock of what I’d written in 2020, and think through where I was headed in the coming year. That got pushed to this week’s edition because of the country’s disastrous politics.
Last Sunday marked my 38th consecutive email. For some context to more recent subscribers, I started this newsletter as a way to inform friends and family about new posts on my website, assuming that the average person, no matter how much they cared about me, would not be checking the site each day for new material.
My first edition, a whopping two paragraphs long, was meant as a sideshow to what I had written on the site that week. The next was similar, but with a bit more flair: I wrote about quarantine and my mindset after the first seven weeks working from home. And then it just grew from there, with expansions into personal news, politics and whatever else had been on my mind that week. I wrote about race, careers, coronavirus, optimism, and the election. I wrote about my engagement.
I scrambled to write one or two pieces at the end of a busy weekend, and I felt sure the uninspired crap I sent out would cause you all to lose interest. I also wrote a handful of pieces in the midst of minor Sunday depressions, when I felt stupid for thinking you even cared if I sent anything at all.
But you all have made this experience so worthwhile. As I told a friend last week, writing this newsletter – and sharing my writing in general – has made any negativity in my life much easier to deal with. Frustrations at work become trivial, because this is what I really care about. I only have 60 subscribers, and am still lightyears away from earning a cent from my writing, but this feels very much like a part-time job. Brainstorming a new edition each week and fine-tuning it for my readers.
And you have been the best audience I could ask for. I’ve developed two new friendships from this weekly exchange. For my personal favorite piece, What Makes You Happy?, a handful of you wrote in immediately with your lists. I read and re-read your emails, ecstatic that what I had written might have been helpful to some of you. Often it felt like I was opening up channels with friends that had long been dormant – opportunities for us to talk about subjects we typically avoided. One of you even sent me pictures of your handwritten journal pages!
I’ve talked here and there about my inspiration for all of this, but it’s worth repeating: I think the best way to pursue something you think you want to do in life is to just do it. Simple right? One of you is probably desperate to become a doctor and telling me to go f*ck myself. Maybe certain specialized fields are more difficult, sure. But in large part it’s true. There is a low cost, low-barrier of entry way of experimenting with most things. Particularly if you’re willing to volunteer, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve been teaching English for four years and still don’t know what the gerund is without googling. Non-profits are short-staffed and willing to let you try anything.
And those experiments are never as much of a hurdle as they seem. This newsletter has been a huge accomplishment for me, traditional measures of success be damned – I’ve gone from writing nothing each week to writing at least 1,000 words, and have gone from sharing no work to sharing at least one thing every Sunday with others. The experiment has produced positive results. But it was never really one big experiment – it was a series of very small ones:
- Writing my first essay about running
- Creating this website to make sharing work easier
- Posting a handful of other pieces to the site
- Sharing the site with some friends
- Writing more regularly during my repurposed daily commute
- Sending that first newsletter
- Experimenting with different subject matter in subsequent editions
So I have no grand declaration for where this is headed. I’m not so sure myself. I’ll continue to experiment with things and hopefully improve as a writer along the way.
Thank you all for reading!
My Writing Process
I wrote a new story on Thursday, and I figured I’d write a bit about the process since this was a pretty typical timeline for me.
On Monday I made a note in my phone about a story idea: A professor is holding office hours with his favorite student, when the student says something to upset him. It was pretty vague, but I could picture these two characters and felt there was something there.
I didn’t pick it up again until late Thursday night, in bed, when the opening line came to me. The story would be from the professor’s point of view, reflecting on the event years later. “I was packing up for the day when Matthew came to see me.” I wrote in my journal for an hour or two until I had most of the story.
I woke up on Friday and typed it up, editing as I went. Then I sent it to Anne to see what she thought, and incorporated some of her edits. I liked where it was at that point, and was tempted to just post it to my site. But I decided to submit it to a magazine I’d found that promised an answer in 48 hours. This was Friday afternoon, and by Sunday morning I’d gotten my response: “Not what we’re looking for.”
So I’ve posted it here. I’m encouraged by the rejection, because now I know there is a site out there that will get back to me quickly. Most other fiction I’ve submitted places has just disappeared down the rabbit hole. The next story just has to be tailored more towards what they actually publish.
I would love for my writing process to be more regimented, but it’s not. Most of my stories have come from a handful of inspired hours in a week of nothing. I wrote Ghosted on the plane ride to Portland, but have been struggling with another half-written story for much longer.
I think good writers power through the lulls and just work on their fiction every single day. Something to shoot for. Hope you enjoy the story!
Also, the Ravens are out of the playoffs and I’m officially on the Bills bandwagon. Filling out this form as we speak:
– Emmett
Recent Posts:
The Replacement – A talented writer is not what they seem. (Fiction, 8 min)
What I’m Reading
We Worship with the Magi, Not MAGA – Tish Warren, Christianity Today
“The conflation of the Christian faith and Trumpism did not suddenly spring up in a vacuum four years ago. It arose through decades of poor catechesis and spiritual formation. Through false teaching that the American flag and the cross of Christ do not conflict.”
What I’m Listening To:
Airbnb – Acquired Podcast
Long, detailed account of the Airbnb story, from inception to IPO.