All posts filed under: Write On Wednesday

Musings & Meanderings: I’ve got a new shop and Evan Friss is talking about his new book, an American history of BOOKSHOP(s) and his wife is a bookseller and if he wasn’t writing in his attic (!) he’d be an architect (!) and I cannot love this any more

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ It’s Not Procrastination! I have a new venture…it pairs beautifully with my work-in-progress and I assure you, it’s not about procrastination. Like every other writer in the world, procrastination a thing. I don’t believe in writer’s block, but I DO believe in procrastination. Like the rest of us, I need to get the dog’s meds and run the vacuum. It’s easier for me to bleach the trash cans than it is to sit down and write. Triaging the mail? Watering the flowers? All of that. But you know what? I always feel better when I get that pesky writing thing out of the way. More accomplished, more bad-assy. And that’s sort of the power of writing, isn’t it? We’re magicians of sort. Sit down and paint story with words. Beautiful, right? Write. The new thing is… This is Where We Live It’s an off-shoot of my …

THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE POSTCARD PROJECT

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By Leslie Lindsay I love getting mail! We all hold a special place–our home, town, country, room–in our hearts. Your grandparents’ farm, your first home, a childhood wonder, the rock in the woods where you contemplated nature; an abandoned property that haunts. Maybe it was your college dorm or ramshackle rental during grad school. Perhaps you studied abroad and that place still lurks in your memory. I’d love to hear about it! Send me a postcard. Write about: A Place The Resides Inside Instructions: Snail Mail yours here: Leslie Lindsay c/o JJL 2221-B Halsted Court Aurora, IL 60503 4. Bonus: Send to a friend! So much of our living happens with others! Maybe you want to send this to your old roommate, your writing partner, your childhood bestie, someone you met at a residency or on vacation…or just someone who needs a ‘hello.’ Send this card and let them fill out the prompt themselves, or write a little note of your own. Did someone’s name just pop into your head? Bet they’d love to hear …

Musings & Meanderings: You know…you really should…plus imposter syndrome, what rejections teach, Amy Shearn on her new epistolary novel, DEAR EDNA SLOANE, shopping local (for books!), art + architecture

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ You know, you really should… Recently, my husband said, “We need to get you some new life experiences, so you can stop writing about _________.” I was shocked. Appalled. _________ was who I was, what I stood for as a woman, mother, writer. Plus, I have plenty of ‘life experiences.’ Granted, not all of them were as traumatic as _______. This comment made me think about a lot of things: Am I nothing as a writer if I don’t write about ______? Must writers have capital T trauma to write? What about lower-case t trauma? What defines ‘trauma,’ anyway? What is ‘life experience?’ What is at our ‘core?’ How do our obsessions feed into our trauma, life experiences, and core? Are they the one and the same? Different? In what ways? No one wants to read about rainbows and unicorns, people with impossibly white teeth and …

Musings & Meanderings: It must be cathartic, writing this memoir, and other untruths about writing through trauma. Tuni Deignan on her lyrical memoir, UNDERWATER DAUGHTER, blending motherhood with writing, Mushroom School through Corporeal Writing, and more

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ It must be cathartic, writing this memoir. Have you heard this statement? Perhaps you, with good intention, uttered this phrase to a writer? It sounds like the thing to say when you want to support someone in the depths of writing about a traumatic experience. In reality, there are so many layers to writing a memoir, that this comment feels kind of…pat. Memoir is a process of excavation, intuition, organization, assembly, drafting, revising, more revising, problem-solving, often all at the same time! There are myriad ways of approaching this–but mostly it’s about digging into memories (some false, mis-remembered, and…some traumatic). But in addition to all of that, one must also employ all the other bones of writing: the balance of action/exposition, front story/backstory, character, voice, setting, tone, dialogue, structure, imagery…so much. In fact, sometimes it feels like one writing a memoir ought to have a therapist …

Musings & Meanderings: Max Seeck speaks about ghosts of one’s past; writing as a calling, sharing your traumatic life stories, bending time, SINKHOLE, ‘Clinics of the Past,’ exciting books of 2023

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ Hello 2023, Friends! Sometimes it’s daunting to write. If it’s your life story, or something of equal weight and power, it might be really hard. What if there’s trauma? I guarantee there’s trauma. I recently heard this phrase, ‘nested in trauma,’ and I found that so evocative. The idea is that all story–and all life–is somehow bookended and infused with trauma. Also? The degree of trauma is subjective. Back to writing. It’s hard to back away from a story you’re compelled to share. I know, I’ve been there. I’m there right now. It’s feels like a calling, but I also wonder: is it stupid? Will anyone else care? It’s terrifying and joyful and challenging. It’s creative and vulnerable. What if you hurt someone you care about? What if you open too many cans of worms? What if it’s too traumatic to relive the past? You certainly …

Musings & Meanderings: A shout-out in P&W, houses of artists, where to submit, upcoming workshops, retreats, reading recommendations, manuscript consulting, more

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ Hello 2023, Friends! I’m writing this from a snowy-ish Chicago and reflecting on the year that just passed while gearing up for 2023. It’s a slower pace, and I welcome that. My plan is to clear up the flurry that became my December office as we were preparing for an International trip, the holidays (my birthday is tossed in there, too…my daughter’s is next week…the celebrations just don’t stop!), and all of that year-end stuff. I find liberating to let the past year settle, yet there’s a collusion of seasons that make for a mess. I’m in that collusion stage. Surrounding me–on my desk–at least fourteen books, one literary journal, and some poetry chapbooks. I have notes from a book I am reading (whichis in the other room, next to my reading chair), on my desk with the intention to look up things I read about–you …

Musings & Meanderings: Kayla Maiuri has one ritual she must do when actively working on a project; plus: mothers, home decor, vintage stuff, where to submit, disco music, book recs, more

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ Hello, Friends! My mother was a super-talented self-taught interior decorator. She also struggled with severe mental illness. I’ve never been formally trained in home design or decor, but those skills sort of emerged unbidden. Maybe they are part of my DNA. One may argue that mental illness is entwined in one’s DNA, too. Sure, I can get a little anxious or run-down, or maybe a little depressed from time to time, but who doesn’t? Especially in this day and age with constant posting, re-posting, sharing, scrolling, etc. It’s a constant barrage of…keeping up and comparisons. Kayla Maiuri’s debut novel tackles many of these exact concerns, braiding the past with the present, a mother resistant to change, family secrets, architecture, and more. It’s an emotionally and psychologically astute character study that reads almost as if it could be memoir. Interestingly, all of this stuff: mothers, home, decor, …

Musings & Meanderings: Caitlin Billings on the ‘construction of gender,’ her new mental health memoir, plus deconstructing flash, where to submit this June, being curious & varied

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ Hello, Friends! Curiosity. That’s what a writer needs. She also needs varied life experiences. A break in routine. I tell you this because…well, it’s true for me, but but because it ought to be true for every writer. Here’s why: stagnancy doesn’t produce dynamic anything. So…are you… Exploring? Observing? Questioning? Doodling? Day-dreaming? Remember when you were a kid, maybe 4 years old or so, and well-meaning adults asked, “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I mean, we start early with this. Guess what?! I still don’t know!!! Lately, we’ve been taking our daughter on college visits. They all want to know what ‘school,’ or ‘major’ she’s going to select. She loves (and is good at) lots of things. So, how to narrow it down? Does she need to know? No. That’s the beauty of being inquisitive and multi-interested. Our ideas and …

My Story Went Viral: What I Wish I’d Known First

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Originally posted on The Brevity Blog:
By Diane Forman I never expected my story to go viral. Over two million views on a widely read commercial site. 11.5K likes and emojis on Facebook. Over 2.2K comments. The piece was syndicated and posted on Yahoo, Singapore News and elsewhere. A friend saw it as a top trending news story on her phone. A viral piece and huge readership—just what I’d been striving for as a writer! I was completely unprepared for the aftermath. It had taken me several years to gather the courage to write about my daughter’s estrangement, and this was well after we were reconciled. Reconciling took a great deal of time, space, personal change and effort to break long-established patterns. I wrote the story as a commercial rather than literary piece, citing not only my own experience, but research on estrangement and shame. I ended with hope because fortunately, our story had a happy ending. I pitched the piece for Mother’s Day, a difficult holiday for many, with a personal goal of offering…

Musings & Meanderings: Lisa Solod on her new book, SHIVAH, about memory, mothers, and Alzheimer’s; how phones are draining our creativity, sensitive humans, where to submit, THE UGLY CRY, handling rejections, apraxia book discount

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By Leslie Lindsay A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book ~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~ Hello, Friends! Have you got a sensitive human in your life? I do. At least two and they are both teenagers. One is my daughter, the other is not. Being a teenager is complex enough, a totally fraught time. It feels often like there is no skin on our body, everything exposed. There is a tremendous amount of self-sabotaging going on, external forces, uncertainty, and more. Heck…the more I think about this, the more it dawns on me that this is almost exactly how a writer feels when we put our work into the world, even if it’s not published. Just having a friend or instructor read our work can be a tough thing. What’s one to do? Keep growing, keep being open to feedback and listen. Is this easy? No. Neither is being a teenager or an adult or a writer. How’s it going? Respond …