Where are you putting your attention?

The catkins are sprouting on the cottonwoods and the days are getting longer here in Northern Colorado. It’s been windy and dry which is scary – we had a fire warning yesterday – and at the same time, I feel spring energy crackling around me and it makes me want to grab life and say “Kiss me!”

Wherever you are in your life, your creative work, your relationships, your health, I hope you are feeling stirrings of freshness and life, stirrings of hope and moments of awe, even amid so much world suffering a and shit-assery.

NOVEL UPDATE

I enjoyed two weeks of good writing – 4000+ words in two weeks and they were good words in good scenes that worked (Whoops, I sounded like Hemingway there for a minute, sorry). I calculated at this rate I could finish a first draft by July. Watch me streak to the finish line, I fantasized.

I wrote another scene, a harder more complicated scene… still going strong, still writing fast (for me) until I realized this scene wasn’t working. Too many of the same beats, too many of the same insights for Thea, my main character. The scene felt flat.

I had to tear it apart.

Now part of me is loves figuring out how to make story work – loves! – but another part of me got scared. Writing a novel – writing anything – is a continual exercise in self-belief. I can’t stress this enough — you have to find ways to believe you can do it and to remember you are in charge.

You have total agency as a writer to change something in the story or your piece that isn’t working — you are never trapped by the corner you find yourself in. You can rewrite the corner so it’s a boulevard.

I met my fear with awareness and patience, with Willa cuddles and a lots of toast. I rewrote the scene and sent it off to my book coach. I’ll tell you next month what she thought and what I wrote next. Should be through the midpoint by this time next month but I’ve thought that before. 🥴

COACHING SPOT

Beginning April 1st I have one spot for a new writing coaching client who is ready to write to get her book written and published. I’m eager to bring my 32 years of experience to your idea AND help you build a following eager to read what you have to say.

I’m a devoted coach with wide experience working on all kinds of books, including NYT’s best-sellers. My coaching packages include group support and weekly accountability check-ins, and help deciding your publishing path. Once I’m on your team, I’m all in!

If this is the year you take your book seriously, read more ​here​.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE

You’re probably already subscribed to It’s Too Late but you may have missed these posts:

🔍 ​Future You Would Like a Word with Today You​

🔍 ​What would your magic power be?​

🔍 ​The Gentle Art of Swedish Death DREAM Cleaning​

🔍 ​What Creative Confidence Really Looks Like​

GOOD THINGS ABOUT WRITING I’VE ENCOUNTERED LATELY

✍️ ​The Great Nick Cave giving you a reason to keep going!​ Dare you to read this and not do something creative.

✍️ ​Julie Artz on writing a messy synopsis to plan your novel​.

✍️ ​3 types of scenes in fiction​ – helped me see that the kind of scene I’m writing (classic) is perfect for my genre – commercial fiction! Which was a load off my mind.

✍️ Have you listened to ​Hot and Bothered: Live from Pemberley?​ Fantastic funny insights into what makes a novel work.

✍️ I’m enjoying reading ​this newsletter by Laura Leffler​ about the process of writing and publishing her first novel – also a great model of one way to build an audience for your book.

✍️ This is ​very funny and you could use it as a writing prompt ​– choose a favorite children’s book and use the form and repetition to write something very adult or opposite in message and tone. I would say The Giving Tree is rip for a rewrite.

GREAT READS & TV

💡 We love the ​Ipcress Files​ – Cold War spy drama remake. On AMC. A little wonky story-wise in the second episode but the story logic works out.

💡 I did not like ​Monsieur Spade​ at all. Huge story logic problems. Huge pacing issues. Make me so curious why it got good reviews. The last episode made zero sense.

💡 I liked ​True Detective Season 4​ because I adore Jodie Foster and because the final episode did make sense and also was a big hell yes.

💡 I am writing a fantasy and so I read a fair amount. Enjoyed many elements of ​The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch​ by Melinda Taub – especially that she redeemed Lydia, although I did have a few magic logic questions midway through.

💡 If you’re in a more traditional Austen remake mood, I thoroughly enjoyed ​The Other Bennet Sister​ by Janice Hadlow.

Okay loves, that’s it for this month. Keep writing and reading.​