From my desk to yours

Keeping a light touch when working with archives/ old drafts

O estival, festive-as-hell readers! Lately I’ve been working close to full-time on my overdue novel (thank you, paid subscribers and patient Penguins!)—but I have not forgotten you; who could! Specifically, in the past couple of weeks, I had some “craft”-type insights that I wanted to share, in case they are helpful to some of you. (I still do not love the word “craft,” but have accepted that language wouldn’t work as a system of conventional signs if everyone got to make up signifiers according to their preferences.) (OK, chuckling now at this savage attack on… wicker baskets.)

I also decided that, for the next few months while I’m powering through the book, I will be sharing such insights/ observations on Substack in shorter, less meandering, and more frequent installments, which I will be putting behind the paywall. (I mean “shorter” and “more frequent” compared to one 4000-to-6000-word post per month, which is the routine I had somehow gotten into.) I hope to go back to more meandering and free content when I have more bandwidth.

Today’s post is ~1600 words long, and is about how to maintain energy and voice while incorporating old material (notes, research, old drafts) into a long-term project. It’s a little wonky/ granular, but could be of interest if you’re revising an old text, or working on something big over many months/ years.

Thanks, everyone!

Can writing advice get TOO granular?