STATUS – 9.26.2023 –

I miss my bookstore. I haven’t been to Changing Hands/First Draft Book Bar in some time, probably since before the Summer Of Change ’23 began. Hoping I can make it over there soon. It’s the environment, the smell, the atmosphere of literature and prose and kids books and a small, but accessible, manga section, that really drives the work. Speaking of…

I’ve been disconnected from my work.

For nearly a year, I’ve been taking a comic writing masterclass guided by Brian Michael Bendis and Taki Soma. With nearly 20 sessions under the belt, and a litany of guest teachers, I’ve learned a lot. The lesson that sticks in my mind the hardest is (from an unnamed guest lecturer): Communicate with your work.

Communicate with your work. This practice can help you figure out what works with it, what doesn’t, and what it needs. What that means can vary, from story to story, but I think I’ve figured it out.

See, anyone paying attention to any of my social anything will know I haven’t been able to do a lot of writing work this summer. I’ve had some solid bursts, sure, with my work in Sedona being a high point, a moment I hoped to use as jet fuel to jump start my processes again. That hasn’t happened yet. In fact, it took over a week to write one blog post about the 2023 books I’ve read. A week. To write book reviews.

Communicate with your work.

Here’s what that means to me: I’ve started to open my project notebook. I recently opened my pitch documents and pitched one agent this past Sunday. I’m going to take a page out of Matt Bell’s REFUSE TO BE DONE and reread my own work, leading me to outline the book only to rewrite the entire thing again. Why?

I’m not connected to my own work. How am I supposed to pitch it when I don’t know what it is when I haven’t looked at it? How am I supposed to know how it breathes and moves and feels when I don’t talk to it.

These are all the thoughts I have, on repeat, in my head, again and again and again, all day, as Baby B asks for peanut butter graham crackers for the third time in six minutes.