Awake to the World (A Love Letter)
And understanding a lot about it
It helps me enormously if you drop a heart on this newsletter, forward it to a friend, or share it on social media. Or subscribe to get me in your inbox! And I adore comments! I love hearing from you, so you can hit reply and email me any time. Writing these newsletters is part of how I make a living as a writer, so I welcome paid subscriptions, too. And also read on for info on the Artist’s Way class for paid subscribers starting in January.
Hi lovies,
Many years ago I was at the first orientation of the first semester of my MFA, meeting with my marvelous mentor Melissa Pritchard. We were chatting about the novel I wanted to write1 and she fired questions at me—who was the protagonist? Where was it set? What was it going to be about? As we talked, I had a revelation, which I blurted out to her. “You have to understand a lot about life to be a novelist, don’t you?”
Oh, innocent younger me.
Melissa, bless her literary heart, refrained from laughing and instead solemnly agreed. Because, yes indeed you do need to know a lot about life to be a novelist. Because that’s what a novelist does for her readers—helps to explain life. At least as said novelist sees it.
I think about that conversation often.
I thought about it recently when a young writer here on Substack (I’m sorry I’ve forgotten who it was) wrote how discouraged she was getting about her writing career. She was worried she didn’t have an MFA, that she was supposed to be submitting stories (and by extension, getting them accepted) to literary journals, blah, blah, blah, and it all seemed to be too much and all she could think to do was to keep writing.
I wrote a comment saying this:
You don't need a formal education to write a novel, and I say this as a person who has an MFA in fiction writing and has been a book coach for 20 years. All that bit about sending short pieces to literary magazines is from a different era, don't pay any attention to it. As you said, you just need to keep writing. And you will find your own process and your own way as you do.
What I didn’t say is that her idea of what she should be doing was pretty much an old-school playbook at this point. It’s still one way, especially if you are white and male and got spit out of a prestigious writing program,2 but it’s not the only way. There are many other paths to writing success these days, thank you Jeff Bezos3 for inventing the Kindle.
So what do you need to be a writer? Is it enough to just write? Well, sort of. Because in order to write, you need to have something to write about, and in order for that to happen, you need to be a student of life. A lifelong student of life, if you will.
And how do you do this?
You look. You observe. You listen. You pay attention. You stay present. (Pro tip: scrolling does not equate to staying present.)
A final thought. This wonderful quote came into my inbox as I was finishing this love letter. It’s from Geneen Roth:
The biggest suffering any of us ever know is the love we withhold from ourselves; it’s the distance between who we are and how we act.
Hello. Does that not just say it all? It does, indeed it does.
We withhold love from ourselves when we’re not doing what we long to do. When we don’t write. When we choose doom scrolling over paying attention. I watched Thelma and Louise on the way home from Italy and remembered one of my favorite exchanges from the movie:
Thelma: You awake?
Louise: Guess you could call it that, my eyes are open.
Thelma: Me too. I feel awake!
Louise: Good.
Thelma: Wide awake. I don't remember ever feeling this awake. You know what I mean? Everything looks different. You feel like that, too, like you got something to look forward to?
Yeah, yeah, so they drove themselves off a cliff shortly thereafter. But we don’t have to do that to feel wide awake, more awake than we ever remember feeling. Our writing deserves that. And here’s the kicker: our writing facilitates that.
So let’s go do it.
Charlotte
P.S. This is the last love letter of 2024! What a year it’s been! Tell me something good about your year. Or your writing.
Class Announcement!
I have several people who have requested I run an Artist’s Way class this year and so I’m going to. Ask and ye shall receive! (Seriously, that’s kind of how the world works.) Here are the details: I’m going to run the class through this Substack, with a weekly post on Wednesdays and a Friday afternoon Zoom in which we will discuss the weekly lesson, ask questions, chat, drink and chat. Kidding about the drinking. Kind of.
To be included in this class, all you have to do is become a paid member of this Substack. You can enjoy the Artist’s Way materials for as little as $8 a month. (Though it is cheaper to join as an annual subscriber and Founding Members get a zoom session with me to discuss their work.)
That’s it! Watch for the class on Wednesdays (as a post right here )starting January 15, and we’ll meet live on Fridays. (I will record the session if the Zoom gods allow it.) Please note: I’ve moved the start date back a date because I realized January 8th is still too influenced by the force field of the holidays. January 15th is the correct start date.
Paid members also get PDFs of my monthly prompt shares and more cool things I’m working on.
Books
12 Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss. I’ve had this book on my radar for quite awhile, seeing as how it is the first novel written by Bayliss, one of my favorite authors for all the cozy Christmas feels. This one does not disappoint! And, since I’ve read most of her other books, I can also see where she got a little clunky setting things up at the start. I still love it, though. Update: Finished it and I did love it.
Christmas is All Around by Martha Waters. I’m loving this book. It’s got a cranky, engaging-despite-herself proto who hates Christmas. Mainly because she was the childhood star of one of the most popular Christmas movies ever but hated acting. Now she has refused to participate in the reunion film, bringing the wrath of the internet down upon her. So she flees to London. As one does. There she endures the Christmas-loving family of her sister and meets the charming Graham. The characters and the setting are just what I’ve needed for the over-stuffed days around Christmas.
Watching
High Potential. A surprise to us, it came on after Wheel of Fortune Jeopardy and we left the TV on. Oh okay, we were watching Wheel. Anyway, High Potential features a single Mom with an exceptional mind who pairs with a seasoned and highly suspicious of her cop to solve crimes. Kaitlin Olsen plays Morgan, the lead. Very enjoyable. I think they replayed the pilot, which is what we saw, to get people interested in the new season which starts in January.
Resources
Write faster. Not sure I agree with all of this, but it’s interesting.
I have three gift links to a one-month paid subscription to novelist Jojo Moyes’ Substack. Respond to this email to claim one of them!
It’s cozy season! Here is a list of potential cozy activities.
Workshops in England and France
Information, including dates and cost, for our 2025 England workshops is now listed on our website. And heads up! Due to distractions beyond our control, we’ve moved the deadline for the early-bird discount to December 1. (Commit today with a promise to send the deposit and you’ve got it.) We’ve had several writers indicate strong interest in joining and a couple of sign-ups already, so we recommend registering soon.
I’ve just updated our France page as well!
And if you want a taste of the adventure that awaits, you can read my posts about this year here, and here, here, here, and here.
Other places to connect with me:
My website (badly in need of an upgrade)
Our workshop website
My original blog (now for archive purposes only, no longer updated, but damn there are a lot of articles on it)
That’s a wrap for 2024! Happy New Year! Oh but wait—I will have prompts for you on the 31st!
I did write it over the two years of my degree, and it was my creative thesis, of which a bound copy can be found somewhere in the Spalding library. About every two months or so I think, I should serialize that on Substack. And then I forget about it again. But who knows—I might do it some day!
Forgive me, but it’s true.
Even though I hate him and for the love of God can somebody get that fiancee of his a new stylist? Enough with the boobs hanging out of every outfit she dons.
Charlotte, A wonderful reminder of the connection between writing and life! A rich inner world can help, too.
Something good about writing: I'm 8K words into the first draft of my new WIP. I don't know if it has wings yet, or more importantly, if I will like it--which puts me in a bit of a blue mood (unusual for me despite a lifelong anxiety disorder with a side of chronic depression). Then I read a WaPo column by Anne LaMotte from last year, whose husband once told her that "I don't know is the portal to the richness inside us." I think that's spot on. That, and texting with my dear friend and neighbor Romy about aging--gave me an aha! moment re: my protagonist's "wound." She's a woman approaching her mid-40s who thought she had happily-ever-after all sewn up, and then it is all taken away. Not sure what my MC will do (she'll let me know) but for me, the idea that one can be happy when [fill in the blank] is just silly. Which, resonated with your post-- be present. I'm much better at doing that now than when I was younger. But I'd be lying if I said your reminder wasn't a welcome one. Hugs, love and light-- here comes 2025.