In Which I Vow to Stop Dreading Things, Including Writing (A Love Letter)
Why do we put off doing the things we love the most?
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. This week I’m grieving the loss of life and property from the L.A fires. To help, click here.
Hi Lovies,
I dread things. I dread dinners out at restaurants. I dread appointments. I dread parties.
I don’t dread these things all the time, but frequently.
And often sometimes I dread my writing.
It only just hit me as I started writing this post why this happens. It’s because we seek control. We want to know what is going to happen. Parties? Somebody might get drunk and hurl wine at me. I might get drunk and hurl wine at somebody. Dinner at a restaurant? I might have to park blocks away (this is not so much an issue since knee surgery). Or the menu may be ruinously expensive. Or I might have to wait forever for my glass of wine. (That’s just stupid, I know. But the brain is odd and sometimes, well, stupid.) Appointments? What if the person I’m meeting doesn’t like me?
Those are all just garden variety trivial worries. (And especially in light of the L.A. fires this week, embarrassingly precious to admit.) And once I get where I’m going, I’m fine. More than fine. A confirmed extrovert, I always enjoy myself.
But the dread isn’t so trivial when I apply it to my writing.
The process of writing is the ultimate act of losing control. What if I bare my soul on the page while writing my memoir? Never mind that that’s the point, it’s still terrifying. What if I lose control of my characters in my novel? What if they do something that makes me have to rewrite the whole thing? And on, and on, and on.
But here’s the real clincher: what if I get so lost in my writing and enjoy it so much that I never want to come up for air? What if I forget to pick up the kids, burn the rice, make the dog wait to go out so long that he pees on the floor? In a way, minus the wailing children, burnt rice and having to clean up the pee, this is what we want. To get lost in another world. A world of our creation.
Here are my antidotes to these problems. First, recognize that much as we think we are controlling things in our lives, we aren’t. Never have been, never will be. Life happens fast. Things can and do change in an instant. When I remind myself of that, I breathe easier.
And second, welcome the impulse to get lost in your writing. In this age of too much information, that’s a rare gift. Just set an alarm so you don’t forget to pick up the children.
Love, light, and good writing,
Charlotte
Class Announcement!
You can read the full post about the class here. Class starts Tuesday and we have a great group assembled. But you can still join. If you’re interested, read on.
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 Tuesdays 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 Tuesdays (as a post right here )starting January 14, and we’ll meet live on Fridays. (I will also record the session.)
Paid members also get PDFs of my monthly prompt shares and more cool things I’m working on.
Books
The House In The Cerulean Sea, by T.J. Klune. This is a classic in the cozy fantasy genre and I’d never read it. Most of the humans in my family have read it and loved it but not me. So now, finally, I am reading it. I like it fine so far, but I’m not one of the rabid, raving, fans (of which there are many) yet. Update: Every human in the whole world loves this book, but not me. It might be one of those it’s-just-not-the-right-time-for-it situations, but for now it is a DNF. (If you’ve read it and loved it, let me know why in the comments.)
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong. I’ve had this one on my radar since last fall, and when the Cerulean Sea didn’t please me, I picked this up. So far, so good. I’m not yet wildly enthusiastic, but hopeful.
Resources
I’ll share this again, a list of places you can donate to help the L.A. fire victims.
What will we write now?
How a scrappy new publisher landed 25 books on the best-seller list.
Austin Kleon’s list of 10 things worth sharing this week. I like the first two, especially this quote from Isak Dinesen, who said she wrote a little every day, “without hope or despair.”
Three ways to make your character three-dimensional.
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)
Remember—there’s still time to sign up for the Artist’s Way class!
Oh my, YES!!! I am especially prone to dreading making a drawing or a painting even though I really really want to do that. I think, "This is going to so bad. Why even begin?" And with writing, too. As you say, that loss of control. The unknown. Thank you for this, Charlotte. Because it is SO true that once we dive in we remember the thrill, the tussling, the stretching of our imagination, and we feel like we've seen ourselves again in what we've made!
I also did not love Cerulean Sea, but everyone I know does. I'm more of a Starless Sea girl myself, on the Sea-titled bestseller spectrum. haha