My Writing Would Be Perfect If Only...(A Love Letter)
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Hello lovies,
Does your mind ever take you in circles like mine does? For some reason, this tendency has been particularly strong this week. And my ruminating went something like this:
My writing life would be perfect if I…
Were a best-selling novelist,
A Substack best-seller,
Had the best book coaching clients, (Oh wait, never mind, that’s already true.)
Effortlessly wrote 2K words a day,
Had an agent who got me big deals,
Never, ever got interrupted during my writing sessions.
And my life would be perfect if I…
Had the correct schedule to organize my days,
Got 10K steps a day,
Ate veg at every meal,
Meditated daily, maybe even twice a day,
Went back to doing Qi Gong,
Had the perfect planner.
Yeah, right.
Because this will happen:
When fish begin to fly
When the rivers run uphill
Or the day before I die.1
Oh but wait.
When I stopped to get a hold of myself, I realized some things. Such as:
I have two novels (okay, one is out of print but never mind) and several non-fiction titles published.
I have a thriving Substack with a community (all of you, my beloved readers) I love.
Have the best clients. (As noted.)
I write every day. Not 2K words, but something, anything. Maybe just a sentence. That counts.
Had an agent and chose not to continue the relationship.
Have to admit that I adore getting interrupted by my grandchildren.
The one constant of my schedule is that I rise, get coffee and go right to the page.
I’m working up to 10K steps. Not there yet, but working on it.
I eat a lot of vegetables.
I don’t meditate. But I did for awhile. Surely that counts.
And I finally have the perfect planner. Except it’s not a planner. It’s this.
My life, it turns out, is perfectly imperfect
And I bet yours is, too. Years ago my daughter-in-law taught me the saying, no whining on the yacht. It’s one of my favorites. When I stop to ponder reality, it’s pretty damn good. And remembering this makes it even better.
Yes, I know, we have an insane political situation. Things are falling apart all around us. But at the moment I’m sitting at my desk looking at a colorful melange of things I love. The dog I love is at my feet. The grandsons I love are in the main house. And the granddaughter I love is riding her bike over in a few minutes.
And beyond all that, I am a writer. I get to to do this every day. I get to do it and I get paid to do it and even though it feels hard some days, it’s not digging ditches or hauling garbage. I have the great, good privilege to be writer.
Because I have all these things, it’s my duty to take advantage of my good fortune. Because otherwise it’s wasted. And I try to remember that whenever I get gloomy about the state of my life.2
What a privilege it all is.
Love, light, and good writing,
Charlotte
P.S. How is your life perfect? Or imperfect? Or perfectly imperfect?
Books
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, by Megan Bannen. I am thoroughly enjoying this romantasy. It’s set in an intriguing different world (without too many weird names or crazy details to track) and it’s got great characters. Also very well-written. Update: This book got better and better and I ended up loving it. From the middle on, it had more of a women’s fiction vibe, with our heroine navigating a weird family and career crises. I recommend.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I love this book. Espach is an author who does scenes so real that you feel you’re there—plus you have access to the proto’s head. She also does this neat trick of truly expanding our understanding of the proto. Phoebe starts out dull and boring but gradually we see her come to life and learn how interesting she really is. It’s great and I’m whipping through it. (Whipping for me, anyway.)
Shattered by Hanif Kureishi. We’re reading this memoir for the England writing workshop. The author fell in Rome on Boxing Day 2023 and became instantly paralyzed. From his hospital bed he wrote these dispatches. (His method of writing is dictating to his son Carlos.) Kureishi tosses off great bits about writing as he tells of his predicament. It’s a powerful story. I read it in real time on his Substack, but the pieces are greatly expanded for the book.
Articles and Resources
*What happens after you publish
*What are your asymmetries? Mine is writing at least something every day. But there are other great ideas here.
*An amazing list of how internal characteristics show up externally. Gold for characterization.
*What makes a character interesting?
*My mid-week post:
25 Ways to Brainstorm Through Blocks: A Random Though Hopefully Helpful List
You are receiving this newsletter because somewhere along the way you signed up to get it in your inbox and I am grateful. Please do drop a heart, it helps enormously for other people to find my work. Also please consider subscribing for free or paid. Thank you for reading.
Workshops in England and France
Life is crazy here (and everywhere in response). So why not shuck it all and go to England (think swans and the gorgeous garden in which they live and an ancient cathedral with sort of magical Evensongs and a high street bursting with people of all ages and dogs and pubs with fish and chips and mushy peas) to write for a week? I think it’s an excellent idea and I’ll be there to hang out with you. Tons of info, including dates and cost is here. England is easy because they speak the language. Ish.
But there’s also France coming up! We may not speak their language but as long as you give it a whirl (Bon jour is easy to say) you’ll be fine. Find out more on our France page. And seriously, give it a ponder. We’d love to have you accompany us for either workshop.
And if you want a taste of the adventure that awaits with our overseas workshops, 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).
Here’s the song from which these lyrics are taken. It’s very important that you know, however, that I was NOT a Girl Scout. I was a Camp Fire girl. (Brownies burn up, bluebirds fly up. IYKYK.)
Yes of course I’m riffing on the opening lines of Love, Actually:
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”
― Richard Curtis
Read, enjoyed, and shared...as always. :-) "No whining on the yacht." That sort of communicates everything. I'm not on a yacht, and I don't want to be. But when we shift point of view, zoom out, look around...well, when compared to most of the people on the planet, many of us sure do enjoy the view from that yacht. Running, clean, safe, easy-to-access water. Electric. Plumbing. Warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Soft, these lives of ours can be.
And I haven't even mentioned living in a safe, clean neighborhood.
And...and...the mental ability to be able to recognize and work towards goals that could change our lives. Now, there is never a promise that we will achieve those goals, but that's a completely different thought.
I know how lucky I am, even though life will never be perfect. All I can do is recognize that I am enjoying the journey. After all, that's all I may ever achieve.
Great post. :-)
Your weekly Love Letters keep me going, Charlotte! I look forward to Sunday mornings for this more than any other reason, and it is such a treat to sit down with my coffee and my Love Letter . . . Thank you!