[Weekly Notice] #2 - The Best Next Sentence
Get going, keep going, and break some sh*t
These are the updates.
Since last time:
I joined a generative writing workshop about novel writing called “Novel.” Takeaways below. Don’t trip. There is now a novel project. ;)
I joined
’s Mini 1,000, which means I am writing 1,000 words a day for a few days with a few thousand folks. This is related to number 1. If you write or if you’ve thought about writing, it’s not too late to join.
This made me start.
It’s never been helpful for me to hear “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” If anything, there were times when I need to know what to do when fear of the “messy middle” keeps you from getting started? In Novel: the workshop,
reminded us that the middle takes care of itself. Speaking for myself, when I can see the end but I’m unsure of the middle I never make it to start.We tend to glamorize the end because it’s an outcome, a product. It’s proof that we’re no fool. We haven’t risked our time and effort for naught. We look at all the reasons people say we shouldn’t do it. All the reasons they don’t do it. We internalize these things. “It’s hard.” “It’ll take a long time.” “We don’t know how.” We absorb the message that, if we start, we’ll get stuck in the messy middle.
If we worry about the how, we’ll never get to the when. The when is now. The middle will take care of itself.
Get to know me and you’ll find that I’ve started fresh many a time, and even I get bogged down in the messy middle. That’s part of the reason why it took me so long to start this newsletter (and why I had to send this note to you to even though it’s later than I wanted). If we worry about the how, we’ll never get to the when. The when is now. The middle will take care of itself.
This isn’t just canned writing advice or a can of self-help. This is personal to me. I’ve relied on the same mindset to get started after divorce. I was unhappy, unhealthy, and stuck. Stuck in other people’s opinions about love, marriage, family, manhood, money, and happiness. But that’s their business, not mine. The moment I disabused myself of other’s thoughts, words, and actions, is the moment that I knew I loved my self more than the image of me. It’s the moment I knew I loved myself enough to actually fucking start the thing I know I need to start. For me, that was my life, family, and career.
If you need to start but you’re worried about that messy middle, ask yourself the questions Chelsea asked the authors in Novel: the workshop:
What messages about writing (or living) have you absorbed?
What ideas are unconsciously holding you back? Is this what you really believe?
Which beliefs are yours? Which are outside programming?
This made me confident.
I get it. How? is not simply a convenient excuse. The excitement that leads us to, as Chelsea says, “write to the fantasy” of the end does not necessarily carry us through that middle. For those of us who’ve started, we’re really asking how does the middle take care of itself?
, Chelsea’s longtime partner-in-crime and Novel: the workshop’s co-lead, answers that with a literary concept called consecution. Kimberly’s working definition of consecution in writing is looking backwards to move a narrative sentence forward. Or, to put it differently, “The sentence that follows is always in response to the sentence before.”This reminded me so much of a scripture I was made to memorize in my childhood as a PK to a Pentecostal Pastor:
Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.
— Psalm 119:105, New Century Version (NVC)
I am no longer religious, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t see how this has shaped my philosophy on life. We only have the word, the sentence, that’s already written. That is our guide. Now it’s time to write another. GPT can’t help you with this. It must come from within. This gives me confidence. Confidence because I don’t need to figure it all out right now. I just need to take the best next step. Write the best next sentence. The next sentence is the key to the whole story.
I’ve always believed in eating my own cooking. So, yeah. Several best next sentences inside.
This is made me hide from my mentions.
I’ve met many wonderful people on Threads, including Jhamar Youngblood and SBW, co-hosts of The NBA Threads Show podcast, who were nice enough to invite me to talk about my favorite thing other than books — basketball. I’m not prone to many hot takes, but I served quite a few of them on this episode including me wondering aloud if LeBron or T Swift’s fan base is more vicious. (*hides*) They also asked me a couple questions about writing. These two are extremely talented, lovely people. And they are both writers.
This made me see.
I got a message the other day from Sara Montour Lewis, a photographer, community builder, and supporter of this newsletter. Sara’s makes beautiful photos, prints, and wearables for Our Wild Puget Sound, storytellers interested in the preservation and care of the ecology sustained by the watershed. Sara and I met on Threads and bonded around music. The message she sent simply read “Album for you,” and linked me to Seattle recording artist, Brittany Davis.
Brittany Davis is black, non-binary, and blind, but if you listen closely, their debut album, Image Issues, defuses the identity catch-22. This genre-defying album leans in to expectations to smash them in what I will call musical metacognition. From the beginning, Brittany concedes that they know their image is not conventionally desirable for a music career, sex, or even for themself. But they move from acceptance to rejecting the notion that we should make ourselves desirable just to be bought and sold as a commodity. In “Goons,” the refrain admonishes us that
They’ll sell ya / They’ll buy ya / Then try ya / Then leave you on the plate / Don’t let the goons do you wrong
But if we, too, were blind, what would we see of ourselves, for ourselves? Instead of trying to fit into the capitalist mold, would we ride out to “Trading Secrets” and start “breaking shit?”
If a groovy tapestry of rap, funk, spoken word, soul singing, dance, and electro vibes is your thing, try Image Issues. Thanks for the reco, Sara!
This is the end.
I hope the week is good to ya.
If you like (or dislike) what you’re reading, please tell me below. If you really like (or hate) it, please share with a friend.
I love the way you simultaneously demonstrate confidence and vulnerability.
Loved reading this! and thank you for being in the class, again. We are very much looking forward to and believe in your novel!