---> Here’s the truth, though. I struggled. I stumbled. I circled the same scenes until they got dents in them. And yes, there’s shame in the fact that it isn’t finished yet despite the time I’ve set aside for it. Not because I don’t love the work, but because loving a thing doesn’t automatically build it. Discipline does. Structure does.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I'm another writer. The creative / psychological landscape you describe is one I know intimately. (This is what "bleeding on the page" is all about.) I walk this territory every day in parallel with you.
I write this in the hope it helps you manage the inevitable angst that comes with this work ---> You're right where you need to be. Steady on. Keep moving. Even if it's in circles. You'll eventually find -- or carve -- or manifest the way out. What you describe in this essay is part of that. <3
“Every Civil War movie I grew up on gives you a slice. A battlefield here. A noble speech there. A charging line of men in blue, then a fade to black and a piano score that tells you the nation learned its lesson. Nobody connects the dots. Nobody takes you from the before, to the after, to the present, and shows you that the war did not end, it only changed uniforms.”
“That’s why that Minneapolis moment and the spin that followed it hit me so hard. Not just because it’s cruel. But because it shows how fast institutions will try to normalize cruelty when cruelty serves power.”
I’ve been reading your Substack for a week and subscribed after reading the first one (“PAYBACK ALWAYS LEAVES A CRIME SCENE”). I am deeply impressed with your profound understanding of both history and current events and how they’re related…always related. There’s really nothing new going on. We just keep repeating. But your clarity of that process seems to me to be part of how we begin to heal and reform and change. Awareness and honesty are often the catalysts for change. So much of what you write and explain should be obvious to everyone. I could have picked 4 or 5 things you wrote today that support that statement, but I chose just the two above. It’s one thing to report the news (and that’s important). It’s another entirely to understand society, human nature, and institutions the way that you do.
Thank you for the excellent work you do. It is a great service.
I’ve said my whole life the civil war never ended. It went underground and bread factions like the KKK and heritage foundation. The hate they cultivated and used to infiltrate the government to push their agenda- destroy the American government. They’ve pitted brother against brother. They inspired the German government Nazi movement. This gate infiltrated the world. I have felt we were on the brink since my childhood in the 1970’s. The fueling of hate and separation has only grown since then. We need to stop the pendulum to voting one party then another seeking the “answer”. Complete redo of our political parties needs to happen for true democracy to see the light.
I look forward to reading this novel one day! As I read this post I alternated between wanting to soak up every sentence and wanting to skip paragraphs in order to leave an element of surprise for whenever the book is released. I wish you all the best in your writing and publishing endeavors.
Yeah X. You talk about the deep shit. Those legal rapes. That’s what was going on. So much that our people were put through in Slavery. You have black soldiers who fought for this country and they want to whitewash it. Keep speaking about our history. And today you see traits of this. It’s a shame. Hangings are knees on necks. White women speaking out for black people are the immigrants you see and the Renee Nicole goods being shot and killed. The legal rapes well you see the Epstein files. Similarity to your piece on the black girls who were raped by Epstein in Florida that they don’t talk about. Those victims. So X keep it up. You are the poet the author of the people.
I am also endeavoring to complete my debut novel and really appreciate what you've shared with us here. You may not be interested in what I want to share with you - so I'd like to assure you that this is not intended to be "advice" from me (for I believe the old saying: "Nothing is so unappreciated as unsolicited advice").
I do, however, hope this is somewhat interesting or helpful in some small way for you or anyone else who reads it. I'll mention two books (of the numerous ones available on developing the narrative craft) that have been very helpful for me. And I want to mention one of the numerous master-novelist/instructors whose Master Class I took and found quite helpful - and then a late Nobel-Laureate-novelist whose attitude towards writing fiction is noteworthy (in my humble opinion).
The first novelist I mention is Amy Tan, and this is not because of any feeling on my part that her class on writing or her excellent storytelling was necessarily superior to others, but since she told us about a type of situation - a pattern of behavior - she had noticed frequently; and I find that helpful for my attitude: People tell her they don't read fiction since they like "to read things that are true and fiction is not true". She then tells them: "Actually, fiction is one of the best places to find truth!"
The other novelist was Ernest Hemmingway whose grandson wrote - in the introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition of "The Sun Also Rises" - that his grandfather felt that authors should "create a truth with their fiction which feels so real that it actually becomes a shared experience with the reader."
The craft books: "Story Genius" by Lisa Cron - and "Story Engineering" by Larry Brooks both discuss the importance of "What If" questions pertaining to a novel-to-be's "Concept". Cron describes "The Point" as being key in developing a good "What If" and so, lastly, "The Point" for my novel-in-progress: "You can't always get what you think you need, but you may experience the essence of enlightenment, if you want to (and put meditation into action)."
I’m really looking forward to this novel, and I hope your future literary agent reaches out to you soon. Having said that, I also hope you won’t let the publishing-industrial complex sidetrack publication for years to come. Indie publishing is a solid and credible option, especially with a following like yours. Sounds like the novel fills an important niche, in the tradition of Zora, Octavia, Toni, James, and Jesmyn. I remember the epiphany I had while writing my own first novel: watching the Kavanaugh hearings had a profound effect on the trajectory of the story, and the choices my protagonist made.
---> Here’s the truth, though. I struggled. I stumbled. I circled the same scenes until they got dents in them. And yes, there’s shame in the fact that it isn’t finished yet despite the time I’ve set aside for it. Not because I don’t love the work, but because loving a thing doesn’t automatically build it. Discipline does. Structure does.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I'm another writer. The creative / psychological landscape you describe is one I know intimately. (This is what "bleeding on the page" is all about.) I walk this territory every day in parallel with you.
I write this in the hope it helps you manage the inevitable angst that comes with this work ---> You're right where you need to be. Steady on. Keep moving. Even if it's in circles. You'll eventually find -- or carve -- or manifest the way out. What you describe in this essay is part of that. <3
“Every Civil War movie I grew up on gives you a slice. A battlefield here. A noble speech there. A charging line of men in blue, then a fade to black and a piano score that tells you the nation learned its lesson. Nobody connects the dots. Nobody takes you from the before, to the after, to the present, and shows you that the war did not end, it only changed uniforms.”
“That’s why that Minneapolis moment and the spin that followed it hit me so hard. Not just because it’s cruel. But because it shows how fast institutions will try to normalize cruelty when cruelty serves power.”
I’ve been reading your Substack for a week and subscribed after reading the first one (“PAYBACK ALWAYS LEAVES A CRIME SCENE”). I am deeply impressed with your profound understanding of both history and current events and how they’re related…always related. There’s really nothing new going on. We just keep repeating. But your clarity of that process seems to me to be part of how we begin to heal and reform and change. Awareness and honesty are often the catalysts for change. So much of what you write and explain should be obvious to everyone. I could have picked 4 or 5 things you wrote today that support that statement, but I chose just the two above. It’s one thing to report the news (and that’s important). It’s another entirely to understand society, human nature, and institutions the way that you do.
Thank you for the excellent work you do. It is a great service.
I’ve said my whole life the civil war never ended. It went underground and bread factions like the KKK and heritage foundation. The hate they cultivated and used to infiltrate the government to push their agenda- destroy the American government. They’ve pitted brother against brother. They inspired the German government Nazi movement. This gate infiltrated the world. I have felt we were on the brink since my childhood in the 1970’s. The fueling of hate and separation has only grown since then. We need to stop the pendulum to voting one party then another seeking the “answer”. Complete redo of our political parties needs to happen for true democracy to see the light.
I look forward to reading this novel one day! As I read this post I alternated between wanting to soak up every sentence and wanting to skip paragraphs in order to leave an element of surprise for whenever the book is released. I wish you all the best in your writing and publishing endeavors.
Yeah X. You talk about the deep shit. Those legal rapes. That’s what was going on. So much that our people were put through in Slavery. You have black soldiers who fought for this country and they want to whitewash it. Keep speaking about our history. And today you see traits of this. It’s a shame. Hangings are knees on necks. White women speaking out for black people are the immigrants you see and the Renee Nicole goods being shot and killed. The legal rapes well you see the Epstein files. Similarity to your piece on the black girls who were raped by Epstein in Florida that they don’t talk about. Those victims. So X keep it up. You are the poet the author of the people.
We’re all "Domestic Terrorists” now.
Violence begets violence is the point for these authoritarian wannabe tyrants. Inciting violence to invoke the Insurrection Act is part of the plan.
Be Good! Resistance to & accountability for the fraudster authoritarians. #VoteBlue!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEwjcVbaiqg
I am also endeavoring to complete my debut novel and really appreciate what you've shared with us here. You may not be interested in what I want to share with you - so I'd like to assure you that this is not intended to be "advice" from me (for I believe the old saying: "Nothing is so unappreciated as unsolicited advice").
I do, however, hope this is somewhat interesting or helpful in some small way for you or anyone else who reads it. I'll mention two books (of the numerous ones available on developing the narrative craft) that have been very helpful for me. And I want to mention one of the numerous master-novelist/instructors whose Master Class I took and found quite helpful - and then a late Nobel-Laureate-novelist whose attitude towards writing fiction is noteworthy (in my humble opinion).
The first novelist I mention is Amy Tan, and this is not because of any feeling on my part that her class on writing or her excellent storytelling was necessarily superior to others, but since she told us about a type of situation - a pattern of behavior - she had noticed frequently; and I find that helpful for my attitude: People tell her they don't read fiction since they like "to read things that are true and fiction is not true". She then tells them: "Actually, fiction is one of the best places to find truth!"
The other novelist was Ernest Hemmingway whose grandson wrote - in the introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition of "The Sun Also Rises" - that his grandfather felt that authors should "create a truth with their fiction which feels so real that it actually becomes a shared experience with the reader."
The craft books: "Story Genius" by Lisa Cron - and "Story Engineering" by Larry Brooks both discuss the importance of "What If" questions pertaining to a novel-to-be's "Concept". Cron describes "The Point" as being key in developing a good "What If" and so, lastly, "The Point" for my novel-in-progress: "You can't always get what you think you need, but you may experience the essence of enlightenment, if you want to (and put meditation into action)."
BEST WISHES & THANKS! - FTJ
I’m really looking forward to this novel, and I hope your future literary agent reaches out to you soon. Having said that, I also hope you won’t let the publishing-industrial complex sidetrack publication for years to come. Indie publishing is a solid and credible option, especially with a following like yours. Sounds like the novel fills an important niche, in the tradition of Zora, Octavia, Toni, James, and Jesmyn. I remember the epiphany I had while writing my own first novel: watching the Kavanaugh hearings had a profound effect on the trajectory of the story, and the choices my protagonist made.