I just had a conversation this morning with a friend about writing. I know so many people with an amazing writing voice and vision. They’ll write something and share it with me. I’ll be like, this is amazing, for your next draft you should consider… And they’ll be like, the next draft?!? I’m done!

I marvel at the fact that the different between me and SO MANY writers is the willingness to go through the process, the willingness to edit, revise, rewrite and become a student of the process. We never stop being a student of the process and writers will never be able to give up the requirement to surrender.

We have so many erroneous ideas of what it’s like to be an artist and what it will take to create work. We judge the process against our ideas of artmaking rather than the reality. The reality is that we will always be students of the process; we will forever be a student of the current project we’re working on and there is always more to learn.

Goal Check-In:

I’ve been a student of the writing life for many years and now I’m a student of the next level. Having multiple projects in progress and making bigger commitments all while maintaining my day job!

• September was the month of the anthology. I read through all the submissions in August, and spent much of September marking up edits, typing up edits, and discussing submissions with my co-editor to make selections. At the end of the month, we realized we didn’t have any native writers in the book. We also needed a few more stories. There was a flurry of activity at the end of the month as we looked to finalized the TOC. Now in October, we will be figuring out the flow of the book, determining the sections and the order of the pieces.

• My picture book manuscript is slumbering. I realized that for the scope of the story, I don’t think a picture book is the direction I want to go in. I thought about doing an early chapter book for a younger age group. I think that would be great, but I’m out of my flow. I have been luxuriating in not having to wake up early and start writing immediately. (I have been getting up early to get anthology work done, but that’s different.) That idea is on the shelf. but I will try to stay in touch with it as I get back in to the flow of my writing schedule.

• The nonfiction book project is still on hold while I and my collaborators get our lives settled. We’re thinking of possibly doing another type of project in the interim..

• I felt like I experienced true healing in progress during my Writing What Scares You workshop. It was so wonderful that I decided to do another in October. Information and sign up is here: https://minkabrooklyn.com/fullcalendar/2021/writing-what-scares-you-workshop-2.

• I edited my post about Disaster Thinking, adding references to When the World Turned Upside Down. One of the book’s main character’s suffers with chronic anxiety. While researching the book and now talking about the book, I learned about how central anxiety is to so many of our human experiences. The essay will run in School Library Journal. I’d better jump on the next one.

• I did get a chance to review my editorial letter and edits. I was disappointed that the notes were all based in the first draft. I had an honest conversation with the editor and she agreed to take another look at the second draft and make sure her edits incorporated notes on both drafts, so that as I’m working on draft 3, I can draw from everything I developed in draft 2.

Remind yourself to be a student of your work. You will always be learning—so rather than be impatient with yourself or judging yourself for your pace or your level of talent, commit to learning, surrendering, and growing with your work.

Power to your writing hand!

Onward!