In Process: Power Outage

Get me to a Staples, stat!

Self-portrait of writer with the hottest new writing tool, a literal shiny new clipboard

My building complex’s internet is out since Sunday, with repairs not arriving till Thursday. I’m writing to you via the hotspot I purchased, grateful I can get cell service in my apartment, which is apparently impossible for some of my neighbors —something to do with our concrete walls? And yes I will be extending this metaphor because it’s been a weird few weeks writing wise, one that feels like my power source is strung together by tenuous wiring.

Sometimes to write these, I have to revisit the process notes I keep for the novel. What am I working on, how is it going? It can feel only like the most recent day, or hour. I found, in recent weeks two versions of an answer. One: Today was an utter fail. Another: JUST KEEP GOING.

On my retreat at the start of the month, I did this puzzle. Puzzles are great because every piece has a place, and if you work on it for long enough, you find those places. This is how writing a novel is not at all like working on a puzzle.

Believe it or not, this is about a third of the progress shots. My camera roll is real boring.

I mostly did this puzzle at night, while watching these guys.

Despite looking like an obscene gesture, this is actually what they all do when anyone gets on base. Maybe I need a fun little hand motion to do every time I complete a not shit scene? Taking suggestions.

During the day I did write—more about that in a minute, but I have to shout out the absolutely incredible amount of books I was surrounded by at my friend’s house. Her shelves had so many that I wanted to read, and I did manage to crack into two: Sarah Ruhl’s 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write and Sabrina Orah Mark’s Happily. Both are collections of rather short essays, which was all I could handle. I sent photos of the Ruhl to many people (who’d mostly seem to have read it and I was like where was I and then I checked the pub date and oh, yes, I was in the throes of raising two toddlers, that’s where I was, and also where Ruhl was) and bought it when I came home so I could finish the last 15 pages. The Mark collection is next on my purchase list, and if you want a taste, many of them appear in The Paris Review here.

After games I watched some movies, Brats (which was interesting enough, Demi Moore sounding like your really smart friend who’s been through a lot of good therapy did surprise me in the best way) and The Outrun, which is a movie about mental illness and recovery and friendship and how Saoirse Ronan can do anything better than anyone else on film. I loved the voiceover, which I never love, and the joy in this film, and the use of flashbacks which could have not worked but really did. I also watched Black Bear, which was fun and fucked up and whose IMDB description is truly off base. Christopher Abbott is an underrated gem of an actor, though I think that is bound to change sometime soon, maybe? If you haven’t seen him in what might be the best episode of “Girls,” you should. If you still think “Girls” is lame and overrated, I cannot help you.

Oh wait, the writing? You want to know about the writing?

Below the paywall.

What I’m Working On