Everyone’s talking about it
Oh, hi friends!
I read an article the other day that everyone was talking about on Twitter. It was long. (Longform is long.) It took maybe a half hour to read. After I was finished, I scrolled through the comments section and Twitter. I read reactions and responses to reactions. Soon it was 11 p.m. and I felt a bad and buzzy anxiety, like I was stuck in the middle of a party I wanted to leave.
Back in August I deleted Instagram from my phone because I was checking it too much. I told myself I’d download the app again after summer. I think I did? (To share Lula’s debut.) But now the checking doesn’t feel urgent. The app is just there.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve written 10,000 words of a new project, made progress with our Fever Dreams musical, created new songs with Kris and Shosh, researched another project, and seen theater and live music and read books and done all the regular daily life things one must do. These are things I’ve been saying I want to finish. I always told myself I needed more time. But I actually needed something else: silence.
There are moments in life where you’ll want to be in the middle of the party. Where it will feel urgent and worthwhile to be in the mix, to post, engage, and share. (I’m sure I’ll be back there soon enough!)
And there are other moments you must take for yourself, moments where you will withdraw to the corner, consider your next move, and be OK with leaning into the thrilling opposite of noise.
Try to see what comes out of the silence.
How did you find the courage and strength to take that initial step?
The first step that led to this book — reaching out — came naturally to me because I had been sending my work out for so many years. So I had the habit of trying. I had the habit of persistence and trying — without a lot of expectation, which I think is a nice place to be in. A familiarity with rejection.
Obsessed with this story “It’s Never Too Late to Publish a Debut Book and Score a Netflix Deal” (what a headline!) profiling Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, who’s been a public school art teacher for 20 years — and is on the cusp of publishing her first story collection, which Colson Whitehead called “nimble, knowing, and electrifying.” Yes.
Your New Soundtrack?
Earlier this week I got an email, a press release with the subject line “ELERI WARD acoustic SONDHEIM album” and I filed it away to look at later. “Acoustic” and “Sondheim” are two words that please my eyeballs.
So I found her album on Spotify and…have not stopped listening. This is it, my friends. A Perfect Little Death is haunting and melodic and fresh and she recorded the whole thing in the closet in her apartment?? Apparently it all started from an Instagram post in 2019. Love that.
I always want to listen to musical theater albums during the day, but Musical Theater Music is usually a bit too big and bold to have on while trying to write or edit. But this album helped me get into a writing groove, and allowed me to see these songs in a completely new light. (My favorite so far is “Take Me to the World.”) I thought you might like it too!!
Music video for “Johanna (reprise)”
A Perfect Little Death on Spotify
A Perfect Little Death on Ghostlight Records
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You can also support my work by checking out my motivational journal, Do It For Yourself, designed to guide you through your creative and work projects.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara