Holding on for a second

Plus, a fresh podcast with Delia Cai / Issue 1,109

Oh, hi friends! 

I actually just searched “back-to-school energy” to see how many times I’ve mentioned that phrase in the newsletter. A lot, of course! 

A few years ago I suggested writing a “here’s what I did on summer vacation” essay like you did back in school.

And while I don’t have it in me to resurface the five-paragraph structure, I am going to take two minutes to make a bulleted list of what I’ve seen and done this summer to mark it in my memory. (Feels like a perfect activity for the rain today.)

Then I’ll take two minutes to make another list of what I want to see and do this fall.

There’s a lot ahead.

Let’s get ready.

When I asked Delia Cai how she managed to write a novel during the pandemic, she had a surprising answer:

“I just had this deal with myself where it was like if you spend two hours every Saturday just working on something to do with your creative writing stuff, then you don't have to feel guilty about it for the rest of the week.”

Finally, a solution to the guilt?! 

So it wasn’t quitting her day job or upending her life. It started with her “ironclad rule” of writing two hours every Saturday. 

Hours turned to chapters, and chapters turned into the book Central Places, arriving January 31, 2023. (It already received an amazing blurb by Celeste Ng!)

I loved talking with Delia about writing Harry Potter fan fiction in middle school (it had 73 chapters??), and her determination to keep adding up hours.

Revisiting this episode gave me such good energy to enter the week. I love these talks!

Where do you want your hours to go?  

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, my website, or your favorite podcast platform.