Congrats!!! And thank you for these musings on writing. I don’t think I got the courage or interest to dive into a Herculean task like writing a novel, but I enjoy the peak behind the curtain.
Am taking for granted that there might be a through line in the novel that fits what I have thought about your writing: you give your characters the kind of constraints on action that everybody has under a nationstate. And without the God-machines, show them using their devices to their ability. I will read a book What if a gaggle of cointel propagandists run a regime change operation. As pertinent as ever with our Executioners, or with people like I am in charge. Am imagining one of them with a fanboys attention to his tribe in odd moments. The Iain Banks book on this theme might help you in editing: called the Business. That is about a hedge fund with benefits that recruits its young members from the so called creative class when young and unattached . And sends them in severest secresy to monitor their investments and leverage events in process to go their way. Fiascos happen where these neophytes seek a few hours of oblivion. It does not work, they are too crucial to shady projects to waste time having fun....
This is the only Substack article I have ever printed out. I recognise the experience you are describing of how a novel (and this must be so for any other long piece of solitary creative work) takes you further away from, but also into, yourself. It's this sort of risk that I crave and miss at the moment as I work on editing and marketing to eventually self-publish my novel. That other state of mind, the one you write about here, is very far from the mindset I need at the moment but really, it's the whole point of being a writer. Thank you for reminding me!
"turning off your brain, letting your fingers do the work, and then being pleasantly surprised at how your fingers find the connections between the underlying ideas of the piece"
Perhaps a little easier said than done, but thank you so much for your thoughts.
Congrats!!! And thank you for these musings on writing. I don’t think I got the courage or interest to dive into a Herculean task like writing a novel, but I enjoy the peak behind the curtain.
I can't help but think of this Joan Didion line in reading your words: “It all comes back. Remember what it is to be me. That is always the point.”
Am taking for granted that there might be a through line in the novel that fits what I have thought about your writing: you give your characters the kind of constraints on action that everybody has under a nationstate. And without the God-machines, show them using their devices to their ability. I will read a book What if a gaggle of cointel propagandists run a regime change operation. As pertinent as ever with our Executioners, or with people like I am in charge. Am imagining one of them with a fanboys attention to his tribe in odd moments. The Iain Banks book on this theme might help you in editing: called the Business. That is about a hedge fund with benefits that recruits its young members from the so called creative class when young and unattached . And sends them in severest secresy to monitor their investments and leverage events in process to go their way. Fiascos happen where these neophytes seek a few hours of oblivion. It does not work, they are too crucial to shady projects to waste time having fun....
This is the only Substack article I have ever printed out. I recognise the experience you are describing of how a novel (and this must be so for any other long piece of solitary creative work) takes you further away from, but also into, yourself. It's this sort of risk that I crave and miss at the moment as I work on editing and marketing to eventually self-publish my novel. That other state of mind, the one you write about here, is very far from the mindset I need at the moment but really, it's the whole point of being a writer. Thank you for reminding me!
Great piece. I think the more vulnerable we are as writers, the better the writing. The deeper we unveil ourselves, the more interesting we become.
"turning off your brain, letting your fingers do the work, and then being pleasantly surprised at how your fingers find the connections between the underlying ideas of the piece"
Perhaps a little easier said than done, but thank you so much for your thoughts.