Hello friends,

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I had the opportunity to attend the Library of Congress National Book Festival, which is one of our favorite events, full-stop (imagine a music festival or comic-con, but for books and authors—and for free!). This was a big deal to me for several reasons.

One, because it’s an amazing, inspiring event. Storytellers are magicians, to my mind. We got to witness interviews and conversations with some truly incredible contemporary authors; I even got to see a childhood hero, Christopher Paolini, speak about his books.

Two, because two years ago, at my first festival in 2022, I was inspired to start writing after years of telling myself it wasn’t something I could do. It took a while to actually start, after that, but by my second festival, last year, I had my first story out for publication. Last year’s festival also gave me the push I needed to finally attempt writing a novel—which also took a while to start. But I did.

This year, the festival served as my target date for having finished a draft of that first novel—which, as you know, I did (with time to spare).

I have to admit that attending the festival as someone who’s written a novel (or the initial draft of one, anyway) was a particular pleasure.

A lot has changed, in two years. It makes me wonder where I’ll be in my writing journey in another year, and another two, and another ten. I don’t know. It’s impossible to say. But I’m excited to find out.

So: If there’s something you’ve been putting off—something you’re not sure you can do—then this is your push to give it a try, even if you start really small (e.g., my first attempt at writing fiction was a single, very meh, very heartfelt paragraph). Starting is the important bit—and keeping with it, of course. But if you do start, and give yourself time and grace to grow, then you’ll look back in a year, or two, or ten, and be glad for it.

If you can pair those milestones with a big, beautiful celebration of the thing you love, all the better. It’s working for me, anyway.

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✌️Corbett

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PS As always, please feel free to forward this newsletter to friends—and if someone shared this with you and you'd like to see more, you can subscribe on my website!

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✍️ Writing Updates

🗝️ Project Curses Update

So. I waxed poetic last time about not really knowing what I’m doing with all this novel writing business—and that continues to hold true. The tl;dr here is that this first, major edit is going to be a doozy, and that means my timeline is out the window. Not that I ever really expected it to hold up—though one can dream.

The more in-depth update is that I am currently up to nineteen handwritten, single-spaced pages of notes on what needs to be added, adjusted, or axed when moving from Draft 0 to Draft 1—and that’s just for the first thirteen chapters. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s a little over a third of the book—and did I mention that I write very small?

Ergo, I’m looking at somewhere between 50-60 pages of notes that will, ultimately, serve as the revision guide, or “reverse outline”, for Draft 1. This is both bad and good.

Bad, because holy #@$% that’s 60 pages of notes—and then I have to re-write the thing?

Good, because as I’m going through the novel, taking these notes, I can see and feel exactly what the story needs to go from good to great. That’s why I’m taking so many notes—I can see the path forward clearly.

The latter makes me feel way better about the former. It’s going to be a slog, getting through this first draft—and I’m 1,000% sure that the manuscript will still need a lot work when I'm done—but it’s also exciting. The editing is productive. It’s encouraging. And I really, truly do feel like by the end of this process, I’m going to end up with a great book.

It’ll just take a while.

🗓️ Timeline Update

(but who really knows?)

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😻 Recent Favorites

📚 Reading

• ​It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne De Marcken // When I first heard the Between the Covers interview with De Marcken, I was hooked—I needed to read this book. I have a slightly masochistic love for zombie stories (I suffered from awful, arresting, zombie-filled nightmares for many years), and an obvious appreciation for weird, thoughtful narratives. This is that—It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over is one of the most engaging, engrossing meditations on life and living that I’ve ever read, told from the perspective of the dead. I have chills just thinking about it.

🎧 Listening

• ​Dusk to Dawn by Lamp and The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We by Mitski // Earlier this weekend Sarah and I got to see one of my all-time favorite concert line-ups of Lamp—a Japanese band who’ve accompanied me through countless hours of writing and deep thinking—and Mitski, who is…well. She’s incredible. Lamp, in particular, was a treat, as I never thought I’d get to see them live—this is their first time touring in the States after playing together for more than 20 years. They play truly wonderful, enchanting music—I highly recommend taking a listen.

🍿 Watching

• ​2024 National Book Festival: Main Stage // Like I mentioned up top, we recently attended the National Book Festival and had a blast. They livestream all of the conversations, for future reference, but only record select events—which, fortunately, includes all of the speakers on the main stage. We enjoyed James McBride’s interview, in particular. I know it’s a stretch to put this in the “Watching” category, but I’m too busy writing 60 pages of notes to watch anything of substance. Also, it’s my newsletter and I can do what I want.

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🐈 Show & Tell

I’m tired of writing right now, so in lieu of a thoughtful reflection on a quote, here’s a picture of my cat. His name is Weasley, for those who don’t know, and he’s the best.

Also, here’s a really good recipe for a vegetarian shawarma, just ‘cause.

Okay, love you bye!

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🫶