Introducing my Sidestack

Welcome to my unhinged morning pages! Morning pages are a tool from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, where she suggests that anyone pursuing a creative skill should wake up and immediately write 3 pages of whatever comes to them.

I don’t actually recommend The Artist’s Way—honestly I think it’s creepy and has a ton of cult rhetoric, even if the pedagogy is sound. And I don’t really do morning pages the way they’re intended; I keep a writing log that I update in the morning as a writing warm-up for golden hours. (Golden hours for me are 10am - 12pm and I do everything I can to reserve them for writing time.)

My writing log is a pretty vulnerable and sprawling thing. I’d intended to post it in my lkwrnl (my main publication) but it became too unwieldy for that. I think most of my subscribers there are looking for my craft essays, and I wanted a dedicated place to put other things that I’d like to share.

I’ve been keeping a log for a long time now, and here’s what I generally write about:

1. My writing process and the thoughts and feelings thereof

2. Craft thoughts and theories that I haven’t made into their own posts

3. Breakdowns of craft books I’m reading, what I agree with, disagree with, and like to analyze through the lens of fanfiction

4. Craft thoughts and criticisms about novels I’m reading

5. Ruminations about life, re: motivation, ambition, and keeping one’s shit together in these trying times

6. Updates on publishing

7. My overall successes and struggles

Other content I plan to post here:

• WIP excerpts

• Fiction that I don’t intend to formally publish (possibly serial?)

• Craft thoughts about books I read and TV shows/movies I watch

• Personal essays

Ideally, this publication will allow the lkwrnl to be solely relevant announcements and craft essays. All the other stuff will go here for people who are interested in my writing process and career.

Why paywall?

Over the years I’ve been asked many times the best method to support my writing. I have OFIC Mag, but that money doesn’t go to me; FAW, but plenty of my readers aren’t themselves writers; and my coaching, but obviously some people don’t need coaching. This is the simplest way I can think of for my readers to support me. For $7 a month (or $70 a year), you get all my thoughts that don’t belong anywhere else on the internet. You get to see how the sausage is made. And you may also receive some sample sausage? This metaphor got away from me.

There’s also a foundling plan for those who really want to support me, where for $210 a year (or less) you’ll get all paid benefits, plus I’ll add you to my early reader list for completed original projects. Currently that means you’ll get to read the next draft of Heavy for Hire.

I also want to keep the readership small. My main newsletter grew so much bigger than I ever anticipated, but this one is for me and the half dozen people who really like me.

Why Marilyn?

Because I love her. And I talk about her a lot. If you ever have any questions about Marilyn Monroe, I will be happy to answer them.

Frequency

Because I’m putting the content here behind a paywall, I intend to post more frequently than I do my lkwrnl. It’s taken me a long time to set this up in part because I wanted to accumulate a lot of content that I can queue to post. I have months worth of writing logs and years worth of essays and fiction I’ve never shared. If the well ever runs dry, then I’ll put this publication on pause so you won’t be charged for the months I don’t post anything.

In my personal life I’ve been doing really well with weekly routines, so I may try to post 2-3 Mondays per month. That’s ambitious but I think “queue up post on Sunday for Monday” is more doable than “ah shit it’s the first of the month, I don’t have anything ready.”

You may notice I’m writing in the King’s Speech (with capital letters) and that’s because I draft my writing log on my Pomera, and for some reason on that device I capitalize stuff. I’ll go more in depth into the Pomera when I start posting my writing log.

Will there be any free content?

I’m not sure yet. I’m considering consolidating some of my writing advice asks by topic so that when I receive new asks about that topic, I have an easy link to provide. If I do that, I’ll post those here.

Up next…

Soon I’ll be posting the first chapter of my novel-in-progress, Heavy for Hire, because a big portion of my writing log is about it and I thought that would be the easiest way to provide context.

After that, I’ll share my August 2024 writing log which I started specifically to track my progress for H4H.

If you’re interested, be sure to subscribe!