a nomadic november

exit now if too much gratitude makes you ill ✌️

This month, huh?

I can probably leave it there and know that you’re all nodding along. But despite it all, there was a lot of joy and community and learning in November, so here we are to chronicle it.

proof of travel

learning

My learning this month has been divided into two major categories: the craft stuff that has offered me new puzzle pieces to slot into ongoing projects, and the mindset stuff that has simply upturned the entire table I’m building the puzzle on.

In the first category:

• Turning to Story has been ON FIRE these last few weeks!! Everyone here knows I love this podcast, and Anna and Lyssa have adopted a new format this month—one steps into the teacher role while the other plays student, and they discuss a new craft tool they’ve been discovering. It’s banger after banger over there—plot twist reversals made me read through a brand new lens, four corner opposition is a great framework when building out a cast or considering the role different characters would play in a given scene, and the list every romance needs absolutely saved me in a recent revision.

• This collection on setting offered some great examples and reminders. I’m always left marveling at the power a great specific detail can hold—it’s probably the thing I annotate the most while reading, the thing I admire most in my friends’ work, the thing I’m always chasing. This post has some wonderful ones.

• Finally, this post on “Adjusting the Levels in Revision” is such a useful framework for approaching revision (perhaps as an addition to the big-picture fixing of beats or polishing of prose we’re all doing already). Some choice snippets:

Imagine a gigantic science fiction machine with a bunch of dials. One dial says DESCRIPTION, another INTERIORITY, and others DIALOGUE or ACTION and so on. The basic narrative elements, however you might define them. In revision, it can be useful to look at each chapter or scene and see how your levels are doing. Does this scene need more setting? That one less action? Is dialogue cranked up too much in chapter 2 compared to chapters 1 and 3? Crank your dials accordingly.

This “adjustment” process should be done at both the level of scene and overall novel. One should look at the balance of each given section, and also the overall shape of the story. Do your levels suddenly switch midway through the novel, and a book that was heavy on physical action suddenly become entirely interior? Does your snappy dialogue disappear after the first third? Is your evocative setting details all stuffed in the second half? Time to tweak and turn.

Are the parts balanced in the way you want them to be to achieve the effects you want? Does the novel feel carefully and consciously constructed from start to finish? Narrative balance isn’t a big focus of creative writing classes or how-to-write-a-novel guides. Yet the reader notices, consciously or unconsciously, when a story feels sloppy and unbalanced.

If you like this level-adjusting revision method, there are two broad ways to implement it. One is what I’ve described. Look at the narrative mix of each scene, each chapter, and then the whole book. Adjust as needed. Another method is to go through dial-by-dial so to speak. That is, do a pass through the novel looking only at dialogue. Then a revision focused only on setting description. Then a revision only looking at interiority. So on and so forth until it is done.

Okay, on to the second category. Charlie’s Marketing Recs has been blowing my whole mind, y’all. (Thank you to Lyssa for recommending this one, I think!) If you don’t already follow her, Charlie is a wonderful marketing professional and screamer about books (I follow her IG and Substack).

I’ll be honest, I’ve always been much more comfortable in fangirl mode for others than when receiving attention myself. (I fully dissociated when I heard my author bio read out loud for the first time this month. I’m gonna need exposure therapy.) And yet: I have a book coming out next year! I’m really proud of it! I love meeting people who might like it! Sooo I probably need to figure out how to thread that needle, hm?

May I offer you: Charlie. She gives lots of really practical advice, but my favorite is the philosophy that underlies it all:

the content strategy, in my professional opinion, is to be yourself. Your REAL self, wholly and unabashedly.

(See “Unhinged: for Profit” and “Setting Goals (ugh, must we?)”)

Duh: marketing can and should be a genuine offering! Not about being accepted or rejected, but about being authentic—showing up as yourself so the people who are looking for you can find you. This internal shift makes everything feel so much easier. I’m happy to be earnest and perhaps a bit cringe, because that’s who I am, and there are probably other people out there who want to be earnest with me!!¹ I got a few emails responding to my last Substack and literally teared up with each one! Having something resonate with people and having them write back is like. literally the best thing I can imagine. Very grateful to you all for following me here and accepting me for who I am.²³

loving

It feels appropriate to have an extra long section here this month, right??

in my writing life:

💕 Hugging so many friends at Yallfest/NCTE—some for the first time, some after a long separation, some after journeying across the country on the same early morning flight, some in the Atlanta plane train. I continue to be amazed at how easy and comfortable it is to meet internet friends for the first time. No we’re lifelong friends actually and it feels that way!! So eternally grateful for the brilliant, big-hearted people I’ve met through writing. Y’all have changed my life.

friends whose words I hung on, whose beauty I tried to capture, whose arms I clung to

💕 Moderating Clare Osongco’s LA launch (buy Midnights with You!!!) at my favorite place on earth, The Ripped Bodice. What a tremendous honor to share space with this wonderful book, to see all the love it’s getting from readers, to listen to Clare be the brilliant and heartfelt and hilarious genius she is. (TRB is having a weekend-long sale, btw…)

💕 Meeting some members of the Simon & Schuster team at Yallfest who have read HEART CHECK?! and liked it??? (You mean this book is real?? Almost fainted.)

💕 A truly delightful YouTube channel called Flavor Trip, which plunged me deep into hyper-fixation mode during a recent round of rewriting and revision. As far as I can tell, they travel the world to film themselves DJing in beautiful locations while also, like, making pancakes and stuff? So soothing, so joyful.

in my travel life:

💕 Babies watching airplanes take off and land at a crowded gate full of cranky people. What a good reminder that even in the midst of holiday travel, this is a pretty miraculous thing we get to do.

💕 East coast autumn foliage. 🍂 🍁 😭 Sometimes I miss the Midwest (but then winter comes and I remember).

💕 More walkable cities, and the “we’ve noticed a change in your steps trend” notification.

💕 Being invited to share the entire ice cream cake my students ordered to the hotel at midnight. Perhaps a tactical move, but an effective one.

💕 Learning the life stories of my airplane seat companions, because I’m becoming my mother and tbh I love it.

that I’ve consumed:

💕 This essay on Never Let Me Go (a book I have read over and over again and taught many times) from the brilliant and wonderful Alicia Thompson, which made me see the whole text anew.

💕 You Between the Lines by Katie Naymon. Good Lord. Your favorite romance writer’s favorite romance writer, etc. The number of times this was rec’d to me left me no choice, and it did not disappoint. February 18th, baby, get those preorders in now and you will not regret it!!

💕 Austin Kleon’s Substack, especially his 10 Things series, which constantly inspires me.

💕 The latest season of GBBO, which I save to watch with my family (the only thing that is sacred to us): we watched two episodes this week, and now I am avoiding spoilers like it’s my job until we can finish at Christmas.⁴

and things that renewed me:

💕 Hearing some heroes speak at NCTE—Bryan Stevenson is one of the most inspiring speakers I’ve ever heard (I cried through the whole thing lol), and Ada Limón reading her poetry healed something deep within my soul.

💕 The many, many passages I underlined in The Message.

💕 Ballot curing, representative calling, and all the little things that give me some sense of control and community right now. Someone mentioned Celeste Pewter after the election, and I’ve found her a really useful follow for these kinds of small action steps.

💕 Cozy essentials that bring pure comfort: a ridiculous pair of fluffy pink slippers, lighting pillar candles all over my home, decorating a tiny tree with many lights, leftover pumpkin pie.

💕 This newsletter/essay by Caroline Donofrio, one of my favorite Substack reads for years.

I’ve been reading a lot of fiction these days. Not to escape, but to connect.

In grief, we learn to dwell in the spaces. Not only the voids left by loss itself, but the awkward gaps that stretch across our everyday encounters. The sudden awareness of dimensions. The curious nature of time. The questions that go answered.

What would you have made of this moment in history? What is the meaning of a life? How do we make the most of it? Was I wrong, was I right, did you know what I meant? What comes next? Is it — are we — going to be okay?

& the latest

I now regret ending that previous section on Caroline’s beautiful words, but from the sublime to the mundane I guess??

Anyway, I have several things waiting in the wings, but for now it’s all very 👀. But there’s something delightfully anticipatory about that too, no?

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to a cozy December. I want to do some reflecting on 2024 and intention setting for 2025, lots of sustained writing after two weeks on the road, and as much clearing of my TBR as I can. The next three weeks will be no less busy, let’s be real, but I’m trying to pare back on whatever I can in order to find some ease as the year ends. (Several of you are laughing at me right now, and you’re right, but I’m gonna do my best okay??)

And speaking of reading: I’ve been considering doing a little book club version of Marginalia Monday, reading through a chunk of a book each week and posting some takeaways. (Constantly inspired by Anna Mercier, who did something similar a while ago!) Interested? Book suggestions? (I’ve been wanting to reread and tease apart the genius of Legendborn for a while now, and it seems like good timing as we approach book three… but I’m open to other thoughts…)

All right, that’s enough from me. Time to cozy up beneath the twinkle lights and ease into December. I hope you all have a restorative, loving, inspiring end to the year.

Sending you all my love, as always, and see you as we cross the finish line,

🤍 Emily

1. Sometimes I even notice a miraculous reciprocal relationship: when finding my voice in places like this and IG actually helps me own that voice more in the world, and that’s a really beautiful thing.

2. I feel I must tell you all that I wrote this whole section and then immediately sent a draft of this newsletter to a friend asking DO I SEEM ANNOYING so—full disclosure, it’s a work in progress.

3. IDK why I started doing footnotes in this newsletter but thanks for rolling with it.

4. On a recent call, my dad started to tell me about one of this season’s contestants setting the internet ablaze thanks to his good looks (yes, it’s Dylan) and all I could do was scream NO SPOILERS!!