let's go looking for wonderful things

in which we inaugurate this newsletter, recap the end of summer, & welcome school supply season

My mother loves to tell the story of my first day at kindergarten, when I allegedly rounded up all my classmates to roam the playground, calling out, “let’s go looking for wonderful things”—and while it’s a little cutesy (the kind of thing you might not believe in a story), I’m also like... yeah, that little girl hasn’t gone far. When I realized I was collecting my favorite newsletter posts from other people’s Substacks & foisting tidbits upon my friends, I thought: maybe let’s just round these up and see what happens?

I hope this newsletter can be a place to share what I’m learning and loving—and some updates when called for! I hope if you’re here, you’re interested in that kind of thing; and if you’re not (but are being very nice to me out of the goodness of your heart), well, at least this will be a monthly exercise in gratitude and metacognition for me. Two of my guiding values as I head into September are joy and curiosity, and I think this newsletter will remind me to regularly return to both.

learning

It’s back-to-school season, which means I am both full of that new-school-supplies energy and also empty of coherent words to string together. But a few things have been rattling around in my brain recently, and I present them without further ado:

1. I’m finally reading Craft in the Real World, thanks to my friend Rachel Abril’s recommendation (go follow her, she has a brilliant and original romantasy in the works that you will want to stay tuned on 👀). I’m still mid-way through, but I brought it into my creative writing class during our first week of school, and my students were riveted. Some of their favorite lines:

“But reading and writing are not done in a vacuum. What people read and write affects how they act in the world.”

“…why one set of rules and not another? What is official always has to do with power.”

“Craft is not innocent or neutral… writers need to understand their real-world relationship to craft in order to understand their relationship to their audience and to their writing’s place in the world.”

Definitely worth a read for the way it asks you to interrogate the relationship between writer, critic, and audience, and I know it will be shaping the way I write, give feedback, and teach this year. I can’t wait to finish reading it with my highlighter in hand.

2. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about one of Allison Saft’s summer newsletters (her Substack regularly makes me feel punched in the gut—in a good way—so you should probably go subscribe if you’re not already). This one included a bit about a circus retreat, and reflections on an improv exercise.

“What we do during an improv exercise is not really spontaneous; it’s what emerges from the well of your patterned movement: the kinds of things you do often and have practiced a lot, probably because you like doing them, or because your parents put you in ballet classes when you were six. “There’s nothing wrong with having a movement pattern,” our instructor went on, “because that’s what becomes your personal style.” I almost cried in the middle of class. Sometimes, I am so desperate to escape myself. Sometimes, in both circus and in writing, I find my personal style so ugly…

I’m starting to believe that improvement or working outside your comfort zone isn’t incompatible with trying to recognize the beauty in what, to us, feels ugly and inescapably familiar. Your patterns—your style—are products of how you’ve moved through this world, physically and emotionally. They’re an expression of your unconscious self, an encapsulation of all the good and bad things you’ve held onto. Letting all that bleed into your art is vulnerable; of course we’re jarred when we look at it.”

Right in the gut 😭 Maybe our unconscious patterns aren’t ugly—they’re just ours. Relatedly, I recently binged the entirety of Pop Star Academy on Netflix (and that’s a whole other newsletter lol), and one of the vocal instructors gave some advice that reminded me of this—something like “we’re going to exploit the hell out of the natural texture of your voice.” Lots to close-read in that language! But the idea of natural texture being something to celebrate and lean into, even if unpolished and “imperfect,” is sticking with me.

3. On a recent drive in L.A. traffic I listened to the entirety of The Burnout Workbook audiobook, which is a damn delight. I read the book ages ago, and the workbook is a nice refresher and application of the skills. PLUS in the audiobook Amelia Nagoski sings and plays ukulele to songs she composed for the theme of each chapter, which I really think is an under-advertised feature!!!

   But I digress. If anyone is currently dancing with burnout, I highly recommend picking up the book and workbook, and there are a few concepts particularly useful for writers. The one I’ll offer today is the idea of your internal monitor, whose job is to keep track of your a) Goal, b) Progress, and c) Effort. Frustration occurs when the monitor senses these three things are misaligned (e.g. I’m putting in so much effort but there’s zero progress toward my goal!). The key, according to Nagoski, is to redefine that goal—and to make it soon, certain, specific, concrete, positive, and personal. Basically: set yourself up for a win that’s in your control. (Sound like a reminder not to set broken goals? Have you listened to Turning to Story yet? Do you want to duct-tape my mouth shut every time I remind you about this podcast? Too bad because you’ll hear about it one more time before this newsletter is over.)

loving

💕 Janja Garnbret. Women’s climbing was the main event of the summer Olympics for me and this woman is the GOAT. I simply love her attitude toward her sport—to train hard, to find joy, and to trust that the results will come. I teared up multiple times during the finals. If you’re looking for another sport to get into, please join me over here, it’s so supportive and inspiring and empowering.

💕 Watching Love Island for the first time ever and discovering how delightfully tongue-in-cheek it is?! Now just don’t spoil me on anything that’s happened since UK season 1. I’ll catch up eventually.

💕 Being in community with other writers. The end of summer, in particular, was full of this—starting with Steamy Lit Con (where I got to meet so many long-time friends and heroes), rolling into Query Camp (where I got to learn so much and cheer on so many amazing about-to-query writers), and wrapping up with visits and events to celebrate friends. Pick up Trinity Nguyen’s delightful A Banh Mi for Two and Jade Adia’s life-affirming Our Shouts Echo!

💕 Discovering some new-to-me romance authors with a huge backlist, like Elsie Silver’s cowboy romances or (finally, another late adoption) Bridgerton. They bring me back to the feeling of devouring a huge stack of paperbacks as a teen.

💕 My Lady Jane. A moment of silence.

💕 The Britannica entry on the novel, discovered while planning for my senior creative writing course. Apparently written by Anthony Burgess?? Including such gems as:

One of the sure tests of a novel’s worth is its capacity for engendering critical dialectic: no novel is beyond criticism, but many are beneath it.

There are certain marginal windfalls, and the hope of gaining one of these tempers the average novelist’s chronic desperation.

💕 The Wednesday morning combo of Turning to Story & No Write Way. Wednesday is now my favorite day of the week. If you’re a podcast person, TTS is the place for exploring craft with curiosity, and V.E. Schwab’s podcast is back to blow my mind with a new interview every week.

💕 Listening to aesthetic playlists on YouTube while I work to make me feel like I’m in a dark academia novel. (Minus the murder.)

the latest

I announced my debut YA romance, HEART CHECK, just about a month ago! It’s so wild not to be keeping this a secret anymore, and I’m excited to share more in the year to come. We’re heading into copy edits, which means some kind and generous authors are reading (which makes me want to cry and vomit simultaneously) and cover news is imminent (and I can guarantee beauty!!!). Stay tuned!

Okay, that feels like more than enough for a first newsletter (you’re a real one if you read to the end)! If anything here sparked a thought or question, please drop a comment—nothing would make me happier than this becoming a little community where we can all look for wonderful things together.

If you’re here, I’m so glad, I love you very much, and I hope this week is exactly what you need it to be. 🤍 See you next month!

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