Photo: My whole entire chickens. We are on egg watch! Sometime this week or next (or maybe the week after that?) we should get our first eggs. I can’t wait! When I get them, I’ll snap many photos, and that will not be strange at all. Meanwhile, my corn is being eaten by raccoons (grrrr), my sugar pumpkins yielded enough puree for 3 pies (yay!), my tomato plants have big ol’ green tomatoes I can’t wait to eat (hurry up!) and we’ve got spicy thai peppers, habenero peppers, and jalapeño peppers lookin’ lush on the plants that I’m just dancing in front of when I see them (gimmie the spice!). There will be salsa soon!

When I look back at this summer, I think I’m mostly going to remember all the house guests. In total, before the 1st week of school, we’ll have welcomed 17 total overnight guests ranging from one night to an entire week, ages ranging from infant to [older than I am]. A cookout over 4th of July weekend was simultaneously a good idea and a bad one. Fireworks in the backyard. Fireflies in the front. Meals upon meals, groceries upon groceries, much ado about the old school year and preparing for the new… We haven’t had any crabs yet, which is a travesty. Hopefully will fix that this week (they are biggest right now any way. This is the time to get crabs).

There were, of course, all the stories. 5 new stories written over 6 weeks, 14 stories read each week. Awesome talks by great authors. Fun times making new writer friends. Joining a broader community. Being told (reminded) that I am (have been) a professional writer (!!??) and therefore should act like it. And yes, the stories I write have good bones and strong craft (!!??) and hey, they probably would do well at certain incredible markets (hahahaha ok…) and… yo, when am I getting an agent? When am I getting on the novel thing?

I knew before Clarion West was over that I had two solid novel-length stories on my hand and that makes me excited, because that’s what I wanted. I’ve been using short stories as my training ground for a long time and they’ve served me well. I know how to write a good short story. Truth be told, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the novel form for almost a year now. I’m a few chapters into a novel I am enjoying writing… so I’m feeling really affirmed.

And overwhelmed. (You’re not surprised, are you?)

The overwhelm mostly comes from the crossroads feel to the moment: I had a novel I was working on before I started Clarion West and it was fine. Even good. It was my attempt at wrestling the length rather than the story itself.

But now I am done with Clarion West and I have two shiny stories. Stories that I don’t have to wrestle because I know where they are going. One that I know I could write fairly quickly. The other would be a whole different kind of battle: writing a secondary world novel. Ooof. But also, oooo.

Even after writing these couple of paragraphs, I think I know a good order: write the novel that has come to me fairly put together, then finish the novel I started before Clarion West so I know how to write that (it’s near future, so plenty of worldbuilding involved that I am still learning) and then go for the epic awesome big shiny.

And don’t get distracted.

There is a lot of potential distraction.

If you’re wondering what I loved most about Clarion West, my answer is the structure and purpose: it’s 6 weeks to write whatever you want the best that you can in a short amount of time. It’s a lesson in “don’t fucking panic, you’re fine, keep going” and that’s something I’ve known for a while, but here the stakes felt higher than usual. There were three weeks where I started writing a story and abandoned it on day 2 because the threads of it simply unraveled in my hand. And that really does suck when someone you admire is running the workshop for the week. That’s really good for honing my instincts and trusting my writerly mind: “this story sucks and I know it. Abandon ship!” is a feeling and a knowing and something you should trust. So is, “this story rocks, but it’s beyond my ken for the time I’ve been permitted. Let’s set it down and then circle back.” There is a story that I started writing that I knew I couldn’t get good enough to present. It’s sitting there waiting for me. When I get good, I’ll go back to it. I suspect short stories will be my distraction between novels.

The next thing I loved about it was (and this is related to the “write whatever you want”) that it invited innovation of personal storytelling. I think that magic is watching how other people tell stories and wondering if I could do something similar. Offer a remix… a piece in conversation. I ended up doing something I had not thought possible for me: my Week 5 story was a collection of essays, articles, and interviews formatted on the page in such a way that past, present, and future were all there at the same time, telling a full story. I loved writing it. I would never have thought of it without 2 bits of key inspiration (one from my mentor and one from my husband), reading a couple of stories in similar structure during the weeks before, and listening to amazing Henry Lien give an awesome talk about ways to present worldbuilding. Henry’s talk in particular broke open something really important. I don’t think I’ll ever write the same way again.

Ultimately, that’s the truth of this past summer. I’ll never write the same way again. I’m grateful for that.

I think the best part for me is that how I think about writing has also changed. There were moments, sitting on my back porch, where I wrote while the cicadas screamed, the crickets sang, my chickens clucked (or crowed! The rooster has found his voice!), and the breeze moved on through and kept me cool. How lucky am I? I hope all of my books have such a soundtrack.

I spent my summer writing and, guess what? I’m spending my Fall and Winter teaching!

I’m teaching an Advanced Speculative Fiction Workshop for GrubStreet starting in September. 10(!!) weeks of storytelling with meeee! What? There will be craft talks, writing time, we will workshop stories and read published ones. There are only 9 students allowed in this workshop, so it’s very meat and potatoes. You want to get in on this one. It’s going to be amazing. Apply here. And remember: Grub offers very generous scholarships so don’t self reject!

I’m teaching a 6-Week Short Story Workshop at GrubStreet Starting in October! Can’t do 10 weeks? Totally understandable. My 6 Weeks, 6 Stories class might be a better fit and this class is not genre-specific, so you can come in and write anything you want! Join me for reading, writing, and possibly some light workshopping.

Want to learn how to put together a short story? I’m teaching a single-session “How to Write a Short Story” class with GrubStreet in December! I suspect that if you’re here reading my little blog, you already know what you’re doing in this regard. But maybe not? Either way, consider either taking this class or sharing it with someone who is writing-curious!

I have even more classes coming! StoryStudio Chicago hasn’t added their late-Fall classes yet, but I’ll share one I’ve got cooking up with them for November. It’ll be delightful. Even delicious, maybe? You’ll see.

More soon. How to blog regularly…? Especially with the new school year starting? And all this teaching? (Don’t get distracted… don’t get distracted…)

I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, I wish y’all a happy remainder of deep summer. May your egg baskets be full, your tomato plants heavy with fruit, and your peppers spicy as hell. Oh, and may your storytelling be easy and delightful!