In Which I Open a Private Email
to make an important point.
I want to share a piece of mail with you, and because it’s personal and private, I’m going to withhold the sender’s name. I received this message through my website’s Contact Form on Aug. 26, 2024.
The line that caused tears to fly out of my eyes was, “I miss my Wendy ever so much and your book will allow me to hold her once again.” I get teary retyping it.
And this one: “I will find her in the pages of your books.” That line will break your heart.
So many feelings arise in me with this message.
How amazing that books and stories are vessels for our grief and our longing. How amazing to be reminded of their power, their ability to comfort us.
What an honor to have my work hold the memory of Wendy and people like Wendy. Like us. Naturalists, environmentalists, lovers of all creatures. Lovers of story.
What a privilege to be with Wendy’s husband in spirit as he grieves.
What luck that Wendy found my work. That it meant something to her. I feel so grateful for her and for everyone like her.
What joy a message like this brings to a writer. How glad I am that Wendy’s husband took the time to find and write to me. Mostly we writers don’t know how our work affects others. We don’t know what it inspires others to do. Words like this help us carry on, help us get through the long hours alone at the desk.
Who is Your Work For?
What I want to say to you as a writer is something I’ve said a hundred times or more: Your work is not for you. Your work is for others.
Your work is for Wendy. And for Wendy’s loved ones.
It’s for me. (Do you hear that? Your work is for me.)
Let me find myself in the pages of your work.
How?
The question becomes, How do you write so that a loved one says, “I’m reading your work so that I can hold my wife again?”
Write for the other.
Tap into spirit.
Tell the truth.
Say what needs to be said.
Stay focused on love.
Honor all life.
Be brave.
Make your work come alive in the mind of the reader.
Find your audience, the people who need you.
Be generous with them.
Be as good a writer as you can be.
Everything I Know About Writing Is in This Book
If you don’t have a copy of Craft & Current, I recommend getting one. You’ll have to pay for it, and the $20 you pay is a damned good deal, because it’s 30 years of my studying writing, writing, revising, editing, publishing, regretting, and celebrating, then doing it all over again.
We have arrived at Launch Day, Sept. 21, 2024. You will now be able to get the book on Amazon, and soon I’ll have it loaded to Ingram so that bookstores and libraries can order it. I’ll load to other platforms as well. (Will keep you posted.)
However, although it is available on Amazon, the *best* place to get it is directly from me. You’ll pay the $20 plus $5 shipping. I sign and date it and ship it out right away—I try to ship the very next day after your order arrives.
Here’s the link for Craft & Current: A Manual for Magical Writing.
And invest in the Companion Workbook if that will help you.
If you want the ebook, that’s $10 and gets delivered via BookFunnel. You can preorder the Audiobook, but I haven’t finished recording it, so you may have to wait until November for that one.
And thank you for allowing me to serve your dreams and visions.
Two More Writing Opportunities
Let Metaphor
I’m teaching a 2-hour workshop on metaphor-making soon. The workshop lasts 2 hours 22 minutes on Nov. 2, 2024 and is live via Zoom. We’re all in a Zoom room together. The workshop costs $22. I grabbed a screenshot when the registrations hit 22. Yes, I did! 😊
Metaphors aren’t necessary for writing. Examine any article or essay you read today and see if metaphor happens in them. Often it doesn’t.
But the best work pays serious attention to the craft of writing. It contains metaphor—and on many scales, from the entire piece to the single phrase.
Out of all literary techniques, metaphor is queen.
Therefore, this isn't a writing workshop for all writers. This is a writing workshop for the writers who know, for a fact, that they are still learning craft and will always be learning craft, and who don't mind showing up for their writing. This is for writers who show up for a craft workshop because they're committed not just to the story but to the art of the story.
Register at Eventbrite.
Flash Nonfiction Scheduled for Nov. 17
I have scheduled a 3-hour workshop for flash nonfiction (essay and memoir) for Sunday, Nov. 17 from 12-3 pm Eastern US Time. Tuition is $55.
Flash (or small or micro or tiny) is a potent and highly publishable form that you’ll fall in love with, if you haven’t already. I highly recommend getting good at this form.
Registration is at my website, here.
About the Photograph Above
Photographer Rob McDonald visited my home in 2014 for his series “Native Ground” in which he honors his love of books. He visits writers and photographs the places that inspire them.
See other images in this series here.
Rob is an English professor and dean of faculty at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.
I’ll see him at Slow Exposures: Photography of the Rural South, which takes place in Pike County, Zebulon, Georgia this coming weekend. On Friday from 1-3 pm Eastern I’m teaching a place-based writing workshop—you know I’m totally psyched about this—and there may be spots available. I’m also doing a signing at A Novel Experience, the indie bookshop in Zebulon, and a keynote at the ranch.
I linked the website above.
Please Spread the Word About This Newsletter
I want to serve more writers, and I’d like this newsletter to grow. Would you consider recommending it to your writer and wannabe-writer friends?
If you send me the emails of 3 of your friends, I will send them a personal invitation to join us here.
An official Substack recommendation would be really helpful as well. I thank you very much for your faith in me.
You Know the Drill
Write every day, even for a few minutes, and write at the same time if possible. Don’t give up on yourself.
I’m in for the Metaphor workshop. Got my companion workbook for Craft & Current today. Ready to go back through C&C and write. Thank you!
Loved this! Thank you! I can’t wait to dive into your book. It is at the top of my pile.