I’ve been quiet online lately as I’ve been working through another revision of my novel. I’m pleased to report that it’s been going well! It was the right decision to take a little Substack break: I needed to claim more space for the revision in order to tackle it.
As I’m sure some of you might relate, though, “finishing another revision” has involved quite a bit of procrastination.
Some of my favorite methods of revision avoidance:
Tidying my desk.
Making a cup of tea. (I’ve been indulging in Rishi teas, especially their lavender mint and spicy masala chai.)
Ordering more pens.
Ordering more highlighters.
Ordering more Post-It flags.
Making another cup of tea.
Reorganizing my books.
There’s a shelf by my desk filled with writing books. Books about craft. Books about revision. Books about the writing process. Compilations of interviews with famous writers. Books about writing fiction. Books about writing nonfiction.
Many of them were books I bought before I started my MFA program eight years ago, hungry to learn everything I could about writing.
Their pages are underlined and annotated.
Most of them are coated in a thick layer of dust. Or at least they were, until I cleaned them up.
I pulled 10 titles off the shelf: books that gave me so much wisdom and inspiration back when I first read them. I’ve never been much of a book hoarder, though. I tend to only hold onto books that I know I’m going to want to reference later on. And these 10 books? They’ve done their time for me. I love them dearly, and I’ll always recommend them to people. But I’m ready to part with them.
So I packed these books in a Trader Joe’s bag and set them by the front door.
I thought, I should make a Substack list of these before I take them to the used bookstore.
But then I came up with something more fun.