Dispatches from the Writing Life

five writerly posts that inspired me this week

Good morning (or afternoon, or evening, depending on where you are). Have you poured your third cup of coffee yet? Substack has brought me a lot of peace and calm lately. Assuming you might enjoy a little piece and calm too, I thought I’d a few posts on the writing life that I’ve read and bookmarked recently.

A launch party at The Booksmith, circa 2017 (for The Marriage Pact)

Mimosas and Bookish Blind Dates

But first, today is Indie Bookstore Day! You know what that means: go to an independent bookstore in your community and buy a book or two! You know you’re going to be reading anyway. In San Francisco—where Indie Bookstore Day began as a collaboration between Green Apple Books and the NCIBA—the indies are tempting shoppers in ways an online behemoth never can: from mimosas at Green Apple on Clement and doodling with Charlie Jane Anders, to a blind date with a book at Books Inc., a tarot reading at The Booksmith on Haight, photo ops with storybook characters at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton, to biking San Francisco, from one bookstore to the next, using this interactive map.

If you can’t get to a bookstore, shop through Bookshop.org. 10% off all proceeds go to indie bookstores.

An Intimate Book Launch

On The Hyphen,

Emma Gannon

, who observes that “a book launch is like a mini wedding except you can’t deflect any of the attention onto your partner,” decided to do something different with the launch of her novel, Table for One. She hosted a dinner party for two dozen of her writer friends in London.

I really like this idea because it feels like an intimate celebration of the years of hard work it takes to write a book.

After the novel launch last week, she realized that her book probably won’t make the Sunday Times bestseller list, as the odds are really tough to beat, considering the number of novels published every week and all the moving parts at play. But bestsellerdom isn’t the only goal of a writer, of course.

With any artistic project, you are collaborating with the unknown. You are in a dance—and there is a force greater than you who sprinkles some magic dust and ties up all the bows while you sleep. Most of the time, you don’t get what you want. You often get something better—disguised as something else.

Gillian Richmond

and The Writer’s Journey

Here’s another one from across the pond. We share a last name, but we’ve never met. She’s a prolific UK playwright and script writer who has been in the business for more than thirty years, and she wrote the first gay characters for British soap operas. The Writer’s Journey is a fascinating glimpse into an entirely different segment of the writing world, wherein Richmond shares the story of how she got started. Delightfully gossipy posts about publishing in the UK in the eighties include Vodka and Orange.

I settle on the sofa with a biro and a pad of narrow-ruled A4 paper. No synopsis, no scene breakdown. Just two women - Denise and Christine - and me and a story that starts with a wives’ club outing to see Engelbert Humperdinck.

The Importance of Being Human

Brooke Warner of Writerly Things on the Human Authored verification program by the Authors Guild. Read it here.

In this week’s post, I’m sharing how how She Writes Press is already using the language The Authors Guild suggests to try to prevent AI training on our books, and how we’ll be implementing their new Human Authored “marks” from their recently announced certification program.

The Intersection of Art and Pain

Speaking of human, to be human is to suffer setbacks large and small. To be a writer is to find a place for these misfortunes. I love this post from

The Museletter with Kate Moses

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One of the things I love about being a writer is that virtually any experience you have can end up being valuable in your writing, whether the events themselves or the feelings stirred up by events.

So true. We can take anything and spin it into story. Nothing feels wasted. Everything goes into the pantry. Throughout our lives we pull from the pantry and make a thing we didn’t know we wanted to make, something that never looks or sounds or feels quite like we imagined it would, but something that is often worth making nonetheless.

On Creative Awe

Audrey Knox

, a film industry veteran, has a number of free posts on screenwriting, including How to Overcome Creative Awe.

It’s one of the defining characteristics of an artist: Once we start to appreciate the possibilities within our chosen field, we start to see the techniques leveled by the masters. We are inevitably become intimidated by the scope of what we once foolishly thought we were capable of accomplishing.

But she reminds us that the writers we admire also probably felt the pain of creative awe.

When you read a finished product, you don’t get access to that screenwriter’s personal neuroses. You don’t get to read their first drafts, you don’t know what notes they received, and you weren’t there with the writer when they wanted to give up.

So keep reading great books and screenplays. Keep watching great movies. Keep looking at and digesting art that is beyond your capabilities. Whatever your medium, keep learning from the greats. One day you might inspire creative awe in someone else.

Writers: Do you want to launch or improve your Substack?

Paid subscribers to The Caffeinated Writer get $75 off Substack for Authors.

What to watch

Finally, speaking of film, my son, a BFA student in filmmaking who has been a huge film fan since he was a small child, recently posted the movies he watched this spring on Substack. If you’re looking for something to watch, I highly recommend his list, which spans decades and genres.

Today’s caffeine

On waking, I realized there was no coffee in the house! My husband, who does not drink coffee but who understands my need, went to Safeway and bought me a pound of Philz Philtered Soul beans. And now, for a moment, all is well—if not in the world, then in this particular pocket of this particular day, while I sit on my sofa, drinking coffee, writing to you.

Thank you for reading The Caffeinated Writer. If you enjoy these posts, you might like my books. You can find them on Bookshop.org and on my website.