The Week in Words - 3/10/25 - 3/16/25
A week devoted to an article, and short stories
Output - Synthesis
My big goal for the week was to finish the Baggage Claim article, wherein I talk about the tools I use to write. Since it’s a look at my writing process, that means my brain keeps trying to tell me that I have no authority on the subject, as if talking about writing is reserved only for those who’ve been published, as if I’m the only person that would find it interesting—a solipsistic trap, much like these updates.
None of that is true. I’m sure you guys are at least a little curious about how I go about my bidness. This little nugget of hope carries me forward in spite of feeling rather shy about the whole endeavor.
Shy is a good word for it. My writing process has never really been put out in the open, laid bare in the spotlight. Getting over this shyness is exactly what this blog is about, and why I continue doing these updates.
I pressed on and got Baggage Claim done and edited and focused. Initially, it was overlong and indulgent like a director’s cut DVD. I was able to hone in and make an essay out of it instead of product reviews, exploring how I wound up with the system I use. I’m gonna post it soon so be on the look out for it.
I’m hoping to spend some more time coming up with new ideas. I got the two that I’d been sitting on done gone out of me, and so now I really just need to settle in for a little while and see what happens, be it something new or ambling back toward Avalanche.
I’ll start with a focus on rhythm and improvisation, allowing the story to develop out of symbols and sections, with characters appearing to fill the context-cup.
Alright, cool, I think that’s vague enough to work.
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Output - Data
Total: 5,478 words (8 pages [1,632] + 3,846 typed)
Days of Writing: 6/7 days (.857 WrPCT)
AWD: 913/day
Words Added to Checked Baggage: 829
Ratio: 15
Longest Day: 3/11/25 - 1,873 words (2 pages [408] + 1,465 typed)
The Still Bleepin’ Counts Award: 3/14/25 - 202 words typed
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Story Break
Output - Synthesis
I am still sucked in to Hempel’s Sing to It, but I can see that she is at the height of her powers when the work is shorter. Reading through these stories, I understood why she has never wrote a novel: she is able to tell as complete of a story with only 113 words. To wit:
At the end, he said, No metaphors! Nothing is like anything else. Except he said to me before he said that, Make your hands a hammock for me. So there was one.
He said, Not even the rain—he quoted the poet—not even the rain has such small hands. So there was another.
At the end, I wanted to comfort him. But what I said was, Sing to it. The Arab proverb: When danger approaches, sing to it.
Except I said to him before I said that, No metaphors! No one is like anyone else. And he said, Please.
So—at the end, I made my hands a hammock for him. My arms the trees.
"Sing to It" by Amy Hempel - https://lithub.com/sing-to-it/ There’s no need to go long upon long. Her work runs on the shrapnel left behind, the spaces between the details, and often this strategy of withholding and intentional obfuscation works best in small packages. That isn’t to say I don’t love the longer stories—it’s all teaching me something. But for a writer like myself whose ideas have a tendency to splay outward with tendrils and limbs, the biggest lessons are learned in the shortest stories. Like Saunders talked about, How can we make it a story, no matter how weightless its word count may seem.
Once I finish the final story, a novella called Cloudland, I’ll have my first finished book of the year—and one of the few story collections I’ve read cover-to-cover. Progress isn’t linear, folks, so I ain’t gonna hold nothin’ against myself when it comes to not finishing a book yet this year. It’ll happen, it’ll arrive, it’ll all come together. Let’s all be blessed with patience and understanding.
Input - Data
Book: Sing to It by Amy Hempel
Starting Page: 45
Ending Page: 94
Days Read: 2
Pages Read: 49
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Book: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
Starting Page: 55
Ending Page: 65
Days Read: 1
Pages Read: 10
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3/7 days (.429 rPCT)
Combined Pages Read: 59
Combined Pages Per Day: 19.6
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I am interested in your process because I can't write novels, only essays & term papers.