celebrate everything

marking the milestones in a big project + March intentions

Nancy Reddy

Feb 26, 2023

Welcome to Write More! This is the monthly intentions email, which goes out the last Sunday before a new month starts. It’s a chance to fight the Sunday Scaries by thinking through your goals and intentions for your writing practice in the coming month and to reflect on your progress in the previous month.

If that sounds helpful and fun, subscribe here.

Friends! I’m in Houston right now, listening to Feist at the funky little coffee shop that had opened in my old neighborhood the year before we left Texas for grad school in Wisconsin. It’s like a really disorienting form of time travel.

I wanted to write something today about celebrating things and marking the milestones that make up the long journey in a creative project. The writing life can be so lonely, and there’s almost always a long period of just working quietly by yourself, hanging on to the faith that what you’re doing is worth it. And even the best big things can be hard and stressful and anxiety provoking—publishing a book is great but also a ton of work and inevitably calls all your insecurities right up to the surface—so I think it’s really important to celebrate the small things, too. A little while ago a writer I admired posted a photo of herself with a bottle of champagne she’d bought when she started writing her new book, and she was opening it to celebrate finishing an early draft. I love both parts of that—celebrating the draft, not just the final draft or the book deal or publication, and that she’d planned that celebration herself. Don’t wait for someone else to throw you a party or tell you you’re doing great.

I’m about to [knock on wood, cross my fingers, toss some salt over my shoulder just in case] hit a big milestone on a very long project, and I’ve been thinking about how to mark that occasion. It’s the kind of milestone that will be invisible to the larger world—no book announcement to share, no cover to reveal, etc—but I’m really proud of how hard I’ve worked, and I want to have something tangible to show for it.

A little celebration could be a small purchase or treat (a brownie, a fancy fizzy water) or something a little bigger (I used to buy myself a lipstick when I sent a dissertation chapter off to my advisor), but it also doesn’t have to be a thing, or cost money. You could take the afternoon off and go to the park or go on an adventure someplace new. And I think telling people about your milestone or success counts, too. It’s easy to think we have to wait to share until there’s something big and tangible—but I’d bet you have people in your life who want to celebrate all the other steps along the way.

How do you celebrate your big and small victories, writing or otherwise?

March intentions

What does the month ahead look like for you? What are you working on this month?

I’ve been thinking a lot about Erin Flanagan’s practice of setting her writing schedule by looking at her calendar and starting with the time she actually has available. (I wrote about that here.) I’ve got a busy month coming up with travel and deadlines, and my big goal for the month is just to stay connected to the writing part of my brain, which I’m hoping to do with a combination of morning pages (or three pages of garbage, as we talked about in the fall) and cutting down the time I spend on my phone/on screens. (I followed the 30-day plan in Catherine Price’s book How to Break up with your Phone in December and found it hugely transformative . . . but I need to renew my efforts.)

Some seasons are great for big ambitious writing goals and cranking out words, and some seasons are just about getting from one moment to the next. If you’re feeling similarly frazzled, you might start by thinking about what helps you connect to the writing part of your brain and prioritize that.

One more thought as you think about the month ahead: I’ve been reading and thinking about Jenny Odell’s new book, Saving Time, in preparation for a craft essay I’m writing for Electric Literature about how her work on time and attention matters for writers. I loved this bit, aimed at the overachievers and perfectionists among us: Odell suggests “experimenting with what looks like mediocrity in some parts of your life.” This feels like an odd question to ask, but where might you be a little more mediocre in your life this coming month?

if you want a pretty postcard for your writing space, or a sticker for your notebook . . .

The postcards and stickers (designed by the talented Lindsay Lusby) have arrived at my house in New Jersey, so once I’m home from Texas, I’m going to pop them in the mail. If you’ve already emailed me, look for them soon!

And if you’d like one, do two quick things: 1) add a comment below about something you’re planning to celebrate in your writing life this month, or how you like to mark writing milestones, and 2) send me an email (you can just reply to this newsletter) with your address.

AWP 2023: Your Best Book Launch: Publicity for Poets (& Other Small-Press Writers)

At this year’s AWP in Seattle, I’m moderating a Saturday afternoon panel on publicity. I’d love to see you there. And please say hi if you see me in the book fair, etc! I know lots of folks find AWP overwhelming or just stressful, but I honestly love it, and my big hope this year is to spend time with the 3-dimensional forms of the many people I’ve gotten to know through the internet in the last couple of pandemic years. And that includes you all!

Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard & how to do it anyway. I’d love to hear from you. Reply to this email, comment below, or find me on twitter (@nancy_reddy) and instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).

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