New Moon Newsletter.1
Happy Halloween!
Well, hello…
How serendipitous that the first New Moon on which I write to you is also Halloween night, (arguably) the witchiest night of the year! Or maybe I planned it that way…guess you’ll never know.
More Faith, More Fun
So the 5th draft is well underway (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, pop back into the previous Newsletter to catch up!). I’ve been having a lot of fun these past few weeks writing about Amethyst’s school, which is a private Catholic school, to the surprise of no one. Exploring Catholicism’s influence on Amethyst has been a complicated experience, given my own fraught history with the faith. In one way, it feels like a reclamation of my history to write a book in which a queer witch has to navigate things like daily mass, religious fanaticism, and maybe even a burning bush or two??
Most recently, I wrote a scene in which Amethyst goes to confession, which was an exercise in memory recall because I haven’t been to confession since the spring of 2016. Middle school E would be mortified to hear that–I used to be a 1x/week confessor and judged anyone who went less than 1x/month. How far I’ve fallen, but I digress... Writing about confession was so interesting to me because examining it through Amethyst’s eyes reminded me of its value.
You might be thinking, E, you red-haired liberal, what do you MEAN confession, the engine for Catholic guilt, has value?? and as much as I’d love to let you box me in like that, I, like everyone, am full of nuance. I can believe confession is concerning for a number of reasons and believe that the process of examining your conscience, considering your failures, and most importantly, discussing them with a trusted adult holds immense value, especially for young people. Hold on–am I just describing...therapy? Maybe I’m just thinking about how cool it would be if priests were trained therapists without a moral agenda and…you know what? I’m gonna cut this segment here or I’ll start getting snippy. My point is I’ve made faith a great deal more important to Amethyst and have been exploring what it means to them in this draft, and I think it has added depth and complexity to the story, so, you know, huzzah for that.
Cut The Feelings
Because I’m chronically online, I take inspiration from social media more than I’d care to admit. The other day, I came across a post that challenged me (and however many others who saw the post) to not use a single thinking word in my writing for a month (thinking words include words like wondered, thought, considered, wanted, etc.) and the goal of this exercise is to focus on sensory description instead of internal abstractions. The purpose of this practice, the post wrote, is to create a story in which the reader is the one who wonders, thinks, concludes, worries, etc., instead of your character. When the reader does these things, it means they are feeling as they read, and readers who feel continue to turn the page.
I definitely think this is second draft advice, and I’m not gonna hold myself to this standard on my first drafts, but I’m on draft 5 now, which means I’ve got plenty of material that I’m revising and reshaping to fit the new vision, so I’m excited to see how this helps me ground those pieces even more.
So that’s my goal this month–to use fewer feeling words and instead focus on more sensory description that evokes feelings in the reader. Thanks, Instagram!
(And if you saw any feeling words in this newsletter, no you didn’t!)
Recommendations
Disease by Lady Gaga: Mother Monster is back with another hit, because she doesn’t know how to miss. It’s a perfect Halloween smash, so give it a listen while you’re handing out candy tonight! Oh, there’s also a music video for the song, which is soooo 2011 Gaga. We are so back.
FKA Twigs has been releasing new music that’s amazing (mark my words, she’s going to be all over your FYP come January/February). Unfortunately I feel like I can’t recommend her stuff without also addressing the fact that her launch of a new era has sparked another round of discourse about her allegations about her abusive relationship with Shia Labeouf that’s been…disheartening to witness. This YouTube video summarizes their relationship and the discourse around it pretty well, if you have 20 minutes to spare. I think how people are responding to Twigs is a good case study for the growing disdain for women we’re seeing pop up across the country. It also begs the question: if something like this can happen to a wildly successful pop star who has the resources to more or less live on Cloud 9, imagine what’s happening to the women on the ground.
Over the Garden Wall: I rewatch exactly 1 piece of media every year, and it’s this 10-part miniseries by Cartoon Network. It’s Halloween themed, clever, timeless, and so well-written. I’ll never get tired of that twist ending. Each episode is between 9-13 minutes long, so you’re looking at about 2-3 hours of content here, the length of a long movie. Easy peasy! If you watch it, please message me so we can gush about it! Available to stream on Hulu :)
Alright, y’all. That’s it for this New Moon! You’ll hear from me again in 2 weeks for the Full Moon, when I’ll release some more creative pieces I’ve been cooking up. Thanks for reading, and as always, shoot me an email/dm/message if anything resonated here!
Until soon,
E