What Helped Me Most This Week

I’m trying to do something creative every day. I’m documenting it here.

This week, I listened to The Magnus Archives, read a short story in the Colorado Review, watched some great television (Foundation, Righteous Gemstones, and 30 Rock), went to the movies to see Black Bag, and worked on editing my novel. The work on my novel was definitely the most important thing I did, but the thing that I found the most helpful was the short story.

"The Mill Girls" by Rebecca Turkewitz was published in The Colorado Review is this lovely historical piece with a speculative element. I truly can't remember the last time I actually wrote a short story. Technically, my novel is comprised of a lot of 'short stories,' but those are all folktales that are centered around a specific place and specific people, so I don't know that it counts. I maybe haven't written a stand-alone short story since before grad school (the first go around), when I generated several very quickly for my MFA applications. Reading this short story reminded me that I really like short stories as a medium.

Obviously, the novel is my number one priority, but I'm very sick of it, and it's no longer in a generative phase. I've had it in my head that I should be starting on my next novel, but nothing has really captured my interest yet. Maybe I should be thinking about short stories.

Love and gratitude, as always.