bad at latte art
on writing obstacles and side gigs
A short one this week, folks, as I have family visiting and have to schlep to Times Square to buy theater tickets. How’s everyone doing on this, Day 11 of self-inflicted slog? I’m doing okay. By NaNo standards, I’m ahead of the curve; by the somewhat overambitious goals I’d set for myself, I’m about 20k behind.
If I were only freelancing at the moment, I’d be able to have more days like Tuesday where I wrote a whopping 6,365 words over the course of the day. But I’m not only freelancing right now—I have been picking up shifts at a local coffee shop, and I’m out of the house 2-4 days a week now. As I was standing at the counter the other day, ringing up an eight dollar latte for an NYU student who won’t tip, I started fretting about how I was going to hit fifty thousand words, let alone my own stupidly high goal.
I decided to approach it like any other problem: identify the issue, assess the tools at my disposal, apply appropriate tools to issue. In this case, it wasn’t feasible to bring my laptop to the shop. There isn’t space, and regardless, I am there to do a job—it’s a bad look if the person behind the counter is obviously doing other work.
On the other hand, weekday shifts can be slow as hell, with 5-10 minutes between customers sometimes. Given that there’s only so much I can practice latte art, that’s a good portion of my shift where I’m just standing there staring into space or looking at my phone. Then I remembered that I have a bluetooth ergonomic keyboard that folds up. Eureka! Problem addressed. Wednesday’s shift I loaded my WIP onto google docs, fired up the little ergonomic keyboard, and during those slow bits I got words down—at least 2500 of them.
I’ve written before about how the best strategy for getting a book finished is the one that gets the book finished. I may bring my keyboard in again and not get any words down because it’s busy, or because my brain refuses to cooperate (as it did yesterday, when the keyboard sat folded up and unused under the counter for my entire seven-hour shift.) But having the tools and the mental outlook in hand sets me up for success—at least, I hope. What are the obstacles you’re facing in your noveling journey? What tools have you found to address them?
By the end of the month of November I hope to have a new draft and a half of a novel. Maybe by the end of November I’ll also be better at drawing a little leaf in the foam on top of a latte.
HOUSEKEEPING
Rebecca Heyman and I had planned on doing an Instagram Live to talk about our NaNo progress, but life got in the way in the form of coffee shops and children, and it didn’t end up happening. It will at some point, however—possibly at the halfway point! When it does I’ll let y’all know.
Got a question? Want me to talk about something in particular? Leave it as a comment or reply to the newsletter!
THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY
Astros win, baby! That is all. (Oh, and someone whipped an empty beer can at Ted Cruz during the victory parade. Good job, anonymous parade goer!) I’ll go back to paying attention to hockey next week.
READING: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman
WATCHING: Extraordinary Attorney Woo
LISTENING: The Astronaut by Jin (BTS)
WORDS WRITTEN THIS WEEK (so far): 8920
This has been A Faster No, a dispatch on publishing, writing, books, and beyond. Is there something you’d like me to talk about? Leave it in the comments or reply to the email! You can support the newsletter here. If you purchase a book from any of the links to Bookshop.org I get a small commission at no cost to you. I am available for developmental editing and editorial assessment services via Reedsy.