My Secret Project

I’ve been working on a new book…

Oct 15, 2024

The question of “What’s next?” is ubiquitous in author interviews—I think it comes from a place of genuine curiosity and excitement, interviewers wanting to give authors a chance to talk about what they’re currently working on instead of beating the same drum about a book they’re probably sick of talking about—but it can also feel overwhelming or too soon. I wasn’t ready to talk about my current WIP yet when I did interviews for First Love, so I demurred when I got that inevitable question with “It’s a secret.”

Well, I’m now far enough into that secret project that I’m ready to tell you a little bit about it.

But first! My first book, Negative Space, is a monthly deal on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and Apple Books—which means you can get the ebook for only $1.99 until October 31. I saw a reader review of First Love recently that said something like, "Reading this book I wondered where all the adults in Lilly's life were, and then I read Negative Space and it all made sense." So if you liked First Love, this is your chance to get the rest of the story for less than the cost of a large coffee.

Ok, now for my (no longer) secret project…

…

…I’m writing a novel!

I know, I know—who isn’t. But after studying nonfiction in undergrad and journalism in grad school, working as a freelance journalist, editing nonfiction for two magazines and a small press, and publishing a memoir and an essay collection… I really thought I was on the nonfiction track for life. I never had plans, or even the desire, to try writing fiction. Occasionally someone would ask if I thought I might ever give it a shot, and I’d answer with some version of “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” Which was the truth!

But then, with First Love, I reached the limits of how much I wanted to say about certain personal experiences—but not the limits of what I wanted to write about the larger themes I was exploring through those experiences. Specifically, I have a lot more to say about the dead girl trope, and true crime, and who gets to tell the story of a life that ends violently. But I’ve written enough about my cousin’s murder. So I started thinking about other ways to engage with these themes that are still tugging at me, and an idea for a novel began to take shape.

I started very tentatively (the first page in my notebook about the idea literally starts with “If I were ever to write a novel, hypothetically…”) but the project quickly gathered its own momentum.

I considered keeping it under wraps until I sold it—going quiet for several years and then emerging like SURPRISE, I WROTE A WHOLE NOVEL! But alas, I am constitutionally incapable of keeping my mouth shut for that long. I like talking about what I’m working on, it helps make the thing feel solid for me.

So instead I’m doing the exact opposite of keeping it under wraps: Starting a new series here at The Word Cave called “What Is a Novel?” about what I’m learning as I delve into this totally new-to-me genre. Most craft essays/newsletters are written by people who are published in the genres they’re writing about, and have some kind of authority to speak from. In this series, I’ll be writing from the trenches, figuring it out as I go, and inviting you along for the ride.

It's scary to be a beginner in public, to talk about what I don’t know; to risk being wrong about what I think I’m figuring out, or saying something that feels revelatory to me but is obvious to everyone who knows better. But sharing this process also feels true to my whole ethos as a writer and a teacher of writing.

The topics I teach tend to be the ones I've struggled with most in my own work, because those are the things I've spent the most time thinking about and researching and experimenting with. And I do believe that there's value in sharing the fruits of that labor after the fact, just as I have benefited greatly from the hard-won wisdom and skill of other writers. But the way that I learn best is always through the labor itself. I love taking writing classes, but nobody has taught me more about writing than the arduous paths from my own rough drafts to their finished versions.

So, I thought, what if this time around I shared that? Not just what I've learned, after I’ve processed it and put it into practice in a finished work, but the process of learning through writing? A record of the trial and error that is teaching yourself how to write.

It feels worth a shot, at least. I don’t know how long I’ll keep this series going—there’s definitely a chance I’ll want to go back underground with the project at some point, or that I’ll run out of things to say long before I finish the book. But in the meantime, I hope it might be useful, or interesting, or at least fun to follow along. Keep an eye out for the first installment next month.

Also! ICYMI: I wrote a guest post for
Cassie Mannes Murray
’s
Pine State Publicity
newsletter, breaking down the nine essays I published over the last year to support First Love—including my New York Times debut, which was published last month!