Lexical Gap No. 55: Sqwander
September 2024 summary
I know, I know, we are well into the month of October before I get around to sending my September round-up. But as you all well know by now, I have ADHD, and time is more of a suggestion than an imperative for us.
The other part of it is that September was…blank. Not for any particular reason aside from the fact that there wasn’t much happening but rest. Mental rest, emotional rest, creative rest; I barely read anything and watched nothing. I consumed lots of YouTube content about Korean makeup and any tidbits I could hoover up about the upcoming Dragon Age game. I went to taekwondo nearly everyday. I took lots of walks with Castor and Pollux. Toward the end, I attended the Bookmarks Festival in Winston-Salem, NC to moderate a YA panel and spent the day soaking in bookishness with other people in a way that I don’t often get to do in my daily life (writing being a rather solitary endeavor, after all). For a while, I allowed myself to simply exist—a luxury I realize not many are able to afford—without feeling beholden to the constant pressure of capitalistic productivity bearing down on my shoulders. I mentioned last month that I was in a fallow period, and as I feel myself beginning to emerge, it is only now that I understand how necessary this part of my process is. Burnout hovered on the horizon, but instead of marching defiantly into the storm, I took shelter.
I’m also being a mentor for a group of writers at Pocket MFA, and it has been rather healing to talk about the craft of writing with other creatives. The longer I’ve been in publishing, the easier it is to forget that there was a time I wrote and rewrote for the joy of it. The pleasure and satisfaction of seeing a story come together, stronger and better than before. I loved this part about being an editor. I love talking stories with other people who love talking stories. I love delving into characterization, stakes, pacing, and plotting without regard to publication, I love applauding a word choice or a turn of phrase that paints a vivid picture in my mind. I love talking with those who have things to say.
It’s the reason I started writing, honestly. I have things I want to say and finding the best way of saying it is a joy. That is the essence of craft to me. The choices I make with the skills I have. Writing is a craft. Art is a craft. It is a series of choices I make based on my best judgment, discretion, talent, and taste. Art is a culmination, and the end product is merely the physical manifestation of it. It would behoove me to remember this from time to time, especially when I feel the boots of industry upon my neck.
In this issue
1. JJ’s magical world
2. Lexical gap
3. This creative life
4. The Morning Realms Dispatch
5. What I’m reading
6. What I’m watching
7. What I’m playing waiting on
lexical gap: sqwander 🧩
On Sunday I will be off to Korea and Japan with my mother for our (mostly) annual trip, and I can’t wait to do EXACTLY THIS.
this creative life ✍🏻
My fallow period was a large reason I wasn’t particularly active on social media this past month, but truthfully, I am always evaluating and reevaluating my use of social media in general. I’ve long given up trying to appease any algorithm gods and am slowly settling into the idea that “engagement” is merely the currency on which the attention economy runs. Unfortunately this means now that I am acutely aware of a viewing public in a way that colors what I do on social media, how I present myself, what I broadcast to the public. And yet, despite it all, the urge to share and connect still remains.
Broadcasting is really what I feel pressured to do on social media—broadcasting news, announcements, and the performance of an author’s life. I don’t always mind doing it—sometimes it can be fun—but there is something about the simple joy of sharing and connecting that gets lost. The pleasure of the yap, as it were. I miss yapping with others.
Ironically, this means I’ve started an Instagram broadcast channel, not to broadcast, but to yap. I don’t really intend on using it as my author self; it’s where I’ll be sharing the parts of me that have no place on the performance stage of my feeds and stories. Join, if you’d like. You’ll get the occasional secret, more than occasional dog photos, and of course, yapping.
the morning realms dispatch 🌞
I’m working on copyedits for Yuli, and it’s the first time I’ve read this book since I turned it in. I always joke that that if I ever wrote a memoir about my time in publishing, it would be titled Required Drinking: Every Step of This Process is the Worst, but honestly, copyedits is something I enjoy. I think it might be because they usually arrive at a stage in the process where I’ve had some time to have distance from the story and look at it with fresher eyes. I have the memory of a goldfish, so it’s almost like reading my own book again for the first time. The characters did what? They said what?
Copyedits are also a stark reminder that I am not as familiar with the English language as I think I am. My particular bugbear? The difference between further and farther.
ICYMI:
I revealed the cover for The Book Formerly Known as GUARDIANS 3, Henceforth To Be Known as YULI.
what i’m reading 📖
[Redacted] by [Redacted]. Publishing can occasionally strip me of the joys of writing, but sometimes you get some benefits out of the exchange, like getting to read a book I’ve been eyeing for months before it gets published ㅎㅎㅎㅎ
what i’m playing waiting on 🎮
Dragon Age: The Veilguard. If you know me, then you know I’m a huge fan of Bioware games, especially the Dragon Age franchise. It’s been 10 years since the release of the last game, and to say that I’m excited for its Halloween release is…an understatement. I’m dying for the studio to release its character creator early so I can spend 90+ hours making my protagonist before starting the game.
Until next time,
