Autumn Equinox

We recently passed through Autumn Equinox 2023 and plunged into my favorite season, which I took as an opportunity to embark on a new writing project. During a weeklong trip to Boulder, CO, I broke form, leaving my computer, keyboard, and mouse on the desk at home in favor of writing longhand beneath the branches of an old oak on the back patio of our little rental house. I inscribed my words onto the pages of an archival quality hardbound notebook with black cover, red spine, and gold filigree that’s been sitting on my office closet shelf for several years looking too official to actually open and write in. (Leftover swag from one of my husband’s security conferences.) But this fancy notebook’s time has come. Clocking in at a hefty 304 pages it already looks like a finished book. But of course most of the pages are still blank.

Up until a few years ago when I trained myself to type directly onto the computer screen, I wrote all my first drafts longhand. At that point I decided I should conserve paper and also avoid having to type up my paragraphs all over again later. Plus I had difficulty deciphering my own handwriting!

However, lately I’ve realized how often I succumb to the distractions lurking on other tabs and websites just behind my Word and Scrivener docs. So, I’m returning to my roots for this new project, armed with some new tools.

The special-ordered 0.5 fine tip black ink pen felt immediately familiar in my hand and I’m excited about the content pouring out onto these previously blank pages in a neater, more legible form than in years past. The cast of characters from my novel The Siren Dialogues have come along for their second act. While the first book took place on a narrow barrier island from a single point of view, this one explores several perspectives and locales, from the top of the Empire State Building and bowels of Grand Central Station, to the far reaches of Florida, with a stopover at a Greek island café.

I’m having lots of fun, especially with characters who haven’t previously had their turn but feel fully formed and raring to go. And now that the initial scenes have poured onto the pages of this sturdy new notebook, I’m pausing to consider what internal structure might best hold them: alternating points of view or interconnected short stories? And where’s it all going? All good things need a proper container to give them form. The stiff covers of my notebook are a good reminder of that and before I go much further, I need to answer some of those questions.

Along with Autumn Equinox 2023, we recently celebrated the Jewish New Year 5784, with the requisite letting go of the old and embracing the new. My wish and plan for this new year is to let go of negativity, self-doubt, and judgments, and embrace structure, container and joy.

Current events in the world this past week have been grim and sobering. But however possible, I wish you a productive fall season with your creative projects, whatever form they may take. And hopes that it may yet be a good year for all of us.