On Navigating Time and the Writing Business
One class on craft, one book on business—both invaluable (and neither by me)
Time is a strange thing. It often runs our lives—how much or how little we have, how we spend our moments or our days, and even how much time we have left in these bodies. Yet time itself is a human construct. Absent humans, what we call time doesn’t exist. As Eckhart Tolle wrote in The Power of NOW, “What time is it? A tree or an animal would be bemused by such a question. ‘Why, it’s now. The time is always now.’”
“What time is it? A tree or an animal would be bemused by such a question.
‘Why, it’s now. The time is always now.’”
In my Writer’s Digest article about creating everyday wonder, I wrote about the techniques of playing with time—slowing down to “bullet time” or speeding time up almost like a flip-book.
For example, in Richard Power’s novel The Overstory, there’s a passage that vividly conveys a hundred years of events and change in about 400 words. I had to cut the passage down for the article, but this excerpt gives you the gist:
The photos hide everything: the twenties that do not roar for the Hoels. The Depression that costs them two hundred acres and sends half the family to Chicago … [T]he dozens of joyous weddings, christenings, and graduations … The lawsuit between cousins … The handiwork of heroin and Agent Orange that comes home with nephews from ’Nam. The hushed-up incest, the lingering alcoholism, a daughter’s elopement with the high school English teacher. The cancers (breast, colon, lung), the heart disease … everything a human being might call the story happens outside his photos’ frame.
—Richard Powers, The Overstory
Playing with time is a fantastic way to vary the pacing of your story—including, and especially, in memoir.
My friend and colleague Lisa Cooper Ellison is teaching a class on Managing the Present in Memoir this coming Wednesday, April 16. She’ll be diving deep into issues of time and pacing, when and how to slow down or speed up, the most common time issues memoirists encounter, and much more. Lisa is a fantastic teacher, and the class is only $25 (USD). I highly recommend this for anyone writing memoir. If you can’t make it live, there will be a recording (as long as you sign up).
Learn more and register here.
Jane Friedman’s The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition
There’s a difference between writing and storytelling, and there’s a difference between writing as a hobby and writing with the intention of earning income. You may have a fantastic story, brilliantly told, but if you don’t understand the fundamentals of the publishing industry, you’ll be setting yourself up for substantial disillusionment. Similarly, freelance writers who want to make a living need to understand the ever-shifting media landscape, and Jane is an exceptional guide. (She’s also been a full-time writer for 25+ years, so she walks her talk.)
The second edition of Jane’s book comes out on April 25 (🎉🎉🎉). As Jane told Lisa Cooper Ellison during their podcast conversation a few weeks ago, there are significant changes from the first edition, because so much has changed in the past seven years. All of this to say, every writer—whether you’re a creative writing student, a subject-matter expert or a career writer navigating an ever-shifting landscape—can benefit from this book. Pre-orders help to boost the book’s visibility, so do yourself (and Jane) a favor, and pre-order The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition.
Thank you for being a Resonant Storytelling subscriber. I realize you’re probably swamped with emails, and that makes it all the more meaningful that you took the time to read this. If you found this post helpful, here are four simple ways to support this Substack:
Subscribe to this Substack, if you don’t already
Upgrade to a paid subscription (you’ll be supporting a Canadian 🇨🇦!)
Click or tap the heart icon to like this post
Share this post by ‘restacking’ (use the ‘quote’ function to say what helped you the most about this post)
Share the Writer’s Digest article with your writing and social networks
Forward this email to a friend or share the link on social media