B.Y.O.K. (Bring Your Own Keyboard)
On pressing little buttons until they turn into words
Greetings, friends!
I took most of the last week off from writing. Finally, at Saturday’s Sit & Write, I picked up my Alphasmart Neo and tried. To my surprise, a short but whole essay poured out. No angst, no drama, no staring at the blinking cursor in despair. I reread it later in the day and wasn’t horrified by what I’d written; that’s really all I’m looking for from a first draft. It’s pretty unlikely I’ll ever try to publish it—I stopped trying to publish memoir-adjacent material more than a decade ago, as I find the idea of strangers reading about my real life to be mortifying (he said, while writing a newsletter). I’d rather drum up a bunch of lies about nonexistent people instead. Nonetheless, writing my little essay felt like a good warmup, a gentle reentry into the world of writing not-novels.
On an unrelated notes, I’m running a Spring Sale on paid subscriptions to this newsletter. You can get half off your first year for the next 2 days only! You’ll get full access to the ar…