Lessons from my Future Writer Self

Just a little note from me to you.

Dear Mandy from six months ago,

I’m writing this to you from the future. I’m going to share what you’re going to learn about writing.

First, writing is a trance. You have to get yourself into that mindset. It is a game. You will be distracted by everything. Nothing else matters. Get back to the page. You will oscillate between thinking this is the most important thing you’ll ever write, and thinking this is fluffy filler that will have zero impact on anyone, ever. You’ll want to give up on writing, you’ll tell yourself it is useless, you’ll want to stop doing this Substack because you’re convinced it’s sapping your precious writerly juice, on and on.

Second, you’ll write an entire draft of 60,000 words, locking yourself in a room in the hot summer of 2024, a slightly feverish and somewhat awful process. And then you’ll realize, oh, okay, we have to do a rewrite — there are parts of heart and aliveness, but it needs the discipline of structure. You’ll look back at that time a…