Oohs and Aahs for 5.10.24

Last chance for the Nebula Notebook discount!

Visual artists often talk about liking their sketches better than their final art. I feel this way sometimes when I see layouts on a book! 🙊 The loose, lively energy in the sketches can get lost when the artist goes to color and starts tightening the lines. It’s a really tricky balance to make the images legible, while still feeling exciting.

Writers can struggle in the same way. To write something really fun and creative, you need to wander around, experiment, and make surprising connections. Along the way, some bits may be brilliant and build momentum or add to the theme of your book, and some bits might distract or confuse the reader. But if you tried to focus on just the most sensible, necessary elements, you would lose some of the truly creative elements that make the book feel alive and uniquely yours.

So I’m going to make a bold statement for an editor:

There’s no such thing as a manuscript that’s too messy.

This week I talked with a writer who was worried his middle-grade novel was too wild and wooly to send to me. As a writer I totally get that feeling. We’re trained to not submit until our books are pretty much ready to be published. It feels like they need to be perfect before we show them to anyone.

But in the early stages of the writing process, a messy manuscript is a good thing. Sure messy means your book needs more work. But messy can also mean your story is wonderfully original.

I’ve worked with hundreds of writers at all different stages of the writing process, and I’ve never seen a manuscript that was so messy I didn’t know what to do with it. Of course, when I’m in editing mode, I’m always thinking about how to move a book forward to the next stage and eventually make it publishable. But I also really appreciate seeing something that feels fresh and exciting. To get there, sometimes you need to get a little messy. But you don’t need to do it alone.

I’m here to help you clean it up. 😘

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Last Chance

It’s the last chance to get 20% OFF ALL NEBULA NOTEBOOK SUBSCRIPTIONS. Treat yourself or another creative mother to a year of friendship and inspiration!

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This Week I’m…

• Partnering with

  Chanel Riggle
  on the Mental Health and Motherhood Conference (You’ll recognize some of the amazing speakers from Mothers Who Make interviews!) 🤩

• Happy to see the conversation around creativity and motherhood reaching the NYT (Can we just go ahead and declare the mothers of Substack a modern-day version of The Equivalents?)

• Excited to watch this episode with a bowl of porridge 😂

• Wondering if plants are intelligent 🍃

• Making something that will carry you through the summer (Lots more on this soon!) ✏️

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If you enjoyed this post, please 💛 it so others can find it or share it with your favorite creative mothers.

PS—The fastest way to grow as a writer is to book a manuscript critique or a creative coaching session with an expert.

My clients get agents, sell books, and win awards. They also learn how to find ease and joy in the creative process, so they can keep going when life gets hard.