An Exercise in Restraint, Open Submissions, Note from the EIC, and What We Published Last Month
Write or Die Magazine Updates: June 2024
Each month, you will receive this special newsletter with a recap of what our magazine published the month prior and what our editors have been up to. As the Write or Die Mag team, we will share what has been inspiring us, along with craft tips and opportunities to work one-on-one with us! Keep scrolling! <3
A Note from the EIC
Hey writers,
Not that you were asking or looking for my permission, but I just wanted to let you know it’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to take breaks.
Maybe we already know this. Maybe we hear it all the time but I’m sure I’m not the only one who still struggles with that lingering guilt when my writing work takes a pause.
Where I live in New England, summer is fleeting and therefore precious. I feel I need to soak it all up quickly before it slips through my fingers. Every sunny day is an opportunity, a calling to be outside. To unplug. To feel how fucking amazing it is to be a body in the sunshine or floating in the waves.
Where is the time to write? I ask myself after my work is done and I’m heading towards the door.
As some of you might already know, I finished my novel manuscript in May and have begun querying agents. So far—30 letters sent. 6 rejections. And of course, the waiting. The weeks of a completely empty inbox (I made a special email address for queries only). Maybe summer was a terrible time to start querying, but I have the same time slipping through my fingers feeling about this novel as I do about this season. Why wait, I figured. Might as go for it.
In the weeks since querying, I haven’t written anything creative. This might be the first thing besides work stuff I’ve written at all. It's hard to be okay with that, but at the same time— I have to be, right? I’m not a machine, and even though it seems like everyone else is creating non-stop, even in the heat of summer, I’m not one of those writers. I need space, and time and playfulness away from my desk.
And so, I guess I’m writing this today in case you feel similar. Enjoy this time of year. Embrace it. The writing will be there when you get back.
<3
Kailey
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Often, I drive in silence.
Or, I talk to myself.
More than one person tells me this is psychotic behavior—the operating a motor vehicle sans musical accompaniment, not the carrying on a dialogue, back and forth, in which I am, technically, the only participant. Perhaps I surround myself with people who do the same thing. (In college, a professor specializing in educational psychology told us this is a sign of intelligence. I’ll take it.)
Lately, it’s not that I don’t appreciate music. Absurd. It’s more that I was scrolling through Instagram a few weeks ago and after viewing several photographs was suddenly blasted with Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” with which I was not familiar and which also hit upon my senses less like a piece of music and more like an auditory hallucination that scratched an unfamiliar itch, lodging itself so deeply in my brain that I cannot—no, will not—stop singing it despite the very objective fact that my vocals, at best, resemble a feline screeching that occasionally dips into bizarre Eddie Vedder territory. It’s that cooing quality of her voice, really, that’s so catchy, and the winking tone. And, doesn’t she sound just a bit like Dolly Parton? But, I digress.
My point is that I have needed silence to achieve any distance from that pop song, which I now cannot escape. Also, the talking I do in the car is actually work on my various writing projects. I am always working through, aloud, various plot and character issues that will not stop tapping me on the shoulder, saying, Hey! Fix me.
But, when I do listen to something, it’s likely a podcast. Right now, it’s Brad Listi’s otherppl, which has quickly become my favorite writing podcast. His conversations often feel more like you’re overhearing a discussion between friends, and he manages to talk to writers not only about the questions and ideas central to their works, but also about the actual writing and publishing process itself.
, assistant interview editor
I recently participated in Creative Mornings, a breakfast lecture series for creatives! It was splendid, and I found out that these Creative Mornings take place all over the country, all over the world! And each month there’s a new theme and a speaker will host a talk with coffee and treats. Highly recommend finding one in your city and attending ASAP.
Shelby Hinte, associate editor
This month, I am recommending something a little bit different. I’ve been taking a break at least once a week from ALL media (yes, books too) and just spending a day outside in my local parks without distractions. As much as I love to fill my head with words, sometimes it’s nice to just turn all the way off and listen to the birds. I will be leaning into this weekly tradition all summer and I highly recommend doing the same. Bonus points for taking a dip in your local river/lake/ocean/pool if you got one!
Nirica Srinivasan, editorial intern
I watched Jenny Slate’s comedy special ‘Seasoned Professional’ recently and loved it so much — she’s always so funny, and candid in such a great way! It makes a great companion piece to her upcoming essay collection, Lifeform — they’re both about pregnancy and motherhood, but also about approaching the world with a radical kind of optimism, vulnerability, and openness. I’m so inspired to bring that kind of emotion into my own life. Her work is also always kind of a masterclass in the best possible way to tell a joke.
, editor in chief
I loved
’s latest post, Hot and Haunted: A Guide to Your Perfect Author Photo. I feel like no one talks about the importance of an author photo, let alone how vulnerable it can feel to get your picture taken. Chelsea breaks down why they are important, how to stay true to yourself, what to look for when choosing a photographer, as well as her many attempts at getting it right. My favorite takeaway was Chelsea’s encouragement to invest in headshots before you are published and to use the themes/vibes/interests in your own work as inspiration for your shoot. After reading her post, I found a local photographer with whom I'm so excited to work with. I told her all about my novel, Write or Die, and my goals, and we are in the middle of making a game plan (where I get to make her a mood board of everything I like!) We have a shoot planned for September! Thanks, Chelsea <3
Our assistant fiction editor, Suzanne, is a collector of craft tips. She will share her favorite tidbit of the month with us in each issue!
An exercise in restraint:
I am watching The Bear (S3E1), and I am thinking about perfectionism.
And repetition and patience and obsession (yes, again) and detail and—
More than once, I’ve shared my belief that specificity lies at the heart of truly transcendent writing because specificity reveals each writer’s unique voice and vision.
But with close attention to detail often comes the tendency to overwrite. For me, I think this stems from the way writing—when I’ve lost myself to a project in the very best way—feels less like a decision and more like a compulsion, the narrative following me constantly, whispering phrases, sounds, images, words. It’s almost a tangible thing. A disembodiment given a body, made corporeal.
Or, sometimes, a doubling: a call coming from inside the house of my own brain.
In a recent scene, I could not settle for simply writing a line or two about the particular setting: woods. No. I wanted to write about how the opaque sky seems to crack through branches and leaves, how the catch of a stick underfoot from behind you becomes not a snap but a shatter in the eardrum, ruining the illusion that you are alone. About how a fire’s smoke puts a husk—not a huskiness—in the tender space of the throat where you gulp and swallow. I reread what I’ve written, and I think: too much.
On the screen, I watch Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy scribble endlessly in his notebooks. He draws. He takes notes. He tastes and adjusts. He cuts and sautés, over and over. Wipes the edges of a plate clean, again and again. Refire. Reheat. Redo. A thousand necessary details that make me understand. He, too, is obsessed.
Carmy’s hands shake, and I’m the one who needs a cigarette, that mentholated tug that feels as if it’s throwing open the curtains inside your body, as if it’s opening all the windows.
He creates a plate centered by the perfect gem of a scallop, nearly translucent, nearly alien in its glossed perfection. Garnished, and over-sauced. The monster of a chef played by Joel McHale arrives with his usual criticism, and a note, written on a piece of kitchen tape: SUBTRACT. Carmy knows he’s right. It will make the dish better.
This is true to writing, isn’t it? Sometimes, the best thing you can do is subtract.
So, this month, an exercise in restraint. Take a look at a piece you’ve written or review a few paragraphs or pages you’re actively working through. Focus only on your moments of description. Draw a circle around the 2-3 most essential verbs, then adjectives, then nouns. Now, rewrite, using only those 6-9 words to form your descriptions. Once you’re out of those words, you can’t describe any more.
Finally, a reminder: These craft tips are not meant to be a prescriptive set of rules. Sometimes you don’t need less. Sometimes you need more. Sometimes you need the closeup shot of Carmy’s face as he receives the call that his brother has died, the way his right eyebrow arches—nearly imperceptibly—up. Because this hyper focus on muscle and hair and skin, that centimeter of movement, tells you every single thing you need to know about the hallucinatory nightmare of grief.
Got it? Okay.
Now say, Yes, Chef.
Author Interviews
Chloé Caldwell: On Finding the Right Agent, Listening to the Writing, and the Reissue Process for Her Novella, ’Women’ by Kim Narby
Published: June 4
I'm really glad I took my long break from agents. I think they're great if you know what you want them for and if you really want to be on a big publisher. Otherwise, I don't feel that you need one.
Heather Bartel: On Derealization as Process, Tarot Inspo, and All Things Plath in Her Debut Essay Collection, ‘Exit the Body’ by
Published: June 6
I attribute, in part, my intense connection to Plath to our astrological compatibility—even from beyond the grave I felt the pull of her, pulling me under, balancing out my blaze.
: On “Halloween” as a Coming-Out Story, Horror as Comfort, the Queer Canon, and His Debut Memoir, ‘The Long Hallway’ by
Published: June 11
Horror became a sort of comfort zone for me because the fears I was having in the real world were insurmountable. There were fears that had no resolution. But in a horror story or novel or film, it’s all about controlling fear, managing it by giving it a structure.
: On Creating a Unique Voice, the Gym as an Escape, and Balancing Tenderness and Humor by Drew Buxton
Published: June 13
The absurd in fiction is not too far from the absurd in life. If we had the grapefruit diet and the Subway diet where you eat nothing but Subway sandwiches—I am not making this up—then hell, it’s not a big step to find a “secret” communion wafer craze.
Anita Gail Jones: On Writing About Historical Events, Talismans, the Importance of Sharing Black Stories, and Her Debut Novel ‘The Peach Seed’ by
Published: June 19
There's such a desire in this culture of ours to relegate people to one story, especially in Black America. I saw this as an opportunity to show how many stories one family can have.
Katerina Jeng: On Writing as a Portal to the Divine, Dismantling Self-Limiting Beliefs in Writing, Failure as Redirection, and Their Debut Poetry Collection, ‘Gospel of a Whole Sun’ by Brittany Ackerman
Published: June 20
I really do believe in divine timing; that the universe is efficient—it will give you what you need, when you need it. And many times, “failures” teach us something valuable, or show us that we should be focusing our time & energy on something else instead.
: On Staying Sane While Launching a Book, the Dire State of Publishing, Taking Herself to Church, and Her Story Collection ‘You Are the Snake’ by
Published: June 25
Our culture is set up to treat things as though the minute something comes out, it's dead, and then we have to move on to the next thing. Ever since I've been aware of the publishing industry, people have just acted really dire about it...like it’s dying, and it does seem to be getting worse and worse. But at the same time, people still read, and they still want to read good books.
Kimberly King Parsons: On Mothers as Monoliths, Psychedelics, Burning Ourselves Down for Clarity, and Her Debut Novel ‘We Were the Universe’ by Brittany Ackerman
Published: June 27
I think things get sticky when people start sublimating what they love in favor of what they believe the marketplace loves. Writers get into trouble when they try to bend the work to suit everyone. Only water is for everyone—colorless, flavorless, and boring.
Essays
“Making Friends With My Nemesis” by
My nemesis doesn’t know she’s my nemesis. She doesn’t know me at all. We’ve never met, and to my knowledge she’s never heard my name.
She isn’t imaginary. She’s a real person who lives in an idyllic place a few hours from my front door. She posts photos of herself on Instagram with sunbeams streaming from the corner of the frames, and her captions are light, witty, almost flippant, made to be consumed and shared out. She probably has a creek running through her backyard.
Best wishes to you! I am very glad I found you. This is very enticing. I look forward to submitting. I am new to Substack and online writing in general.
Looks fantastic - thank you.
Can’t wait to hear about your forthcoming book deal :) I am trying to finish mine now and would love to read more about your querying process!