The Riff

There’s a sexist and dismissive comment that I want to use as a springboard, if you’ll indulge me (and know that if it comes across as offensive, I’m deeply sorry to those who have gone through the painful and sometimes life-threatening rigors of childbirth).

Bill Parcells, the Hall of Fame football coach, hated excuses. He had a saying, “Don’t tell me about the pain. Show me the baby.” (I told you it was bad!)

It gets to a point in this over-connected world, where people are the “museum of me,” as Andre Dubus III says. We are perhaps a bit too obsessed with the voyeurism of other writers’ “processes.” Even saying it gives me the heeby-jeebies. And the thing is, I realize how complicit I am in the “process industrial complex.”

I ask guests, though I’ve somewhat gotten away from it, about their processes, how they get the work done. There is value in asking, but my fear is that people’s obsession with “Stephen King’s pencil” is just another way of hiding and putting off the work that’s burning inside them. It’s another way of losing to the Resistance. I don’t care what your “process” is, merely have one.

Over the years I know I’ve benefited from someone sharing a habit and I’ll be like, “Hmm, OK, I’ll add that to cart and return it if it doesn’t fit.” But if you find yourself constantly asking “accomplished” artists what pen, pencil, notebook they use, coffee they drink, bio-hack, or what time they wake up, you’re better of interrogating yourself and experimenting. It’s thorny, I’ll admit that.

Don’t tell me about your “process.” Show me the book.

Oh, a source told you to fuck off?

Show me the book.

You can’t find a source?

Show me the book.

The writing is like squeezing water from granite?

Show me the book.

Man, cracking the code on the structure of this book was a bear!

Show me the book.

While driving through town, I saw the dead-eyed, beleaguered look of a young man piloting a bulldozer in the closed lane of a construction site. I couldn’t blame him for his dead-eyed, beleaguered look. I’ve had the job — recently! — where you’re going through the motions, selling your time for $11.50 an hour. Maybe your only respite is a few cheap beers and a pizza at the end of the week. Maybe you once had dreams and then someone said, “Get your head out of your ass and get a real job, man.”

As I said above, I often wonder what utility there is in talking about “process” or “the struggles of book writing.” Struggle? You want struggle? Look at Ukraine. Look at the unhoused dude I saw hunched over and drooling all over his sweatshirt outside the library. Look at the social media manager whose job is soul-sucking and useless. Look at the dead-eyed, beleaguered bulldozer driver.

For two years, I get to write a book. S.T.F.U., BO.

Show us the book.

After this book is done, odds are I won’t be invited to write another one of this scope and I will be back stocking produce or landscaping or waiting tables at the age of 46, a stack of unused business cards and bookmarks a reminder of my failure.

Show us the book.

It’s a big-ass “if” I get another book contract. I doubt I will. I’m not what you call a “name.” I’m not what you call “skilled.” I’m not what you call “traditionally handsome.”

Show us the book and, will you please, S.T.F.U.!

As you know, the newsletter starts here and goes up to 11! (Um, there will be a This is Spinal Tap sequel?!?!)

The Books

1. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson. Ho. Ly. F*ck. This might be the most important book you read this year, if you haven’t already. I’m a little late to it. The conservative upper caste members of your family likely don’t want to hear it and will likely never so much as lift this book up, let alone read it, but if you want to see the Matrix, read this. You want to know who tried to model their government structures after our? The architects of the Third Reich. Let that sink in.

2. Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA by Alex Squadron.

3. The Craft of Research, Fifth Edition (I have the third edish) by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. Be it fiction or nonfiction, research is tantamount to what we do. When you build the foundation on rigorous research, the writing is more downhill than uphill (at times).

4. The Story Cure: A Book Doctor’s Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir by Dinty W. Moore. I probably recommended this a few years ago, and more recently with Dinty’s Now-in-Paperback podcast, but it bears repeating. It’s a great book to read when you’ve finished your first major draft and letting it marinate in its juices.

The Other Stuff

5. Pulitzer Prize winner Corey G. Johnson on the need for more Black investigative reporting. This guy rules.

6. Matt Cameron Talks Drumming on “Black Hole Sun.” I can only take writers talking writing for so long before I love hearing other artists talk about their craft. There’s often more to glean from other artists in other genres than our own.

7. What’s the Deal with Cookie Monster’s Cookies? I’m more of an Oscar-the-Grouch guy (surprise, surprise), but this is a cool feature. Don’t eat the cookies.

8. Best $1,000 I spent on a genealogist for book research. I heard about Michele Soulli via Jeff Pearlman’s newsletter. I immediately jumped at it and she found some things and some people I would never have found, things that will set my book apart from whatever has come before it.

9. Little Steven!

10. Been enjoying writing to this “Relax” playlist curated by Headspace.

11. Book dahts.

Support the podcast

If you have a few bucks to spare, Patreon is where it’s at. I’ve started a series of “threads” that start with a little video by me then prompting you to talk amongst yourselves. Any tier! Patreon.com/cnfpod

Free ways to support the show? Kind reviews on Apple Podcasts help validate the show for the wayward CNFer.

In fact, I’ve reinstated the written review for coaching deal. Write a review, take a screenshot when it publishes, and then send me a sample of your work of up to (but not more, please) 2,000 words. This is about $100 value. I go all in, man, all in. Can be a pitch, or part of an essay or book. If you need a little peek into the BO experience, this is a great chance. All it takes is a moment of your time.

And, as always, linking up to the show and sharing it with your writer pals is the best way to keep it alive, relevant, and gives it the best shot at growing a bit.

Thanks for reading, CNFers.

Stay wild,

b.r.o.