Fits and Starts

February 5, 2025

3-Item Status

• Current Location: Milwaukee, WI

• Reading: The Siren’s Call by Chris Hayes

• Listening: I’m On My Way by Rhiannon Giddens

If you have a moment, reply with your own 3-Item Status.

Quick Notes

• New Work:

  • This week’s Let’s Know Things is about US Protectionism

  • Yesterday’s Brain Lenses essay was on Paradigm Shifts

  • Last Friday’s email for Writing & Such included a collection of curated links

• A Quick Ask:

  • If you’ve read one of my books and enjoyed it, would you mind taking a moment to leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever you bought it? Those matter more than you might think, and I’m bad at remembering to ask for these—so my new books in particular are lacking in (marketplace relevant) social proof. Thank you!

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Fits and Starts

I’m about a third of the way through writing a new book, and I’m trying to figure out how to get my protagonists from where they are now to where I need them to be (for the plot to move forward as intended).

My original plans for this transition made more sense in theory than practice, and my last couple attempts to write have been confounded by this hurdle. I’ve come up with several possible solutions, none of which have been quite right.

This isn’t an uncommon problem; I’ve faced variations of the same with my other projects, not just my long-form fiction.

There’s a project I started late last year that didn’t turn out the way I wanted; it filled a gap in my portfolio that wasn’t as large as it seemed to be from the outside.

I have ideas as to how I might move forward, but initial experiments and efforts haven’t panned out. So now I sit and wait, mulling the matter, making only (frustratingly) negligible concrete progress.

When making things, sometimes the initial jolt of inspiration and the scaffolding you deploy during the planning phase will be enough to carry you from your first step to the finish line. More often, though, there’ll be periods of reflection, confusion, doubt, and reassessment along the way. Lots of un-asked-for opportunity to wonder and worry and question the whole endeavor.

But moving forward in fits and starts is still moving forward, and almost always it’s not the speed at which we move, nor the consistency of that movement that ultimately matters most: it’s our dedication to trying difficult things, and our decision to continue trying even when our initial attempts don’t lead to anything of note. That flavor of fortitude is more closely correlated with positive outcomes than thin-stretch momentum and blind enthusiasm.

I’m about to sit down for another book-writing session. I took a walk through my freezing cold neighborhood to see if that would knock anything lose, and I have a few new ideas I want to try out—to jot down and play around with, to see if they might help me overcome this stumbling block (or provide me with justification for bypassing the block entirely).

We’ll see how it goes.

If nothing else, at the end of this writing session I will have identified several more paths that don’t work, and that knowledge will help me further winnow my way toward one of the many possible proper courses for this book and my ambitions for it.

If you enjoyed this essay, consider supporting my work by becoming a paid subscriber, buying me a coffee, or grabbing one of my books.

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Interesting Links

• The ‘Beautiful Confusion’ of the First Billion Years Comes Into View

• Exploring the Lost Land Beneath the North Sea

• What It's Like to Be a Scientist Working on a Cruise Ship in Antarctica

If you want more links to interesting things, consider subscribing to Aspiring Generalist.

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Part of my little at-home gym setup (in the corner of my living room, next to my standing desk). I’ve been going to an actual gym every other day, but it’s nice to have the option to do stuff at home when the weather’s really bad, and to mix things up in between my more structure gym routine.

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What Else

Thanks for all the wonderful dairy-free advice and recipes! I’m figuring out how to restock my cupboards accordingly.

I’m working on a concept for a “do things in person” sort of publication, focused on the how and why and research on socializing, building community, developing relationships, and so on. I’d like to build an actual “here are things to do in person” component, as well, starting here in Milwaukee and maybe doing other cities in the future.

My question for you is: have you seen anything like this done well? I’ve been looking around and most of the meetup platforms are pretty grim, overwhelmed with marketing and online workshops, and primarily focused on paid events (and in the cases where they are not, there are a few groups that are maintained, but most seem to be ghost towns).

I’d love to be wrong about this, as frankly it would be more fun for me to just use an existing, well-made tool and maybe just write on the subject. So please share anything that you think fits this description, even tangentially! Thank you!

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