Week 45: Can you refuse to be done with your next book?

It is week forty-five of 2026. How’s the writing going? If you are participating in a novel-writing challenge this month, I’m sending good working vibes your way, plus I have a new book review below that might provide some practical tips and inspiration. (And don’t miss the PS at the very bottom, either!)

Here at the garret, I’ve been working on a wonderfully warm-hearted memoir set in southern France—brimming with small-scale vignettes of the local people, animals, and places—and I’ve started work on a historical novel partly set in my beloved San Francisco. I was grateful for the slow, meditative work of editing amidst a week that otherwise felt almost too full: the joyful election news here in the US, a Valkyries victory parade in the city, milestone birthdays for two close family members, and preparations for Author Nation next week.

If you’ll be at the conference, feel free to flag me down to say hi or get feedback on a project. You can also make an appointment here. In my next newsletter, two weeks from now, I’ll send a recap of what I’ve learned—this event is excellent for getting a pulse on the current state of the indie publishing industry. If you have questions or topics you’d particularly like me to comment on, hit reply to tell me and I’ll let you know what I find out.

There are many books about how to write fiction, but only a handful focused on revision. I’m happy to have another one to recommend to writers (alongside Sandra Scofield’s excellent The Last Draft) because I agree with Matt Bell that “revision and rewriting are most of what good writing entails.” Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts hammers home two messages—rewrite rather than revise, and refuse to be done—while also providing a method for doing the work and a menu of tactics and strategies to apply to your manuscript.

As the title suggests, Bell offers a three-draft structure for your writing and revision work. The goal for the first draft is simply to get it done any way you can. When working on his own novels, Bell tells himself that “the first draft isn’t the book I’m writing, only a sort of one-to-one scale model of it, not the novel itself but an idea of what the novel could be.” To create that scale model, Bell encourages you to write an “exploratory draft,” arguing that “overplanning before beginning writing risks blocking opportunities for discovery and surprise.”

Most of the advice in this section focuses on process rather than craft, with tips and tricks to help you keep going. For example, he suggests adopting the “yes, and” method used in improv comedy. Write a sentence that “asserts a new reality,” then apply the yes, and move to “build upon it, encouraging the story the sentence suggests.” I also like his suggestion to adopt the scenario-planning framework used by organizations, as described by Joshua Rothman in the New Yorker: “You build one model where things get better, one where they get worse, and one where they get weird.” Asking yourself what each of those scenarios might look like can be a way to find new inspiration for your plot or character arcs.

Read the full review →

(Bookshop.org links are affiliate links — I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

Professional knife-thrower Genevieve “Blade” Broussard follows a decades-old conspiracy from Charleston to Oxford to Nigeria’s Niger Delta in the explosive finale of the Blade Broussard thriller trilogy.

A few favorite things about the book

⭐️ In a real world where the bad guys often escape consequences, it’s deeply satisfying—cathartic, even—to see them get what they deserve in this novel
⭐️ Multiple strong female characters who know how to take names and kick ass
⭐️ A bit of recent Nigerian history I’d known but forgotten, which strengthened my own resolve to reduce my own dependence on fossil fuels

Congrats, Nannette! Learn more and back Point First on Kickstarter

I love speaking to writers and editors—check out my Speaking page and get in touch if you are interested in having me speak to your group.

There was a lot of election joy to go around, big and small. I’m thrilled that the gorgeous Sunset Dunes Park here in San Francisco will remain a park rather than being turned back into a highway. Grab a sandwich at Gus’s Market, bike up the car-free parkway and straight into Golden Gate Park, then find a green meadow to stretch out in and enjoy your lunch—it’s one of the best days in San Francisco you can have.

And as a Southerner, I was so proud to see some especially hard-fought victories. Fingers crossed that Scott Colom manages to hang on to his lead. I would never have thought that I’d feature a campaign video as a Thing of Joy, but this one truly is—and I think it captures the sassy spirit that’s one of the things I treasure about the South.

Stay well, y’all, and keep fighting the good fights.

Kristen

PS: Are you ready to re-enchant your creativity and finish your book? Dr. Bailey Lang, the Literary Witch, has a free email series on the Elements of Writing Alchemy to help you work with your unique brain and build a sustainable, magical writing practice. Subscribe for free here!