Hello, and welcome to Alone in a Room - my writing and craft newsletter! This first post was supposed to go out a while ago, but life is a fickle thing that has a way of pushing everything back, and here we are! Still, I couldn’t be more excited to begin this newsletter and have high hopes for it. Thank you for being part of this journey!
The basic plan: The newsletter will go out approximately once a month and will be chock full of literary goodness. The "Craft Musings" section will offer thoughts on some aspect of writing craft that has been on my mind recently, a new idea - or an old one seen through a new lens. It will likely be something I've been ranting about to my partner and friends and need to share with others. This may involve links to other texts, quotes, reading recommendations, or just my own musings. I will also share an original writing exercise or two, related to the Craft Musings topic, that you can apply in your own writing, or use in your teaching. I will share what's new with me: What I'm reading, thinking about, and any upcoming classes and/or events. Each post will also go up at www.JoyBaglio.com and you can always access it there. Please also feel free to share any of the issues via social media, to help spread word. Lastly, please be sure to mark this email as "not spam" so it doesn't end up there! You can also always opt out at any time.
Why "Alone in a Room"?: The title of this newsletter refers to Michael Ventura's essay, "The Talent of the Room" (read asap if you haven't!) - in which Ventura describes the kind of talent needed most in order to be a writer: the ability to sit, for many hours, day after day, alone in a room. Of course, Ventura's concept of a room is mostly symbolic and can be tweaked in any number of ways - perhaps you like to write in a crowded coffee shop or at the dining room table? - but the idea remains the same: we writers must get comfortable with self-imposed aloneness; we must face ourselves on the blank page again and again if we wish to write. No one - no matter how much we love them or look up to them - can do this work for us or make it any easier. Looking beyond this requisite aloneness writers need in order to create, the phrase also conjures up the Tibetan story of The Room of One Thousand Demons: all of us, in life, are alone in a room too. You could think of this metaphorical room as our bodies, our minds, or the various conditions of each of our lives. The room is full of many different things, often our worst fears, challenges, tests we are given again and again, people and situations that keep showing up until we learn from them, and despite others around us - the very real and powerful presences of loved ones, friends, and community - each of us is still traveling through our respective rooms (lives) alone, in that the fundamental choices we make - the fears we face, whether we grow or shrink or get curious or resistant - are our choices alone. No one can do this work for us. And while I ultimately believe we are all deeply connected in more ways than we can perceive, the reality is that the human experience - from whatever angle you look at it - is often about trying to transcend our own initial separateness, about navigating the world from an unshared viewpoint. Our starting point - both in life and in writing - is that we are first alone in a room.
Hi Joy! Great to see you here and read your newsletter. Also how cool that we are in Saunders’ class together!
Just starting to explore Substack. All ears if you have pages you recommend! Guideposts and maps very welcomed to this new landscape!