No Soul No Dark Nights

This is a newsletter about the art of writing and the complications that the compulsion to write can bring to our emotional lives, relationships, and mental health.

A Letter from a Mentor

Each issue of the newsletter is modeled on the letters I’ve been writing to my students for over a decade. They are designed to uplift and inspire you to write and to be kinder to your writer self, but they also will delve into some dark places.

The title?

The title comes from a quote by my dear friend and mentor, Charles Baxter, from his entry in the book “Letters to a Fiction Writer.”

“It seems a shame to say so, but the hardest part of being a writer is not the long hours of learning the craft, but learning how to survive the dark nights of the soul. There are many such nights, far too many, as you will discover. I hate to be the one to bring you this news, but someone should.

Part of the deal of having a soul at all includes the requirement that you go through several dark nights. No soul, no dark nights. But when they come, they have a surprisingly creepy power, and almost no one tells you how to deal with them.”

I am working on a book with this title, and I am hoping this newsletter is a preview of what will be in the book. Thank you for subscribing.

To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.

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People

Novelist, TV/screenwriter, prof, @reassuringdad of 3, & trophy husband/writing partner of @alissanutting. Co-writer/EP of "Made For Love" (@HBOMax 2020)