In her "Mast Years" Substack, book inc writer Jennifer Gallo Gaites finds an unexpected parallel between a kitchen cabinet overhaul and the messy, nonlinear process of organizing a novel.
Lately, trying to wrangle my novel has been a challenge. After three years of working on it, I still can’t quite organize my thoughts around what I’m trying to say. That feels discouraging…and a little embarrassing. But there was something really encouraging about being among people who are on similar paths. People who also smile sheepishly when asked about their projects. Something connective about sitting in a conference space wall-to-wall with writers who also want to hear a panel discussion on story endings, or how to debut over 50, or want to listen to authors talk about the amount of time and number of drafts they wrote before finishing.
Jennifer Gaites is a writing instructor at Project Write Now and a book inc Peer Artist Leader. Her work has appeared in River Teeth's "Beautiful Things," Hippocampus, and Literary Mama. Her flash essay "{ }nesting" won first place in WOW Women on Writing's Quarter 4 2023 contest.
