A WRITING LIFE
(re-naming & re-imagining this space):: notes on craft, process, and living an artistic life
It’s hard to know where and when to use one’s voice in the ever-shifting constellation of media and social media.
I started with a blog sixteen years ago, then drifted to Facebook, then Instagram, then Twitter, then, in successive dismay at the commercialization and toxicity of each of those spaces, to the weird hazy fog of Threads.
Four years ago I started a newsletter called Them Stars here on Substack, but feared using up all my creative time and energy. I wanted to finish my novel, start a non-profit, and focus on teaching, so I did.
But now I’m drifting again into this space, thinking it might be what I’m looking for. A way to process ideas and access flow. A way to practice community. A way to learn from and be inspired by the lives and words of others. A way to share what I’ve learned and know.
And so here I am, launching a new name and vision for this newsletter of mine.
A WRITING LIFE: NOTES ON CRAFT, PROCESS, AND LIVING AN ARTISTIC LIFE is just that. I hope to share what I learn from close readings of the books I love, talk about how one builds a sustainable writing practice, and how one creates a values-driven life fueled and enriched by the making of art. I’ve been thinking about these things, and practicing them, for a long, long time. I have some thoughts to share.
I also want a space where I can be curious, where I can experiment, and where I can be in conversation with others.
Will it take off? Who knows. Will this platform fold or become toxic? Who knows. But why not try? Life is short. Let’s play a little.
I’m inspired, of course, by Annie Dillard’s classic THE WRITING LIFE, in which she says:
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.”
Amen, Annie. Yes. Yes again.
Come when you can. Stick around (subscribe) if you want. Share if inspired. Someday I may offer paying subscriptions, but until then: everything is free now, that’s what they say. Everything I ever done, gonna give it away. (Thank you, Gillian Welch.)
Love and abundance, all. Thank you for being here. I’m honored.
Robin
PS: A little about me, in case you’re wondering. I spent my twenties working as a filmmaker, visual artist, and musician in New York, Philadelphia, and Vermont. Then I decided to do what I always really wanted to do: write. At twenty-eight I moved back into a small cabin in Vermont I’d built as a teenager and returned to school for a low-res MFA. During the next two years I a) had a baby b) added a couple of rooms onto my cabin, and 3) wrote a collection of short stories called HALF WILD, which became my first book.
Before that collection was published I a) had another child b) edited and published an anthology of Vermont Fiction) c) added another addition to my tiny house in the woods, and d) started teaching everywhere I could.
Then I got lucky: my book sold along with a deal for a novel I’d just begun. I wrote the first draft of that novel (HEART SPRING MOUNTAIN) in a year and published it a year after that. I won some awards. My books were translated into French. I traveled around France and Belgium and Switzerland and drank lots of wine! I kept teaching and eventually landed my dream job: teaching in the low-res MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
I also started an arts non-profit with some neighbors and created a writing space called Word House. I’ve taught at Orion Magazine, the Breadloaf Environmental Writers Workshop, The Governor’s Institute of Vermont, and elsewhere. I piece my income and work life together like so many artists do. I live in a place I love, surrounded by people, animals, and plants that nourish me. I adore my students. I’m writing a new novel even though my last one didn’t sell. I am religious about schedules and managing time. I’m a devotee of the gospel of A Room of One’s Own.
I love being in community and building spaces that foster it. Everyone is welcome in the rooms I create. Thank you for being here. Let’s play; let’s see what happens; let’s make something good.