Notes from the Hatch: On Creative Sanctuary

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Library of E.L. Godkin (c. 1890)

Hi friends,

I’ve recently committed myself to working on a novel, and in doing so, have been attempting to amass certain tools to help me. One thing I know about myself is that I’m a real put-your-head-down-and-work kind of person (I recently stacked an entire winter’s worth of firewood in a single night simply because my husband said, matter-of-factly, that it would “probably take two or three nights”), but writing a novel is not straightforward in this way.

While procrastinating writing last week, I came across an article by a favorite writer of mine, Lan Samantha Chang, called “Writers, Protect Your Inner Life.” One passage, in particular, stood out to me: