Notes from the Hatch: On Finding the Way In

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Robert Adams, Summer Nights #2 (1985), via the Art Institute of Chicago

Hi friends,

I recently spent a week at a sprawling oceanfront campground where I, and my dad before me, spent summer vacations when we were kids. 

I traveled there alone, on a self-imposed writing retreat—I’m trying to write a novel about this place—but I could not, for the life of me, find my way into the story.

There were too many memories, too much emotion. Every time I sat down to write my pen stilled on the page, my fingers froze on the keyboard.