Reading time: 6.07

Hey Reader,

Lockdown, 2020.

I was a copywriter who also helped people write nonfiction books, but the world had just

shattered + shut down

and who the hell was going to indulge writing a book when the ship was sinking?

[sounds horribly familiar right now, doesn’t it?]

I lost a big copy client, as everyone battened down the hatches. Then another.

It was decision time: do I crash and burn? Or go all-in on what I really want to do?

Do I continue to seek copywriting clients because everyone was gonna want to sell as much stuff as possible and I could help them do that…

Or do I choose the thing that brings me joy… but that nobody really needs urgently?

I went all-in.

And had my best year yet.

This year is shaping up to be pretty good too, and I have a theory about why that is. WE NEED TO CREATE GOOD THINGS, NOW MORE THAN EVER.

But we have to decide to go all-in on it if we want to do it.

Look: this is a decision you have to make, too, about your book.

Do you let the book idea inside you crash and burn — or do you go all in?

I can tell you from experience that letting your book crash and burn is not the end of it; it eats at you. When we don’t tell the stories we so badly want to tell, they corrode our spirits from the inside out.

But going all in can feel super scary (TRUST ME I KNOW).

So, here’s what going all in on your book might look like:

🔥 Acknowledging that you DO know enough to write a book and you CAN make a difference with it

🔥 Making a promise to yourself that you’ll write and publish this book — and KEEPING THAT PROMISE

🔥 Trusting yourself enough to know that everything you need to write your book is already inside you

🔥 Creating time and space over the next few weeks to dedicate to writing (don’t worry it doesn’t mean disappearing for months to a cabin in the woods although you absolutely can do that if you like!)

🔥 Deciding to be a person who writes books — and then behaving that way (whatever that looks like for you)

And the payoff?

Your book, written and published and in your hands, of course.

But even more than that — the knowledge that you set out to do A Hard Thing, and did it, and did it well, despite the voices in your head shrieking at you that this is too big, too scary, not worthwhile, frivolous, and all the other BS we’ve internalised about doing things just for us that really matter to us.

And best of all — reaching and connecting with new people, who see you and hear you and decide they want to hang out in your space.

Your book will change you, in the best possible way.

Going all in on something important is one of the most exciting things you can do — even just making the decision is a tripppppp.

Are you all in?

Or are you gonna let your book idea crash and burn?

If you’re all in, let’s get you off to the best possible start.

​MicroBook Magic Season 7 starts on April 7 and I’d love to have you join us.

You can read all about it here and sign up.

If you have questions, reply to this email and ask away!

And now for something completely good. The Friday Goodie Bag, of course!

Here’s what I’ve wrapped up for you…

Munya Chawawa’s piece of resistance

Satire is CRUCIAL in times like this, my friend, and comedian and activist Munya Chawawa knows that well. I love everything he makes, but this new single from Trump and Vance is probably my favourite.

This is why we need art. YOUR art. Because art is subversive and an act of resistance. They cannot take our imaginations!

​Check it out here, and laugh it up!

These facts that will fuck with your head

I found out today that the Wild West era — cowboys and shooting people in the face and gold panning — was going on at the same time as Victorian England — uptight ladies taking tea and men putting big old sticks up their butts.

Yes, yes, I know you probably know this already but it blew my tiny mind.

See also: mammoths were roaming around while they were building the pyramids. Not on site, like, but still. Abe Lincoln’s era was also the era of Samurai warriors. MLK was born in the same year as Anne Frank. Napoleon was riding waves when Jane Austen was publishing her books.

You’re welcome.

(Keep an eye out for things that shift your perspective, then maybe put them together. What would happen if MLK met Anne Frank? If Napoleon featured in one of Jane Austen’s books because they were best buds?)

Grandma Gatewood’s Appalachian Trail

I love The Memory Palace podcast and this story caught my ears. Emma Gatewood, the first woman to walk the Appalachian Trail solo. She and her 11 children endured decades of beatings from her worthless husband in an age when you didn’t escape from that kind of stuff.

Except she did. She won a divorce, and went straight out for a long walk. Listen to her story, which she made all about her trailblazing and not at all about the man who tried to steal her life. I particularly liked the part about how men along the trail would offer her a place to sleep on their porch in exchange for cooking and cleaning for them, and how she said F NO, I’ve just left all that nonsense behind, and did it on her own.

Enjoy!

Why ALL storytelling matters

I saw this “storytelling in government” piece on LinkedIn by Crystaline Randazzo (what a great name!!!) and had to share it here. It’s easy to dismiss government work as boring or removed from us as everyday citizens. That distance makes it easy to stand by and not be bothered as fascists dismantle the structures of democracy.

Stories, though — stories bring that work to life and make it relevant in a way nothing else can. This story is words on (digital) paper, but your story of what you do can be in any form. Just make sure you tell it.

​Read this to see how it can be done.

This house listing that made me cackle

Most estate agent’s property descriptions are boring AF and 50% lies.

(DON’T @ ME YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT. And if you’re in the estate agency industry, it’s so easy to stand out and be amazing if you just have the cojones to do so.)

They all sound the same. Honestly, it’d be so easy to dominate the estate agent market AND do it ethically, but who’s got the ovaries for it?

(If you’re an estate agent and that sounds like a challenge — it is. Go forth. Do something funny and brilliant.)

Anyway, Peter Whent shared this and it made me cackle. You should also check out A Brothel in Pimlico, a little book full of hilariously honest property descriptions written by an estate agent from the old days who gave zero fucks about what was “proper” and was one of the most successful in his realm.

This woman is great. I don’t need a property but I’m hooked on her listings.

What I’m reading

I’m back on my Japanese fiction again. Thanks to a recommendation from my friend Sarah Silva, I’m currently reading The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai which is delightful, but not quite as delightful as the previous books I’ve read (The Bookshop Woman and The Chibineko Kitchen).

What I’m writing

I’m still writing my Zine! I’ve nearly finished it. If you’re a current or past client, you’ll get a little surprise in the post soon. It’s not what you might think. And if you’re a subscriber, you’ll get a downloadable version that may inspire you to create something fun too!

Word of the week: parsimonious

This week’s randomly selected word from Roget’s Thesaurus is parsimonious!

Meaning overly careful with money. Pennywise, miserly, mean, mingy, stingy, tightfisted, cheeseparing, ungenerous, giftless, chary, shabby, small-minded.

Don’t be parsimonious, friend! Do use it in a sentence today, though.

Quote of the week

Thanks for reading and remember: choose to retain your humanity. But always punch a Nazi.

TTFN,

Vicky

Do you know someone who’d enjoy this email? Please forward it to them and ask them to subscribe!