Here's a list of my favorite lists

plus, how my tooth became a ghost

May 17, 2022

Well well well!

☠️ “How’s the book going?”

A few weeks ago, I sent off a rough (like low-grit sandpaper rough, painfully so) draft of the book to my editor at MCD/FSG (hi jackson!). That means I have a mild reprieve from writing, but no reprieve at all from the 95748 other book-related tasks I’d like to get done.

The big task right now is trying to organize and comb through all the material I’ve accumulated related to OneTaste. It’s…….a lot. Interviews, videos, audio recordings, documents, supplemental books, plus remembering what small detail came from which source. Normally, for a magazine piece, I’d just keep a rough map in my brain, but the book is essentially as long as 25 magazine pieces, while my sweet ol’ brain remains the same size as always.

If a good idea floats into my head, not only am I likely to forget it, I’m also going to forget that I forgot it. I’ve been using a Scrivener doc as a chaotic-but-searchable repository for my interviews, but it wasn’t meeting all my needs, so I just started impulsively making new lists and seeing which ones stuck.

My current favorite lists in my “organization” “system,” which is neither particularly organized nor systematic:

“Add These Somewhere” — for the moments of “ooh I should definitely put this tidbit in the book but I have no idea where it’ll fit”
“Random leads” — for the moments of “I might find something interesting if I talk to this person / watch this video / read this piece but yikes I don’t have time right now”
“questions for [x]” — ongoing lists of questions that I want to ask particular sources the next time we talk
“bibliography??” — a not-at-all comprehensive list of all the pieces of information that came from corners of the internet that I think I’d have trouble finding again quickly

I also recently renamed my general to-do list to “BIRD BY BIRD” to remind myself to take things one at a time. It’s a reference to a book about how to write a book, which I haven’t read but maybe will find time to once I’m done writing this damn book.

✂️ Other snippets from book life:

One thing no one warned me about: It takes foreeevvvverrrr simply to read or even skim what I’ve already written. Seems obvious, but amid the thousand other anxieties, I forgot to worry about this one
Writing a book is taking up so much time that I have almost no time to read books anymore (this is embarrassing)
On the plus side, I have a very clean answer to the question “what are you working on these days??”
When I do pick up a book, the first thing I read now is the acknowledgments. They’re heartwarming! All that hard work and gratitude! (Also, they are surprisingly revealing, and I am nosy)

✅ Review it with Huet: root canals

(a recurring mini-feature in which I give unsolicited opinions about book-unrelated things)

Three years ago I broke my two front teeth on the edge of a diving board (I’ll spare you the details). At the time, I got some reasonable veneers and moved on with my life, but I was also warned that the damaged teeth could, years down the line, suddenly die.

Well, it happened. A couple months ago, I woke up with throbbing pain and a comically swollen upper lip. The nerve inside one of the teeth had croaked. I needed a root canal. Terrifying!

Actually, apart from the pain of the infection, the root canal itself was the smoothest and least painful dental experience ever. Yes yes there’s drills and stuff. But get this: The tooth nerve…..is already dead. Pain is impossible. You feel nothing, which is simultaneously unsettling and soothing. It’s so boring that some patients fall asleep in the chair.

After it’s over, you still have your original tooth. It’s just empty inside. A blissful shell of its former self, unburdened by feeling, a little enamel ghost.

Verdict? Root canals: unfairly maligned; actually great

☎️ Say hi

Do you need a rec for an excellent root canal dentist in SF? Have you ever read a particularly funny or surprising acknowledgments section? Want to tell me about your favorite list of lists of lists? Just wanna say hi?

You can always hit reply on this email!! I love getting emails (the fun kind, anyway). Plus, it reminds the internet elves that this newsletter isn’t spam. Don’t let the elves get confused.

🌅 Thanks for reading, ciao, see ya on the next rotation!!

instantdoodles

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👽 Ellen Writes a Book

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