Come on in!!!
â ď¸ âHowâs the book going?â
Aggressive writing sprint! On Friday I somehow wrote for 12 hours straight?!?! Next mini-deadline is end of this week!!
Iâm away on book leave from work for only a couple more weeks, so am trying to scratch out as much of this initial draft as possible.
However you choose to define âfirst draft energy,â mine is that of this cat, as spotted by my sister:
As usual, was distracted by many things, including:
reading in one sitting this intimate and sweeping saga of a girlâs adolescence in poverty in New York City (and reminding myself not to compare my first draft with someoneâs finished book excerpt đĽ˛đĽ˛đĽ˛)
going a bit overboard crafting a Halloween costume (I was a mouth; key materials included staples, batting, and suspender clips; ask me about my construction tips because I have a lot!)
Because Iâve been thinking a lot about Productivity lately, Iâm perpetually convinced that Iâm just one breakthrough away from Getting Everything Done, but equally convinced the whole effort is a terrible idea. So of course when my friend Logan mentioned a new book that promised to free me from the yoke of productivity entirely, I got excited and bought it (support local booksellers!).
Twist: I have been too busy writing to read it. However, I have started stacking it on top of my phone while I am at my desk so that I am less tempted to look at my phone. It works surprisingly well. Great time management tip. Thanks Oliver Burkeman!!!
â
Review it with Huet: propagating succulents
I could write 10 different review column items about the best and worst houseplants (lmk if this intrigues you), but todayâs will be a quick one about the joy of MINIATURE SUCCULENTS:
Succulents are not my favorite houseplant. I wish they grew faster, they look so tragic when they donât get enough light, they were too overhyped a few years ago etc etc.
BUT they do one freakish and adorable thing: When you rip off one of their limbs, they sprout an entirely new clone of themselves, straight out of the gaping wound. And itâs tiny!!!!
In my current state of mind, Iâm so hungry for markers of progress that Iâm harvesting them wherever I can. Every morning, I go to the window near my desk and peer at my gruesome little menagerie of shriveled succulent arms. Then I look for each oneâs teeny sprout, and I get notable joy when it is one millimeter bigger than the day before.
(If you want to try, good further instructions here.)
â¨đ§šâ¨ Spam-related housekeeping
Apparently Substack emails sometimes end up buried in the Gmail âPromotionsâ tab. If thatâs happening to you and you want to change that, try these fixes:
drag the email from âPromotionsâ to âPrimaryâ inbox / mark it as ânot Promotionsâ
add âellenhuet@substack.comâ to your contacts list, and/or
reply to this email and say hi! if itâs your first time replying back to this newsletter, i will express my thanks by emailing you a UNIQUE SURPRISE, i.e., something good from the internet i havenât sent anyone else
Goodbye, thanks for reading, and for those of you who want to peep new leaves but think tiny plants are silly â
â here are two fresh bangers that unfurled recently on the unidentified banana-ish(?) tree growing on our deck.
Ciao!