Let It Breathe
Art by Solin Sekkur
King Charles III was coronated as king recently and A$AP Rocky (real name Rakim) named his son RZA. I don’t care too much about the coronation outside of learning about esoteric aspects of the ceremony such as being greased with olive oil from Jerusalem, the bracelets of sincerity & wisdom, and a throne with the stone of destiny allegedly buried deep inside. Learned these occult tidbits from
’s amazing substack.I’ve been refining my writing process across the board. Everyone has their own process so take this with a grain of salt. This is what works for me. My first draft is what I refer to as the skeletal draft. I’m just trying to get the words on the page as quickly as possible, throwing paint on the canvas before the fear/anxiety/doubt gets to me.
I’ll set the manuscript aside for two to three weeks so I can get fresh eyes. I’ll return to the book and add muscle, tendons, and emotional weight. Third draft might is something like a polish/final draft. Then I send it off to beta readers (this is something I didn’t do for my first three books including God’s Leftovers).
This has worked well for some time, but I’m always looking for ways to improve and up my pen game. One thing I’ve learned I need to do is let my work breathe. Max Booth III told me this when it came to Project Bullet Baby and
told me this about Melancholy’s Finest. Now you might say what the hell does that even mean? You might remember Jay-Z saying “let that bitch breathe” on his song “Success.” He doesn’t fill every minute of the instrumental with raps. Instead, he gives it space to percolate, to drip into your subconscious, and really hit you on deep levels. This is something I had to learn back in my rapping days, but letting a novel or novella breathe is a different beast entirely.I tend to go pedal to the metal when it comes to writing the first draft and I don’t want any of my books to be bloated or overstaying its welcome. I used to write long purple prose, but after I read Ricard Christian Matheson and Cormac McCarthy, I learned you can say something in a few paragraphs rather than saying the same thing over the course of 10 pages. But there’s an art to this. Sometimes I’m too ambiguous and I write too lean. It’s important to be aware of your weaknesses so you can improve in these areas.
We’re putting in the work, and we’re getting there.
Stumbled across this deep dive investigation/documentary, which explores the urban legend of Polybius aka the video game that doesn’t exist. Supposedly it was developed by the CIA as an experiment akin to MK Ultra and gave people migraines, sickness, and fucked their heads up permanently. Worth a watch.
The Broken River Books website has been updated with every member of The Collective on the about page. It’s pretty cool because J. David Osborne is The Chief, Kelby Losack is The Shooter, David Simmons is The Pusher, I’m The Alchemist, and E. Rathke is The Wolf.
Currently Watching: Love, Death & Robots Season 3 & Lost Season 1 & Yellowjackets Season 2
Currently Reading: Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei & Gleipnir by Sun Takeda & The Train Derails in Boston by Jessica McHugh & Full Throttle by Joe Hill
Currently Smoking: West Coast Cure Wedding Cake Pre-Roll
Listening: Black Tapes Podcast, The Danny Brown Podcast, The Higherside Chats
TisaKorean evokes the energy of 106 & Park with this black and white music video for “uHhH HuH.” Beyblades, baggy jeans and a whole lotta swag. The beat reminiscent of early 2000s Pharrell and bangs.
“Why she rock that purse like it’s Chanel, I’m sick, she’s Michael Kors in…”
BabyTron glides over “Ouuwee” and slows it down for “See Y’all in June.” Two months with BabyTron sounds absurd, but it good to lock in and let the people wonder what you’re up to. I’m ready for the album to drop.
Juicy J’s consistency is something to behold and his impressive ratchet raps never miss a step. He’s on different type of time and this is something I’m lowkey trying to manifest.
Oh they got the kids singing the chorus so you know it’s about to be fire. Even though Durk raps about sliding on the opps consistently I’m happy to see him spitting positivity. I wasn’t sure about J. Cole being a feature, but it’s a nice synergy between the rappers. We need to see more of this…
Until next time…