arctic dreams + arctic avoidance
writing into the Arctic as a character
Hello friends! This is Ursula Fan Club, where I write on a weekly-ish basis about what I’m writing and reading as I work on the first draft of my first book. If you’re interested in speculative fiction, climate, ancestral stuff, textiles, living in a human body, and balancing a creative practice with whatever this is *waves wildly around*, you’ll probably like it here.
Hello, friends. It’s been a minute. I’ve been writing with every reclaimed pocket of time available to me, and when I face the choice to either work on my book or work on my Substack, BOOK has won, every time. Here’s an update.
I am—we are—fully into the first third of the year, which I’m now measuring against the progress in my book. I tell myself that I am capable of finishing a first draft by December 31, and I simultaneously believe that that there’s no way, how will I ever finish, there’s so much story, there’s too little story, it’s too big, it’s too small, I don’t know enough, there’s not enough time. Beth Pickens, the organizer and art counselor behind my writing program, PARAKEET, encourages me to find the simplest way through. Re-writes and edits will imbue my book with the layers of complexity I admire in other writing. My job, for now, is to write through the forest and find the other side.
During a 1-1 session, I also realized that I was circling around a central character of my book—the Arctic—without knowing how to write it. I’m calling this my “Arctic avoidance.” In February, I wrote about anything other than the Arctic. In March, I allowed my character to wander around, get lost, describe what she sees in this fictional place I’m imagining. Since then, I’ve shifted my reading to fully support the work of conjuring a High Arctic place that I’m excited to write into, as well as books with young protagonists to develop my central character, her desires and her conflicts. I have real fears about writing the Arctic wrong, or poorly, or through a white settler lens. To address that, I’m reading both classic texts about the landscape and the Inuit as well as a deep stack of Inuit and indigenous literature.
Through all of this, I’m part of two writing groups and have shared pages with seven other writers so far—some who don’t know me at all, and one best friend who knows me very, very well. Their feedback has been graciously consistent and given me helpful nudges on where to continue my focus. One reader described my writing as a a cross between Handmaid’s Tale and the third season of True Detective and I thought I would literally die on the spot from the praise.
So, what’s next? I’ve hit my PARAKEET goal of 5000 words in my manuscript each month, which feels like not enough words to get me to where I need to go, but also taking all I have to sustain. I’ve discovered a potentially major new character and plot point that I’m eager to write into. I have a short writing residency planned for June. And I have a working title for my book!
Hopefully it won’t be another month until I write to you. But please share what you’re up to in the comments, what you’re reading and writing, what you’re resonating with. Hugs.
What I’m writing
About the Arctic. Finally.
What I’m reading
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez, Do Glaciers Listen? by Julie Cruikshank, and The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
What I read
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver (a recommendation from Beth), Troubling a Star by Madeleine L’Engle (a recommendation from a Substack reader, thank you!), The Giver by Lois Lowry (a re-read, chills), Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles by Beth Pickens, and What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Obsessively watched the latest season of Severance along with everyone else and was in thrall with coldness as a character, always but especially in this season. Rewatched season 1 of Andor in prep for the new (and final?) season. Watching The 100 which starts as a lol-worthy YA drama but moves quite quickly into pretty good sci-fi with a clear nod to Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis series.
A helpful thing
Sourcing art about the Arctic in the public domain was made infinitely more delightful thanks to the Public Domain Image Archive.
The images you posted reminded me of the chalk drawings, "Arctic Drawings," by the artist Tacita Dean. I think you would enjoy reading about them and seeing these massive pieces. Good luck with your novel writing!