Inspiration & Perspiration:
Danielle Trussoni’s Newsletter
September 5th, 2020
“Genius is 1 Percent Inspiration and 99 Percent Perspiration.”
– Thomas Edison
Hello from the Writing Cave!
If you haven’t noticed, I took a month hiatus from writing to you Saturday morning. Did you miss me? I know that I missed sitting at my desk early Saturday, drinking coffee and sending out news about my week to you. I’ve found that this newsletter has become an important part of my week. Thank you for reading it and for being part of my life.
It has been an amazing month for getting lost in composition. I really sunk into writing my new novel. I would tell you the title, but I have three different ones that I like and don’t want to share them until I’ve finished a full first draft of the book.
I tend to have three stages of writing: 1) writing a lot of pages that are more or less written without any thought of revision 2) taking these pages and putting some order to them and 3) massive revision.
It is fun to be in phase 1, although lately phase 2 has been sneaking in and I find myself obsessing over sentences.
I did have a vacation from the Writing Cave this month. My husband and I (and our daughter) went away for a week to Cape Cod the third week of August.
It looks a bit gloomy, but it was actually gorgeous every day except one (when I took these photos). I had never been to Cape Cod before. We swam every day, ate oysters, and cooked elaborate dinners. After a year of nonstop drama, it was nice to have a peaceful, uneventful week.
Since I’ve been home, I’ve taken to walking in a cemetery near my house. It is totally empty (except for, well, the residents) and helps put me in the mood to go back to my desk and writing something a bit morbid.
Meet my new friend Minty.
Every once in awhile, when I have a lot on my mind, I will do a tarot reading to help me think things through. Tarot, for those of you who don’t have experience with it, is an old form of divination, but for me, it is a way to think about questions from multiple angles.
This is the Celtic Cross pattern, the most common lay, and the one I always use. It is an extremely positive constellation of cards, especially that Queen of Swords (in the querent position), the King of Pentacles and the 10 of cups. I also love that the Wheel of Fortune is spinning in my future.
While the symbolism of tarot is meaningful to me, I believe we make our own future, and that every day is a change to totally redefine and elevate our thinking. I hope that you find ways to make the most of this beautiful Saturday.
One last thing. If you have a writing project you’re working on or would like to start, I’d love for you to join one of my two writing workshops this fall. The first, a fiction workshop, begins September 13th and the second, a nonfiction/memoir workshop, later this year. Please reach out for more details if you are interested.
Thank you for sharing my week with me and let’s stay in touch.