The stories I'm still looking for

+ a book update—I'm farther than I've ever been!

Hello, friends—

A friend asked me for a book update recently. When I told her where I was (50k words!), she said:

“You’re farther than you’ve ever been!”

Exactly! I’m going to remember that for the next time I feel behind—as long as I’m still showing up, I’m farther than I’ve been before.

Writing the book has become an enormous, surprisingly fun puzzle. I began with a framework, but in the process of writing and arranging the stories, another related structure has started to emerge underneath it. Maybe I could have planned it from the beginning, maybe not. As is so often the case, the clarity came through doing the work. There’s no way around it!

Every story I write gives me more information: where it belongs, what it’s in conversation with, what the chapter is really trying to say, and what piece is still missing. The emerging structure has given me even more confidence in the direction of the book—and made the process of fitting everything together both exciting and challenging.

Many of the stories are already written now, which means I’m looking for a smaller number of fairly specific experiences for the remaining chapters.

When the project got hard

I’d love to hear from you if your project became difficult in a way that wasn’t immediately resolved.

Maybe you changed the project, stopped, fell behind, questioned whether it was working, or stayed with it without getting the improvement, breakthrough, or clarity you expected.

What happened? How did you decide whether to keep going, change course, or let it end?

When the work left your hands

I’m also interested in unusual ways the work traveled beyond you.

Maybe you put it somewhere unexpected, created your own opportunity, shared it with someone new, gave other people a way to participate, or watched it become useful or meaningful in a way you hadn’t planned.

This doesn’t need to involve a gallery, publication, sale, or other conventional success. I’m interested in what happened once the work traveled beyond you.

How the project ended

And finally, I’m looking for a wider range of endings.

Maybe you finished early, late, or incompletely. Maybe you celebrated, held a show, gathered the work together, gave it away, used it, painted over it, or put it in a drawer.

Maybe reaching the end felt satisfying. Maybe it felt sad, empty, strange, relieving, or unfinished.

What made the project feel complete—or didn’t?

Please submit by August 7.

You’re welcome to submit even if you’ve filled out an earlier submission form. And if you submitted a story before and I didn’t respond yet, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good story or a worthwhile experience. Often, it simply means I already had another story that was serving a similar role in the book.

What happened after Day 100?

Even if your story doesn’t fit the call above, I’d still love an update! Did you do anything to mark the end of your project? Put all the work on a wall? Make a book or a slideshow? Go out to dinner? Give yourself a day off? Keep going? Put it all away and refuse to look at it for a while? You can reply directly and tell me what happened or comment below.

Parallel Play is on a short hiatus while I focus on the book, but we’ll be back soon. I’m looking forward to making together again and thinking up something fun for us in the fall.

Thank you, as always, for sharing your work and your stories with me. The book is becoming so much richer and more expansive and full of life because of all of you and your experiences.

XO,
L