My Friends Make My Art

I’ve been test-driving different theories I have about my own writing process. When meeting with writer Courtney Cook, she acknowledged that my writing process extended beyond a word count. [This rocked my world.] My writing process includes the screenshots folder on my phone. It includes not only what I’m reading, but what I’m listening to. Walking is an integral part of my writing process - something I learned this summer when I could not walk comfortably. I scribble spiderweb notes in soft moleskins. I tap jibberish into a note on my phone labeled thoughts.Drafting an essay is one of the final steps in my writing process.

Yesterday, I read this interview with Sarah Minor. She writes:

Two years ago I tweeted something glib like “my friends make my art.” What I meant was that, in the making of each of these essays, there was always a moment when the text was dead in the water until a conversation with a friend jolted me forward. Sometimes it was a chat about a subject related to the essay itself, but more often the conversation was about something else entirely. “Unrelated,” I could say, though I always see friendship, community, being in the world, talking, joking, as related to my writing process.

Her inclusion of “friendship” as related to her writing process, to me, is both obvious and revelatory. My friends make my art. You make my art. (Yeah, even you).

I think of lying on my stomach on the dirty C-floor carpet in Regs, on a pitch-black early evening. Sharing a banoffee pie from Tesco (a delicacy) and talking about The World. Stacking all of the pennies from the till on Matt’s forearm. Evie’s dried bridal bouquets hung from the chandelier. Michael’s voice notes from Marseilles. Driving to Canada in Jenna’s iconic white truck. Summer holiday trivia at the Domals. The essay Catherine texts me. The art project Michelle shares after visiting an exhibit in England. Ashley’s famed Oreo balls. Flipping through old photos at my grandmother’s house. Caroline’s Instagram updates from Paris and Sarabeth’s comprehensive Met Gala highlights summary in our group text. My phone background. All of this is my writing process.

So tell me your favorite summer memory. Tell me what you just read and loved, send me an article that made you think of something else. Tell me about your worst break up. Send me a postcard. Send me your favorite picture of you, and tell me why you love it.