Stop 2 End

Hello! I know I’ve been a bit remiss about posting, mostly because i am deep in the book mines right now, revising The Perfect Moment for its next submission to Bloomsbury. A thing I did not know until I published my first book is how many drafts and how much work remains after what, in your head, is the basic endpoint: sending the manuscript to your publisher. I am now in the second phase, responding to the notes from my editor Colleen. Next week begins phase three: reading the manuscript out loud to figure out how to make it better, and incorporating notes from friends who have read it, sending bits that have been restructured to Colleen to get her thoughts, and compiling all of the necessary information to get photograph reprint and quotation permissions. Fun fact you may not know: authors have to pay for quotation and photo reprint permissions, as well as the index in the back of the book, and any fact checkers they may want to employ. Even then, however, the work on some level has only just begun. I believe on The Method there were like 6-8 more drafts after that, each one adjusting smaller and smaller things until the last one was a review to make sure everyone’s name was spelled correctly. They always say it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon, but it’s more like writing the book is a marathon, and then preparing it for publication is a series of sprints. Now that I know what to expect, however, it’s gotten much, much easier, at least psychically.

I have been working on other projects at the same time, of course. I recently wrote an assessment of Pedro Pascal for Slate, and guest hosted Culture Gabfest, and, for the Criterion Channel, interviewed Brian Cox for my ongoing Craft of Acting series. I have my podcast with Dan Kois still. And I have other longer term projects that are too nascent to be discussed right now. In the Fall I will be teaching at NYU and directing at Stella Adler. Perhaps it is having freelanced full time for a decade now, but I am basically incapable of only focusing on one project at a time. An inveterate monogamist in romance, I am also a dedicated polygamist creatively. What I’ve found is that, when done right, the various projects feed off each other. The energy of new collaborators and new exciting projects because fuel for finishing the older ones. What you learn from the longer term projects gets applied to the shorter term ones. And so on. It can get overwhelming, of course—there will come a time in late Fall when I am finishing copyedits on the book, directing a play, and teaching a class that I am not looking forward to— but I wouldn’t really want it any other way.

In lieu of a more substantive essay, I am instead sharing a poem I have written (or perhaps assembled). It’s a found text poem, every line in it comes from a different email or text message I received from democrats asking for money. Having been unable, despite my best efforts, to get off these mailing lists, I figure I can at least make them work for me. This was incredibly fun to do, and I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please share! Even a screenshot posted on your feed with credit would be greatly appreciated. Here it is:

STOP 2 END

By Isaac Butler

Hello Isaac, nice to meet you.
Isaac, I’m trans.
I refuse to take the bait.
What if I told you I’m a retired US Navy admiral
A Retired drill instructor
A Retired major general with the US navy
A Retired US Marine Corps top gun pilot
I retired in 2017 having earned the rank of colonel
As a farmer and retired brigadier general
I’m reaching out one poet, writer, dreamer to another
I’m a former teacher and high school principal
As a former teacher of deaf students
I’m a proud veteran of our armed forces

PBS alert
This is how we win
It starts with eight seats
We’re up against deep pockets
What if your local hospital closed overnight

Deb is sick of the status quo
Another mass shooting
60 years ago
We broke quorum

I have a simple question for you
I’m reaching out with a humble request
Lay it on me
Correction: lay it on me