Writing Diary

Five Aprils: A Story in Diary Entries

WAKE THE WILD CREATURES took years to write. Here are entries from my Writing Notebook as I faced pains, aches, and fears five Aprils in a row.

Nova Ren Suma

23 Apr 2025 • 10 min read

Photo by Anish Lakkapragada

I'm here today to speak to the emotional journey of writing a novel, and I'm going to open my diary to do so. But first...

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Join me this weekend for some writing! The next generative Prompt Hour will be held in Zoom this Sunday, April 27 at 8:30pm Eastern. Just sign up here! Here's a little hint about one of the prompts if you do plan to join me: Come thinking about the details, signs, and symbols that have appeared in your dreams... See you there?

Also, my new book comes out on May 6. If you're in any of the cities I'm traveling to on book tour—Philly, DC/Baltimore, Boston/Cambridge, NYC, Austin, Houston—please come to see me! You can also pre-order signed & personalized copies from my local independent bookshop Head House Books!

I really look forward to the day I am not promoting a book, believe me.

Today I thought I'd let private subscribers in on something, well... usually kept private. I keep a Writing Notebook (in the form of a series of documents on my computer), and for the past way-too-many years I've been writing about the writing of Wake the Wild Creatures. I was peeking back through the diary the other day and thought, hey, why not give a glimpse of that journey here? So here are entries taken from every April for the past five years. I'll start us in April 2021...

Diary Entry — April 2021 — 4 years ago

I am in this weird kind of limbo with my career.