"Untitled Thought Project"

No Title, No Book!

When I was struggling to find a title for my second book my friend Tommy, also a writer, said something to me that has haunted me for a decade—

NO TITLE, NO BOOK.

I was like—Fuck! I thought I was writing a book, but I guess I don’t know what I’m doing!

In the last ten years, though, I have kept writing books that remain untitled (or semi-titled, or tentatively-titled) until I’m nearly done with them, yet I still like Tommy’s proclamation: No Title No Book.

How wonderful it is to not be writing a book! To be writing, unsure of what you’re writing. A title, in a way, is a gravestone. It’s a bill you have to pay.

This is all to say this Substack is undergoing a renovation in the following ways:

1. It is now called Untitled Thought Project, and its subjects will be various and hopefully useful.

2. You can subscribe for money if you chose.

3. The free version is going to be on hiatus until September.

4. The first (or maybe second) paid post will come in July. It will be the written version of a talk/reading I’m going to give at the Jan Michalski Foundation in Switzerland. Come to that if you’re in that part of the world! It’s on July 6 and will have something to do with ecstasy and its opposites in writing.

5. More TK!

Oh man, a list is really satisfying. Let’s do another one.

1. This fall I’ll start a fellowship at The Cullman Center at the New York Public Library for the 2023-24 academic year. Fun! I’ll have my own little desk in a library and still no entirely predetermined job to do. (No Title No Book!)

2. The reception for Biography of X over the last three months has been a real delight. Natalie Portman picked it for her book club for June. And I did an interview with Slate as the fictional author of the book, CM. And I’m always happy to hear from readers, even the strange, long, what-the-heck style messages.

3. So thanks for that.

4. And sorry.

5. But mainly thank you.

Until soon!

xC