Having yesterday set my intent to write on here more about narrative, it would be churlish not to attempt that today!
My first thoughts on the 'what' leaned heavily into process -- how I actually go about putting together what I write. My first-blush response was 'no, that's just what you normally write about' (since a lot of what I put on here relates to self-management and 'workflows' in a more general sense). But I prodded that thought a little further, because, in large part, narrative is process.
I think the way people talk about writing and narrative has -- rightly -- become a lot more functional and prosaic in various ways (or maybe my perceptions have become better filtered over time). It is a craft -- or perhaps a collection of crafts -- with solid principles and rules, not a mystical process. There is a certain element of it which feels rather ineffable -- the haunted gaps between those pillars of craft -- but I think a lot of that comes down to honed implicit understanding and emergent thoughts, which develop as a function of the 'infrastructure' you make for yourself to actually do the work.
I'm a very structured thinker and creator. I have a set of tools I've picked up over time which I'm very good at selecting and deploying. For me, that is a huge part of the joy of creativity -- cultivating tools which develop with you over time, and still being surprised by the results. If I have a superpower, I'd say it was that (plus the ability to pick up, try out, and keep/discard new tools I find along the way), though it certainly leaves me with my share of weaknesses, too.
Part of the joy for me is also the 'elephant eating' of it all. ('How do you eat an elephant...?'). Confidence with my tools gives me a certain sense of inevitability, as long as I have energy (attention + time). If something isn't working, I have other options, diagnostic approaches, and places to fall back to.
Not everyone thinks or works like I do, and that isn't to their detriment, but for me: narrative is process and process, narrative.
No updates tomorrow or Friday.