The Unbearable Lightness of Prose by By Brian J. Dolan

Writing has been a part of my life since childhood, but it’s rarely been for my own satisfaction, driven instead by mainly academic or professional concerns. In recent years, I’ve ground out several pieces a year for trade outlets, always with an eye toward a commercial outcome. Unsatisfying in the end and a slog to write.

The few personal things I wrote were disproportionately satisfying. One small mainstream success came after I pitched a newspaper opinion editor at a cocktail party. An offhand remark I made got her attention as a potential topic for an upcoming Sunday section. The ensuing article didn’t have any particular substance, but I was flattered when it ran adjacent to a famous jurist’s piece about her part in a civil rights milestone.

When a local venture capitalist subtweeted it under the text “Don’t be this guy,” my satisfaction grew with righteous indignation. I had provoked a member of the moneyed class.

At the end of 2023, finding myself apart from people I loved, among other travails, I turned to writing prose to (hopefully) plug some leaking holes in the waterlogged boat of my psyche.

Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl’s holocaust-memoir-cum-physchiatric-philosophy helped crystalize this recent push to write for me. Frankl writes about creating, experiencing (mainly love), and one’s bearing in the face of suffering as pillars of a meaningful life, and it resonated. Somehow, his somber ideas collided with a memory I had of Jerry Seinfeld describing unbroken streaks of daily writing as the key to his creative success, and I began a daily writing practice.

After sharing a few essays with friends, my first novella, Notes from Star to Star, began in a serial format for first one reader, then two readers. To my delight, they reacted well.

Notes is a sci-fi story where the protagonist awakens from suspension in a vast spaceship, her memories gone, the crew missing. Where is she headed? Why is she alone? How did she get here? In my mind, I drew inspiration from themes of other artists I appreciate: the opening scene of The Rook by Daniel O’Malley and the creepy space ambiance of the Tarkovsky film adaptation of Stanislav Lem’s Solaris in the 70s. The story took off in its own direction and energy from there, as they seem to do, traversing light years through space and a range of emotions.

I’m now on day 86 of a writing streak and trying to beat my 92-day record as I work on the second draft of my next story, a thriller set on the West Coast of the United States. It’s been amazing to see people read Notes and share it — again disproportionate to its (as yet) far smaller audience than my nonfiction — and I treasure every bit of feedback I’ve received.

Follow me on GoodReads or Amazon to find Notes from Star to Star and catch my next book when it is released.

Author Biography: Brian J. Dolan is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. His nonfiction has appeared in the Boston Globe, Business Insider, and elsewhere.