And thank goodness.

This moon feels like finally twisting open a jar that has been sealed shut for a while. Mercury and Venus stationing direct on Friday will help really get things moving, but this New Moon is the first step toward Unsticking whatever we haven’t been able to get to.

The first half of November is like that point when you’re so sick of squeezing squeezing squeezing that last bit of toothpaste out of the tube that you finally throw it in the trash and break out a new one.

Because as Diana Rose Harper once said in the Astrology for Writers Discord, “hard mode is not more virtuous,” and sometimes, the answer is that we’ve gotta start anew.

Now that Astrology for Artists is turned in and entering production, I’m returning to The Novel, where Mercury and Venus Rx have confronted me with the necessity of Making Major Changes. Not throwing the entire tube of toothpaste in the trash, but I am moving some load-bearing pieces around. I’m changing my heroines’ ages and moving the timeline up by 20 years (for fiction set in the 14th century, huge!). Plus lots more. I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited, in that way that finally getting the damn jar open is satisfying.

Except now, I have to cook. Or write. (Forgive all the mixed metaphors.)

Because that’s the thing about chewing on a narrative puzzle, isn’t it? It can be deeply satisfying to stare at a project and spend hours thinking about how it goes together, or researching material in the hopes of finding that one historical detail that makes everything click into place. I love talking through plot problems or character motivation with friends. I love strategizing about how to tackle a particular book. It’s great fun.

But at a certain point, we do, in fact, have to Do The Work.

… and not wanting to do the work is valuable information, too.

The thing about this Scorpio New Moon, ruled by Mars and applying to a square with Mars in Leo, is that it has no time for bullshit, or for berating ourselves for not doing something we think we should do when we actually want to do something else. Scorpio energy is, shit or get off the pot. Your time is valuable. Don’t waste it.

Scorpio energy is most obsessed with what it most cares about. Let this moon reveal what you are most obsessed with — and give yourself permission to notice if right now, it’s not the book you thought you’d be writing. Maybe it’s something else: another project, or even another hobby or art form altogether. Maybe it’s dating or writing fanfiction or going back to grad school.

The thing about what we are most obsessed with is that it gets to change over time. I was obsessed with tigers when I was in elementary school, and also the Titanic, the wives of Henry VIII, and the historical inaccuracies in Disney’s Pocahontas. My past lives include PhD student and lingerie boutique owner and also a rather notable stint as a virgin-on-her-wedding-night tradwife. To quote John Mulaney, people change!

And yet, so many of my students and clients think that not having a long-form project this exact moment, or not being able to choose projects, or not being that interested in writing a book at all is somehow a permanent state of being, or a referendum on their creativity.

Let me hold your hand and say: it’s not.

You get to change what you care about, including book projects and even writing altogether.

Your writing gets to have seasons: hopeful springs, busy summers, bountiful autumns, and restful winters.

Just because you care about doing something else right now doesn’t make you not a writer.

It’s nerve-wracking, trying to solve a big puzzle in a book project. I know, because I’ve done it, and also because I’m literally in it right now. I intimately know the frustration of something just not clicking into place with a project for months at a time.

But the thing is that if we eventually apply enough friction, something breaks open.

It just may not always be the thing we expect.

I hope this New Moon in Scorpio brings you the permission to pursue your creative obsessions and to chase that which brings you the most joy.

If you are in a season where you want a book project but don’t have an idea for one, or simply want to generate More Ideas for the backburner!, come to my generative ritual workshop THE BOOK YOU WERE BORN TO WRITE. November 17 & 24, 7-9pm Eastern.