Writing a novel is a lonely endeavor, one that requires thousands of hours in quiet solitude. Or so I used to believe. In the years after the pandemic, I started meeting with four other writers — Jade Chang, Angela Flournoy, Aja Gabel and Xuan Juliana Wang — for regular work sessions at Little Dom’s, the cozy Italian American restaurant on Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz. We sat cloistered in a corner booth and adhered to the Pomodoro method, increasing the usual 25 minutes of work to 40, with breaks in between to talk, over giant meatballs in marinara sauce, fried potatoes with garlic and lemon, butter lettuce Italian tuna salad. What did we talk about in those breaks? Seldomly about our book projects — but everything else, from the serious to the frivolous. The point wasn’t to share pages or workshop chapters. All of us had published one book and were writing our sophomore manuscripts. The point, simply, was being together, bearing witness to each other’s lives, week by week, as women and as friends.
This fall, three from our group have new novels out: Jade Chang’s “What a Time to Be Alive”; Angela Flournoy’s “The Wilderness”; and Aja Gabel’s “Lightbreakers.” We met up for lunch, no laptops this time, to reflect on the years since we began meeting for “poms.”
Jean Chen Ho: So, how did we start writing together at Little Dom’s?
Jade Chang: I think that we started with only working together occasionally. And I feel like there was a little skepticism. But then people liked it …
Aja Gabel: I was very skeptical. I never worked with other writers before.
Jade Chang, left, wears a vintage tuxedo shirt and custom pants; Angela Flournoy, center, wears a vintage vest, Melody Ehsani earrings and vintage custom bracelets and rings; Aja Gabel, right, wears an Ali Golden dress.
Xuan Juliana Wang: The pomodoros helped.
AG: Yeah, setting the timer. I had an office that I paid for, and then I would sometimes go to meet up with you guys at Little Dom’s, and I started to realize I would get more done in a shorter amount of time, with you guys. Usually if I try to work with someone, I would just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk, be totally distracted. But because everybody was really focused on their novels …
Angela Flournoy: I mean, it’s very hard to write a second book. So it helped to feel like you’re not alone. I also think that for me, I put aside my skepticism because I had been inside, a lot, talking to a child all day. I needed to be outside, talking to adults.
JCH: How far along was everyone on their book projects before the poms and co-working started?
AF: When I started working with you guys, in January of 2022, I was working on my memoir. I gave myself until June, then I sold the book by August. And then the second year of poms, 2023, was all novel. I hadn’t really worked on it since 2019. It was dormant because I was taking care of a child.
JC: I knew what I wanted to write, I knew how I wanted to write it, but I hadn’t really found the voice yet for this novel. I had a lot of notes, pages and pages.
AG: When I really started writing with you all, I had a draft but was like, “God, you need to fix this.” This was like the fifth or sixth draft. I did the whole final draft with you guys, which was kind of a page-one rewrite. I just started at the beginning and rewrote everything again. I pulled some stuff from previous drafts.
“The sheer pleasure of making up stories about people while sitting there with other people who are so good at making up stories is just so fun.”
XJW: I was at a place where I couldn’t write anything. Sometimes it was just having that set time, forcing yourself to write anything down. After the pandemic, and after having kids, it was like I forgot who I was and how to be — and then it took the poms, 30 minutes at a time, to remember who I was again, a writer.
AF: That’s beautiful.
AG: I had been writing and rewriting this novel since I sold it in 2020. I felt like I might not finish it. But I think seeing how determined you guys were to finish reminded me that that’s the mode you have to be in.
JC: Oh, no. Is our closest equivalent like being a run club?
JCH: Ew! No —
AF: Absolutely not.
JC: I thought run clubs are about, like, not being competitive, and everyone finishing? I mean, the last thing I would ever do is join a run club, so truly, I don’t really know.
AG: When we did poms, I would have to come with a plan because we only had the 40-minute chunk, so I was like, “I’m gonna do this scene today.” And when I’m alone, I think I would just be like, “What’s my feeling today?” And then it would take eight hours, and I would get the same scene. At a certain point, when you’re writing a novel, you just need to finish it. You can’t just feel your way through.
“I mean, it’s very hard to write a second book. So it helped to feel like you’re not alone.”
AF: I feel like there was a moment Jade started cracking the whip a little bit at work. We started having timed breaks. Before that, the length of the breaks in between working was purely based on vibes!
AG: Who was in charge of making the poms longer?
AF: Did they used to be 30 minutes? 25? That wasn’t enough time.
JCH: Well, I have to say it’s very inspiring as the person who hasn’t finished their novel to see all of you guys get there, and now your books are all coming out this fall. Can you talk about how it feels to not only have written these books together, but to be in the same publication season?
JC: It’s so much fun! What a weird surprise and treat. When I published the first book, I only knew one other person who had ever written a book. I didn’t know any other writers. I hadn’t gotten an MFA. I didn’t have friends where you get the behind-the-scenes story of how the book was written.
AG: Yeah, because we were there when the stuff was made, you know? When I had the first book out, there were people that I would see who came out at the same time as me, and I was like, they must have done something better than me. But all of us were together when this stuff was all getting cooked. I know we all worked hard. Are you and Julie going to come out in the same season?
JCH: I hope so!
AG: Is our publication affecting you guys?
JC: Yeah, have you been nervous?
JCH: Oh, it’s so much fun when it’s not happening to you. None of the anxiety.
XJW: Yeah, it’s way more fun!
JC: Really?
XJW: It makes me feel like it is possible for me to finish writing the second book. Watching you three do it, it wasn’t like I got the spark and I just suddenly rushed the end of this book. It takes time.
“This was a community of friends that, even if I hadn’t finished my second book, I would still be really grateful for.”
JC: No, it’s a slog for everybody.
JCH: We would always talk very organically about problems that we’re having in our books that we wanted to solve, but it always felt like we were just meeting up as friends. And we met up so much outside of doing pomodoros too. A lot of times we would go straight to happy hour after writing, or we would eat dinner together, or we would go to literary events together. There’s so much we know about each other, like having to take care of kids, family stuff, trying to get jobs, dating, working on screenplays, going on pitch meetings or all of the other things that come up. Being a writer is just a small part of the whole picture, to me, of our very rich and very nourishing friendship.
XJW: One thing you guys taught me, which I wouldn’t have learned outside of this, was when Jean got her page proofs back, you were actually having fun doing your page proofs at pomodoros. I always thought page proofs were pure torture. And then you guys were making it so fun, in a good mood. That’s the last part of editing the book before it comes out, you’re not supposed to think of it as the worst chore ever. When we were working together, I was always in a good mood. I’m going to get through this chore. And then, you know, have a drink.
JC: Oh, yes, having treats in any way is good.
JCH: How did we start making Little Dom’s our main writing office? Because we started at Alcove, and we tried other places.
AF: On the weekends Julie brought her kids there, I brought mine there. So it wasn’t like we were just there during weekdays, working. And just talking to the people who work there, Danny, Laura, Noah, Emily. And also always being, like, if you need me to move, tell me to get the f— out of here. Not being entitled to the space. Because, I mean, we should acknowledge that it’s not what you’re supposed to be doing, opening your laptop at a restaurant!
AG: I think they were charmed by the fact that we were all friends, too.
JCH: OK, last question. What has been your favorite part of this pomodoro writing experience and being in this group?
JC: The sheer pleasure of making up stories about people while sitting there with other people who are so good at making up stories is just so fun.
AG: This was the first friend group that I had in L.A. That’s really important. Some people don’t have that, a group of friends that they can hang out with regularly. Like, I have a lot of friends, here and there. But this was a community of friends that, even if I hadn’t finished my second book, I would still be really grateful for.
AF: I think the thing that made me realize how much fun pomodoros felt like is when I had to really hide to finish the book. I was like, oh, this is hell! I wrote so many thousands of words, but I’m just alone at home, making my back hurt, hunched over my desk. But I just needed to go a little feral.
XJW: I feel like I couldn’t have imagined another way to reemerge into the world, after the pandemic. Everything was there, friendship and mom advice and making Friday night plans, and we could riff off of each other and talk about everything. All my favorite things. Even if nothing else was going well, I had this space.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
