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Does this Scene Spark Joy?

I need to clean my closet.

I keep avoiding the task. (Can you blame me?)

There are easy things to clear out – the hidden leftover remnants from Christmas packages and the pile of clothes my teens have outgrown to donate.

But then there are the harder things. The extra comforter for when we pull our daybed into a king for guests that doesn’t fit in the linen closet. The shelf-full of handbags that I really need to go through seeing as how I pretty much just use two of them on rotation. The clothes I push aside because (let’s be honest) I love them but they don’t quite fit the way they used to and maybe, just maybe, this weighted vest walking I’m doing now for bone health means they’ll fit again eventually?

These things will require thought and decisions and, frankly, may get emotional.

Cleaning things out of our closets can be fraught even when we know we need to get rid of something because we never use it, it doesn’t fit, or we just don’t like it anymore.

Revising our manuscripts can be the same.

In tightening up my manuscript to go on submission, I needed to cut the word count. My agent suggested I take a machete to the scenes with the kids in them.

Okay, it was worded more kindly and with bona fide reasoning, but I loved those scenes. I loved writing them. I loved the comic relief they added. Those little kids are two of my favorite characters and I didn’t want to lose them.

Granted, I didn’t need to lose them, just trim them. Edit them. Reduce the clutter in those scenes.

And you know what? The book didn’t suffer for it. Even if I suffered a little in anticipation of doing it.

Would I have trimmed those scenes if I hadn’t been asked to?

Nope. I would have looked at other areas first.

But someone with outside eyes not so emotionally attached to their little personalities recognized those scenes were a little bloated and slowed the pace of the story.

Just like an organizer might be able to help me see what is and isn’t working in my closet and help me brainstorm solutions to the stuff I just push in the corner.

Revising can be emotional. We think those scenes that don’t quite fit might eventually if we just tweak something else somewhere to make it work. Or that chapter full of backstory might not be noticeable to anyone else like my pile of old picture frames in the corner.

The best part of revising is that you can cut those scenes or those characters or that backstory and put them in a cut file. It’s a lot easier to store than that comforter I don’t know what to do with when it’s not in use.

How can you revise with impartial eyes?

Remember Marie Kondo? She guided homeowners through the task of decluttering with one guiding principal:

Does this item spark joy?

If the answer is no, you thank the item for its place in your life and let it go.

There is a similar question to ask your story:

Does this scene/character move the story forward?

My kid characters were important in many ways, but the scenes that needed to be cut? Well, they weren’t moving the story forward. I just had fun writing the kids, which meant they ended up in longer scenes. Once I went back to revise with a more critical eye, I could see that the pace was dragging because of my own enjoyment. Cutting the scenes shorter allowed the kids to provide the color and context they needed to while moving the story forward. Places where they dragged or simply didn’t enhance the story were places I excised.

If a scene, character, backstory dump, or subplot aren’t moving your story forward (your external plot AND internal character arcs), then it’s time to take a critical look at them.

If you have taken so many revision passes that you can’t tell if it’s a forest anymore not to mention which trees are in it, it might be time for outside help.

Call in a cleaning service. This could be:

Critique partners. They probably know your story as well as you do. Ask them where you might be holding on too tightly.
Beta readers. Ask your betas where the paced slow for them? Or where they found themselves skimming. Usually the answer is somewhere they can skim.
Developmental edit/manuscript evaluation. A book coach or editor can read your manuscript and offer fresh eyes and a path forward to a clean manuscript.

Whatever you do, don’t close the door on your mess and hope no one notices it. When you query or self-publish a book with a mess hidden inside, agents and readers will find it.

Whether it’s your closet or your manuscript, it might be time we face the mess and get to work on cleaning it.

As always, if you need support, I’m here. And this spring I am offering both full and partial manuscript evaluations.

Manuscript Spring Cleaning

Spring is starting to make its magic in my neck of the woods.

I can tell by the buds on the trees, the scent of stinky pear blossoms (why does something so pretty have to smell so foul?), and the squeals of children playing outside after dinner on our street.

That, and the itch I get to tackle some house upkeep projects.

Somewhere, after taking down the holiday decorations and putting them all away, I get a little lazy with my house upkeep. Add in the pneumonia that won’t quit this winter and let’s just say I hope you don’t mind cat hair tumbleweeds if you pop by unannounced.

Whatever the reason, I tend to go blind to some of the normal house upkeep during the winter. Spring causes me to see the dirt and mess in a different way. Suddenly I want those baseboards cleaned, the scuff marks off the wall, the garage straightened.

In the same way we miss that dried on spill in the back of the fridge despite opening the appliance several times a day, we can go blind to the mess in our manuscripts, too.

We edit and revise and polish, reading the same scenes and chapters over and over and over. Eventually, we lose perspective on our stories. It’s hard to identify what’s working and what isn’t.

Plus, we carry all the iterations of our stories in our heads. We inherently understand why our protagonist made that choice because we wrote it…we just forget that maybe we cut out the set-up for that decision two revision passes ago and now it falls flat.

A manuscript evaluation, when you’ve reached the point of intellectual saturation in your writing process, is the perfect solution to help you see the mess in a new way.

I want to pause on this word mess for a second.

Your manuscript may be an all out mess. It happens. But it’s not likely.

If it’s been through several rounds of your own revision, I imagine it’s less a mess worthy of Hoarders and more like my house where on the surface, everything looks okay. You could pop in next week for a cup of coffee and when I apologize for the mess you might think I am being humble. Until you look under the bed or behind the closed bedroom door (please, don’t look there right now. I promise I’ll get to the pile(s) soon).

A third party reader with fresh eyes who hasn’t been as close to your story as you is the perfect person to find plot holes, identify structure problems, pick up on character inconsistencies, and more. Just like the threat of guests or the warm air of spring can help you see the clutter you have been ignoring in your pantry.

Take the opportunity this spring to clean your manuscripts.

Whether you need a deep clean (full manuscript evaluation) before you start querying or a spot clean (50-page evaluation) on a certain problem area as you make your way through a revision, now is the time to roll up your sleeves and make it better.

I can help.

I will provide a thorough read through of your manuscript, or section of it, compile an editorial letter, offer in-document comments, and suggested next steps for addressing any issues I find. We’ll also have an hour-long coaching call to discuss my findings, brainstorm solutions, discuss those next steps, and answer any questions you have about the manuscript and your vision for it.

I am offering several slots for full evaluations as well as partial evaluations (something I don’t typically offer!) this spring.

LEARN MORE ABOUT MANUSCRIPT SPRING CLEANING HERE

Let’s make those manuscripts sparkle!

And I promise, it will be way more fun than that garage clean-out.

3 Little Words That Will Unlock Your Revision

Whether it’s describing your favorite book or pitching your own manuscript, chances are you’re describing the plot or what happens in the story.

Hooks and pitches are all about plot. It’s the easiest thing to latch on to when it comes to story. Plot is often the first thing that comes to us when we sit down to write and ponder the “what if this happens” question.

What keeps our people reading, however, is the emotional journey of the protagonist and how that character arc interacts with and affects the plot. The real magic of story happens when we dig beyond “what if this happens” and ask “what if this happens to this person?”

Let’s look at The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The plot is what prompted me, and probably many other readers, to pick up the book—a life-or-death game where young people from each district in the nation are put in a dome together and only one can come out alive, all while the event is broadcast across the nation as entertainment.

What makes the story so resonant isn’t the series of events that could happen in a situation like this. It is Katniss and her journey through the Games. No one wants to be the district’s tribute—it’s essentially a death sentence. But Katniss volunteers for the games. Why? Not for ego or to prove something to the corrupted government (yet…that comes in a later book), but to protect her younger sister whose name is drawn in the lottery.

From the beginning, the reader knows something about Katniss and her heart that will make her someone to root for: she is motivated by love for her sister. Not only does the reader care about Katniss because of that bond, but her love and desire to take care of her family influences how she plays the game, ultimately making the story about so much more than just the plot of personal survival. Talk about emotional resonance!

Donald Maass writes in The Emotional Craft of Fiction: “What shapes us and gives our lives meaning are not the things that happen to us, but their significance.”

It’s not just the plot that makes a good story. It’s the meaning the plot has for the character. Like Katniss in The Hunger Games.

Maass goes on to say: “Plot happens outside, but story happens inside.”

Understanding your character’s emotional arc of change, how that arc plays with the plot, and how the character makes meaning of that plot are the keys to ensuring your story has a strong trajectory, propelling your reader through the book, hooked not only on plot but your protagonist’s experience of it. Your story’s trajectory is that emotional throughline that motivates your character to act and overcome obstacles in an attempt to reach their story goal. It’s the magical third rail of your story that holds up the external machinations of your plot. Without a strong trajectory, the story may just fizzle out or the reader is left wondering why they care about what happens at all.

At some point, plot just isn’t enough.

Ensuring your stories are imbued with meaning can be a gargantuan task. Luckily there are three magic words that will help you determine the strength of your story’s trajectory.

Because Of That

At the end of each major scene or chapter, if you were to fill in connector words between them, would they be linked by the phrase AND THEN or BECAUSE OF THAT.

“And then” insinuates that something happened to your characters. More rocks being thrown up at your proverbial protagonist in a tree.

“Because of that,” on the other hand, indicates that your protagonist has made a decision or taken some sort of action as a result of the scene propelling the reader into the next chapter where a consequence or obstacle will no doubt result from this choice.

Can you feel the difference? One reads like a litany of events while the other invites the reader to engage with the story, to deduce, suppose, and react to the actions the protagonist is taking on the page.

To check your manuscript for a strong “because of that” trajectory, start here:

Make meaning. Take a look at each scene or chapter. Summarize the plot of that scene in a sentence or two, then summarize the meaning of that plot point for the protagonist in a sentence or two. Do this for all the major scenes or chapters in your manuscript so you essentially create an outline of both the plot and emotional arc of your story.
Look for connection. Now, analyze the silence between scenes/chapters and see which phrase best connects them: “and then” or “because of that”?
Work backwards. If “and then” connects your scenes/chapters, ask yourself the following questions to find the problem in the previous scene:
Is the problem plot or emotion? There may be too much of one or the other throwing your trajectory out of balance. Too much plot without internal meaning-making leaves the action flat. Too much internal work without a little external plot means there may be too much backstory or info dumping on the page. Take a hard look at what’s out of balance and find a way to incorporate the missing link.
Does your character have agency? Are they making decisions in the scene, learning something new that will result in a new choice, taking action, making a decision, or are things simply happening to your character? The beauty in a novel length work is that our protagonists rarely get it right on the first try, so let them make some mistakes and learn some hard lessons. Just remember, that they need to be in charge, or at least think they are, by choosing to do—or not do—something in each scene.
What is the scene goal? What does the character want or need in the scene? Do they get it? All the macro story goals your protagonist has should be represented as micro scene goals as well. These goals not only need to advance the plot, but also deepen the meaning for the protagonist forcing her to make scene-specific decisions that will keep readers turning the page to find out how they will impact the macro goal.
Can you identify the scene stakes? There are the larger story stakes at play, always, but each scene has something at stake for your character as well, whether it’s a big thing (escaping the bad guy) or a small thing (saving face during a business meeting) based on that scene’s goal. If you can’t identify clear stakes in the scene, focus on what your character stands to lose in this moment and make sure the reader is clear on what that is on the page.

Do this for every scene or chapter in your manuscript since there may be different things at play in each scene. For example, in one scene you may lack trajectory from a simple imbalance of plot and meaning, while in another, the stakes may be unclear. Working backward from the connector phrase, however, will point you to the scene or chapter prior to see where you may need to focus your revision work.

Then, as you move forward through your revision, you will be able to strengthen the ultimate trajectory leading to your inevitable and impactful story climax. Because of that, you will have a story that keeps your readers turning pages to see what happens next.

Originally appeared on Jane Friedman’s blog.

Do you want more tips for unlocking your revision? Check out my Revision Road Map.

Need more support? Reach out and let’s talk about Revision Coaching.

Make it bigger, but no more square feet

My dad was a residential designer. He had a client once building an incredibly large and extravagant home in an exclusive neighborhood. He often told stories of this client who was opinionated and funny and ostentatious. Perfect fodder for the “you’ll never believe what Mr. K asked for today…” stories at the dinner table.

And there were many.

One night, my father began another such story.

Mr. K had called that day and wanted more—either the rooms to be larger or a new wing—but his construction costs were growing with each new ask. He brought his new list of wants to my dad with these instructions:

“Make it bigger, but no more square feet.”

Builders create estimates based on square footage—after all, that’s additional materials, labor, you name it. And Mr. K didn’t want his construction budget to go up a penny more.

“Make it bigger, but no more square feet.”

I don’t remember the specifics of the solution, but I do remember walking through the house while it was under construction and my dad pointing out a few things he’d done to give the illusion of more space. Moving the placement of the island in the kitchen, window size to let in more light and add drama, more open space in the grand hall.

In the end, my dad achieved it. He made it bigger, without adding square feet.

At the end of January, I sent off my revisions to my agent. In order to satisfy some of the problems in the book, I added words.

A lot of words.

But words I was happy with. They were the added rooms and wings my story needed to breathe.

When my agent sent her feedback on my changes, she loved them.

And she also wanted me to try and cut 10,000 words.

I’d made my story bigger, but now needed to subtract some square feet.

Like my father, I puzzled over the problem for a bit. The easiest solution would be to cut all the stuff I just wrote.

But that would weaken the story. There was a reason the book needed what I added.

Instead, I decided to adjust the window size, open up a wall, adjust the placement of the island. I needed to tighten the word count by getting rid of anything unnecessary.

I went to my writer posse and asked for some advice on how to do that.

Most of their suggestions were not a surprise: check for passive voice and edit out filter words and adverbs.

But one suggestion did take my by surprise:

Cut 10 words per page.

It’s the tightening by inches that keeps the structure unchanged.

Not only is it an effective strategy, it’s a fun challenge when I sit down to work.

Some pages I cut fewer than 10 words, but others, I lose several lines.

I’m cinching the corset on the story–everything is still there, just tightened up a little to show off its strongest assets.

Just like my dad needed to make some slight adjustments to meet his client’s underlying needs and show off the house’s strongest assets.

The challenge of writing is often to “make it bigger, but no more words.”

Writers can do this with word choice and ensuring every line of dialogue and description and action moves the story—both the physical and emotional layers—forward.

It’s no easy feat, but with a little creativity and a critical eye, we can make our writing bigger and tighter at the same time.

“Make it bigger, but no more square feet.”

Maybe Mr. K was on to something.

I got a rejection on my query, is it time to revise?

How–and more importantly WHEN–you should use your rejections to help you improve your stories

I was recently talking with a writer who had reached out in a panic.

She’d started querying agents a few weeks ago and had just received her third rejection. She wanted to know if she should rush back to her opening pages and revise.

I advised her to definitely NOT do that…Yet.

That might be the solution, surely, but after just a couple of weeks in the trenches and only three rejections, it’s a bit too early to tell what those rejections mean.

Rejections can definitely be the magic tea leaves to help a writer decide what to do next. But how?

After querying three different manuscripts and clocking more than a hundred rejections between them before I received my yes, I have a few suggestions on how to analyze your rejections.

Did you receive a form letter rejection?

I hear you—how can you tell if it’s a form letter?

Form rejections usually are kind, noncommittal, and vague.

Thank you for submitting your story to me but I’m afraid I’m just not the right fit. This is a subjective business and another agent may feel differently. Best of luck. Blah, blah, blah.

A quick and easy way to confirm whether you received a form response is to check QueryTracker. Under each agent’s profile is an “Author Comments” section where writers track queries to that particular agent. Many will copy and paste their rejection emails into the notes so you can see how yours compares and determine if you received a personalized rejection or the same note that most other submitters received.

If you are only receiving form letter rejections, your first step is to take a look at your query letter.

Does your story meet the genre requirements?
- Is your word count too short or too long for your stated genre?
- Is your stated genre clear?
- Does the query summary match your stated genre? (for example: your fantasy novel query should include a taste of the world you’ve built and its unique inhabitants and not read like it could take place on the set of The Office.)
Is your query the proper length?
- Your query should include three to four brief paragraphs that cover the story hook, a summary of what happens in the book, and a short author bio.
- Typically around 300-500 words
Is there a reason you are querying this particular agent?
- First of all, don’t query agents outside your story’s genre, make sure you are querying the agents that represent your style of work. Do your research!
- Clarify in your personalized intro why you are reaching out to this particular agent.

If your word count is wildly off or you wrote a suspense and the agent you are querying only represents romance, you will get a form rejection. These are logistical things you can learn about your agent list and your genre before you start querying.

If for some reason you are green to querying and didn’t do this leg work up front, STOP QUERYING immediately and make sure your story matches your genre and its subsequent requirements and that your query list would be interested in said story.

But there is another reason you may be getting form rejections–is your query compelling?

Your pages may be brilliant but an agent may not be getting all the way to them if the query isn’t selling your story.

While most authors will work with editors on their pages, swap pages with a critique partner, or at the very least employ beta readers, they sometimes skip this step when working on their query letters. It’s just as important to get feedback on this piece of writing.

This is an agent’s introduction to you and your work. You want to make sure this letter really shines.

If you’re receiving form rejections without additional page requests and the logistical things I mentioned above don’t apply (ie, you know your genre and you researched your agents), look at your query letter content. It’s an easier document to revise then going back into your manuscript and guessing at what might need to be changed.

Do your research on what makes a compelling query. I love The Sh*t NoOne Tells You About Writing podcast’s Books with Hooks feature as a resource on great queries–agents Carly Waters and CeCe Lyra analyze real queries from real writers. It’s a treasure trove of information. Also, look at resources like the late great Janet Reid’s Query Shark, Writer’s Digest’s Successful Queries, and Jane Friedman’s post on the Complete Guide to Query Letters.

I received help on my most recent query from book coach Julie Artz who specializes in query packages. Her insight and our back and forth made my query so much stronger. There are lots of coaches, like Julie and the team at BookWorks, who specialize in this part of the process.

Are you receiving requests for pages and then rejections?

Congrats! Requests for pages typically means you have a compelling query. You can skip all of the above.

This means, yes, it’s time to focus on your pages.

But how do you know what to focus on?

Look at the content of that rejection again.

Are you getting form rejections on your pages?

Ugh. That is the worst.

But before you panic, ask yourself:

Do your pages hold up to the promise of your query? In other words, did the story that hooked them appear on the page? A fast-paced sounding query that opens with a slow description of water dripping on the window panes and doesn’t pick up the pace by chapter three may not be what the agent expected. Make sure your pages and your query reflect one another.
Are your opening pages polished but the middle not so much? We naturally spend a lot of time on that first chapter, which is great when it means an agent requests more pages, but if they get those pages and they don’t hold up, this is a problem. Make sure your entire novel is ready to shine when you query, not just the first ten pages.
Could this just be a matter of fit? Some form rejections simply mean that an agent is busy and while they like the premise and the pages in general, it’s not something they want to take on. This is the hardest to know, but also very likely. If you think your manuscript is polished and that you’re pitching the right folks, this could be a time to seek out another round of beta readers before guessing and revising for revising’s sake.

Are you receiving personalized rejections?

I get it. Sometimes these hurt more when the rejection is followed by a list of things the agent loved about your book. But, if you’re getting personalized rejections, this is the sweet spot. You don’t have to guess what the agent is thinking because they are telling you!!

Personalized rejections could run the spectrum from “I liked it, it’s just not for me” (which stinks but isn’t as personal as it feels. Dust off that query and send to five more agents on your list whenever this happens!) to specific feedback on what they see the problem in your manuscript to be.

The beauty of a personalized rejection with specific feedback means that you now have the opportunity to decide if you want to revise.

If the feedback resonates (e.g., “the character fell flat on the page and I didn’t connect”), perhaps now is the time to take a break from querying and consider revising.
If the feedback doesn’t resonate (e.g., “I think you should change the ending and move the story from Missouri to Puerto Rico to make it more interesting”), then perhaps it’s not the book for them. Next step? Send out five more queries to five better fit agents.

You are under no obligation to make changes based on any reader’s feedback, even an agent. Consider it, definitely, but in the end, you have to decide whether you want to incorporate that feedback into YOUR story.

The same goes for if…

You queried, sent pages, and have received a Revise & Resubmit request.

This can feel like the holy grail. Feedback and an open door with an agent? Yes, please!

REALITY CHECK: an R&R request does not mean that if you make the changes this agent will sign you (been down that road before), but it does mean they will take another look at your pages and may sign you.

I received an R&R on an earlier manuscript. I happened to agree with the changes and embarked on a large rewrite. That rewrite ended up making the story better, although the agent ultimately passed (which annoyed me at first after all that work, but what I know now is that this particular agent is phasing out of the business and therefore would not have been the ultimate long-term partner I had hoped for, so it all works out in the end, right?).

While the rewrite improved the story, it also made it shorter (I write lean as it is). For historical fiction, I missed the mark on the target word count. When I took the revised version out to new agents, I found myself in a deep stack of form rejections (see above about genre requirements). At the time, I was committed to the story as it stood and decided to shelve it instead of revise, but I definitely knew what the problem was and understood that continuing to send it out wasn’t going to help my manuscript’s cause.

If you receive an R&R, treat it like any feedback.

If it’s not how you want to adjust your story, thank them and move on. You are under no obligation to execute the R&R, it’s just a request.

However, it’s always a good idea to let the feedback sit with you and maybe even give it a good faith effort (in a separate document) to see if you like where the changes take your story. You may be surprised. And if you don’t like it, you’ve still got your original and can continue querying the original version.

LONG STORY SHORT

Be patient and persistent when querying.

Querying is hard. It’s hard to wait for responses, it’s hard to accept rejection, it’s hard to know what to do next.

But with a little analysis, you can be in control of the journey.

And don’t do anything after just three responses…unless of course you get personalized feedback from all three that all state the same problem!

Whatever you do, don’t panic!

Do your research.

Know your story.

Trust your instincts.

Keep querying.

Keep writing.

It just takes one yes.

Beyond the First Draft

This week, I started posting at Substack. No worries, loyal readers, I will continue to post my content here as well. The benefits of joining me there are that you will receive posts two days earlier as well as have the opportunity to join me in monthly Ask Me Anything sessions if you are a paid subscriber (but no pressure, all my usual content will remain free). Plus, you can join the creative and supportive Substack writing community.

But like I said, I will still be here and am happy to meet you wherever you are. Below was my welcome message on Substack this week:

Welcome to Beyond the First Draft

If you are here, you are probably a writer.

At the very least you’re a reader.

Or maybe you’re related to me.

Whatever the reason, welcome!

As a writer and a book coach, I deeply believe in two core values: Creativity and Connection.

Beyond the First Draft is a place for me to honor both.

A place to connect more deeply with writers and readers than a traditional newsletter as well as a place to be creative, talk about creativity, and encourage creativity.

If you are looking for support in your writing, an occasional pep talk, and a few tips to help you on your writing journey, then you are in the right place.

My primary goal is to help you feel not alone on this writing journey.

Most of the posts here are born of issues I am having in my own writing life–craft or mindset issues that are holding me back. I get it–writing can be hard, frustrating, beautiful, and satisfying. I am not here to preach at you, but to help you see your writing and process in a new way when you’re stuck. The goal is to keep you writing! Because the world needs your stories told in your voice.

I am also a book coach, so that means, occasionally, I will share special offers and invitations to work more closely together on your own writing. If that’s not right for you at that moment, just skip that one. No hurt feelings.

As with any newsletter, you can opt out at any time and while I will be sad to see you go, I am a big believer in only holding onto the advice and help that serves you. If I am not serving you, please, feel free to go find those voices that do. Or drop me a line and let me know what you need and I will try to point you in the next direction.

Which is another reason why I am loving Substack. It’s an easy way for you (and I) to use this space as a jumping off point to finding additional voices in the writing and creating space. There is bound to be the right voice for you (and me) here!

I look forward to sharing my writing journey with you and learning more about yours.

Please feel free to connect in the comments and in Notes.

And let’s go Beyond your First Draft together.

Waiting for the “right” time?

My apologies for my absence in this space lately. I have missed it, and you!

I needed to focus on my own writing in January, and while I typically can make time for this newsletter and other content to engage with you and other writers in the world, the month got the best of me.

My younger son had pneumonia that was a beast to get rid of. Worrying and caring for him took all my spare mental space.

Once he recovered, I was off to a book coaches retreat in Scottsdale. It was an amazing and restorative time with some phenomenal women, but any breaks I had were used for final edits.

Now, I’m home, but the pneumonia bug has tracked me down, too. 😷

I’m writing this in bed. Between coughing fits. Just wanting life to get back to “normal.” (As if I even know what that is with two teenage boys and their endless activities and needs, my husband’s job, and my own work/writing/life balance.)

Do you often wait for things to “settle down” in order to write? Keep putting off what you want to do for the perfect time?

It can be a dangerous game, can’t it? There is always something coming around the bend, whether we know it or not. Then we end up feeling like a failure or not like a “real” writer because we aren’t writing.

What can we do, then, to protect our writer selves from the slings and arrows of adulting?

There are some practical things you can do to protect your writing:

Schedule realistic writing time. I say realistic because I was chatting with a friend recently who wanted to focus more on writing and had reserved Fridays for this purpose. Problem solved, right? Nope. She prioritized work tasks to try and “catch-up” (which is never really possible) and wasn’t being productive. The real problem? A day was too long and unstructured for her and she found it easier to cross off tasks that felt tangible. And often, creative writing isn’t to-do style work. She also admitted her best writing happend on retreats. We discussed how she could create that environment in more doable chunks each week–for example, writing at a coffee shop or other location free from distraction. Scheduling an hour with a latte was a lot easier and attractive for her to do consistently while still giving her flexibility on those “free” Fridays for unexpected tasks.
Adjust your expectations. My friend who loved retreat writing where she could knock out big chunks of writing in a concentrated amount of time needed to adjust her at-home-writing expectations. Writing 3,000 words each Friday just isn’t realistic for her typical patterns. But knowing she could create consistency with her coffee dates assuaged that productivity anxiety. For me, I needed to adjust my expectations in January that I could do ALL THE THINGS when honestly, to do a good job on my revision, I needed to focus on one thing.
Commit to coming back. Sometimes the real world will simply demand your time and there is little we can do about that. But knowing you’ve committed to coming back to your work will reassure that inner writer you aren’t abandoning her. Pick a date to reevaluate whether you now have the time to restart a writing routine, even a small one. If it’s not feasible yet, commit to another future date for a check-in. Sometimes, just knowing a date is on the calendar will free your mental space up to deal with whatever challenge is in your way and offer you the grace to return to the writing when you’re ready.

And sometimes, the best thing you can do is give yourself some grace. There is a season for everything and if you are a writer, you will make the time for it when you can. Trust your writer’s heart.

Right now, I’m going to go cough a little more and take a nap and drink some water.

If you’re needing a break right now, take it. If writing helps you process your stress or the news or relaxes you after a busy day, do it. Both are right. Both are valid.

Take care of you.

Sending virtual (and germ-free) hugs,

Monica

PS – I’m moving to Substack. This content will still be available here on the blog on my website, but if Substack is a place you hang out in as well, I’d love to see you there. I’ll post a welcome announcement here next week when it’s live. See you there!

My Word for 2025

Every year, I pick a word as a mental homebase. A reminder, a guide post, a mantra that keeps me on track.

Last year’s word was mountain. And boy, was 2024 a climb.

It wasn’t my most joyful year, though not my most sorrowful either. It was a year where I was anticipating a lot of change and struggling with immense self-doubt:

Is my writing keeping me from being a successful book coach?

Is my coaching keeping me from being a successful writer?

Ah, circular questions that center me as always being in my own way. Good times.

Without another plan, I just kept doing the work. Kept querying. Kept drafting. Kept revising. Kept putting myself out there as a coach. Kept working with amazing writers.

It often felt like a straight upward climb and other times I felt like I was stuck at a trail washout.

In November, I attended a meeting with some amazing women. Before diving into the conversation, the leader of the group asked us to go around and share one word to describe where we were that day. Words like excited, relieved, and hopeful were shared about new jobs, finding a lost item, and surviving a tough day.

Then they got to me.

(You already know I went for the metaphor don’t you? Sure did.)

“You know when caterpillars go into their cocoon and essentially melt into goo before rebuilding into butterflies? I’m in the goo.”

I went on to explain that I felt like my writing and my business were in the in-between. Both going along, but not quite where I want them to be yet. My oldest had just finished submitting all his college applications and our family is about to change as he navigates leaving home. My youngest is now in high school and suddenly out and about more often, too, meaning there is more to manage and yet also more free time for me (such a weird dichotomy). 2025 will by my last year in my 40s.

There is change a-coming, whether I’m ready for it or not.

It was a queasy place to be, honestly, both being in the goo and admitting to it.

The goo isn’t pleasant. It’s a little painful, to be honest. Growing a new skeleton and wings isn’t easy when you started out as a fuzzy little tube of a creature. But I held onto faith it would all be worth it.

Which is why I admitted to being in the goo–it felt like I was on the cusp of something, I just wasn’t sure which way it would go.

And then, just after Thanksgiving, I got the email in response to a query requesting “The Call.” An agent loved my manuscript and during our conversation, offered me representation.

During the latter half of December and the first two weeks of January, some professional opportunities also came my way. Opportunities that are the result of the work I did while climbing Mount 2024.

Over the holiday break, as I sat with all that happened in 2024 and all the work yet to come in 2025, I wallowed in my goo. The amorphous in between. I tried to breathe into this midpoint.

Then I asked myself: What does this mean for 2025?

It means a new word. A word worthy of the changes to come.

And this year, I’m going with BUTTERFLY.

I toyed with metamorphosis, transformation, emergence, and becoming.

But butterfly just felt right.

Butterflies are soft, sweet, delicate, but born of hearty stuff. The process of metamorphosis is no easy journey. Caterpillars start as one thing and become another. And yet the butterfly is still made up of all the same DNA as the caterpillar.

Different, but the same.

In 2025, I want to emerge into the light. I want to enter this new phase of my writing and my coaching and my parenting and my relationships lighter and with more color, but fundamentally still me.

Lofty goals?

Maybe.

But it’s time I took a different perspective. I’ve seen the caterpillar view from the ground, and I’ve been locked up in a cocoon for a bit. It’s time to give myself permission to emerge back into the sunshine and see the world from a new angle.

It’s time to fly.

How about you? Do you pick a word for the year?

Feel free to share it in the comments so we can cheer each other on!

Start the New Year WRITE!

Happy New Year!

Are you looking to level up your writing in 2025?

Now is the time!

Start the year write with The Write Time Summit!

Coaching colleagues over at Writer’s Harvest Book Coaching have put together an amazing summit of more than a dozen guest speakers for presentations to inspire, teach, and encourage coming up on January 10-11.

I will be giving a presentation on my favorite topic–revision, of course! Additional coaches will be offering their expertise as well as writers, and industry experts. Find the full list of speakers here.

You don’t want to miss this event. it’s perfect for writers at nearly every step of the process.

Find answers and inspiration as you start, continue, and finish your projects in 2025!

You can find out more and sign up here.

Stay tuned to this space next week for my typical new year, new word post. There are some amazing things in store for 2025 and I can’t wait to share them with you!!

Wishing you all the best for a year of new words, new skills, and new adventures!

I have a confession to make…

I have a confession to make:

My Christmas tree is still naked.

It’s lit and all the other Christmas decorations are up around the house, but the ornaments are still in bins sitting under the tree instead of presents.

Why?

Because our tradition is to decorate together as a family, but our schedule has been so jam packed with holiday concert rehearsals and parades and semi-formals and Secret Santa exchanges and homework. And that’s just the kids. Add in some crazy busy work schedules and volunteer commitments for the grown-ups and it’s suddenly mid-December and the tree is still just a tree.

As I stared at my empty tree drinking my coffee this morning, I realized the tree feels a lot like my rough draft.

I’ve got the bare bones of this story there and have all the necessary revisions planned out like the boxes of ornaments squatting under my tree, but the act of revising has been taking a back seat to a busy schedule lately.

And both are bothering me.

The naked tree. The untended manuscript.

But life is what it is right now.

I’m trying to use this time of year full of reflection and planning to readjust my process and goals.

For the tree, that means adjusting my expectations. I know it will get done and doing it together as a family is more important to me than just getting it done.

For the revision, it means digging into why I’m letting other tasks take priority over my writing. Some are deadlines that came this month that were unavoidable and worthwhile and won’t be issues in January. Other tasks were simply busy work that felt easier to do than the deep work of revision. That’s something I need to sit with and make a better plan for combating.

That might mean time blocking in a more regimented way than I am now.

Or maybe an accountability partner.

Or a change in my morning routine.

Or simply recognizing that the heavy mental load of the holidays is maybe not the best time for heavy-duty revision work.

I don’t know yet.

But admitting it here–both the naked tree and stalled revision–feels like a start in the right direction.

These aren’t things to hide. The tree is still up and beautiful. Maybe not as pretty as it will be when we’re done, but it’s not an eyesore.

My rough draft is still a huge accomplishment. Maybe not as pretty as it will be when I’m done, but it’s not nothing.

Whatever your naked tree is this season, either in your personal life or your writing one, take some time to appreciate what is and I wish you the opportunity to make it what you want it to be when you’re ready.

And if 2025 is the time you need help with accomplishing your story goals, reach out. I’m here. And I get it.

Ready to get support? Check out my book coaching services below for more info on how I can support your writing journey:

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