My Favorite Things: March 24

Spring is finally springing! I am so close to sharing with you my new favorite thing…The Revision Road Map (subscribe to my newsletter to be first to know the details in the next week or so!). 

This tool has totally saved my revision process and I am so excited to bring it to you lovely writers and save you from those feelings of overwhelm and distress in the revision process. 

While I put the finishing touches on the Road Map, here’s a recap of some of my other March favorites:

What I’m Reading

The Guncle* by Steven Rowley This book was laugh out loud funny despite some tough subject matter about grief and opening ourselves up to love even after we’ve been burned. The banter between Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP) and his niece and nephew is beyond brilliant and I truly loved everything about this book. 

I read Matthew McConaughey’s memoir Greenlights* and was surprisingly delighted by it. At turns funny and heartbreaking and inspiring, I found myself talking about this book and the ideas in it to my husband enough times that he told me to stop so he could read the book himself and not have me spoil the whole thing. I loved the way McConaughey included thoughts and poetry and diary entries in his own handwriting as well. Plus, lots of pics throughout, not just that weird glossy section in the middle. I found it an excellent memoir in terms of writing, content, and structure (you can’t totally take the book coach out of the reader). 

I just finished The Measure* for the neighborhood book club that meets next week. I can’t wait to discuss it. This is a perfect book club pick. I love a book with intertwining characters, add in some big questions about whether you would want to know how long you have to live with a dash of societal dynamics, and you’ve got yourself a winner. 

What I’m Watching

The 17 year old and I are watching The West Wing together. Let’s be honest, I’ve seen it a million times for Allison Janney alone, but it’s great fun to rewatch in order again. Plus, you can’t beat a West Wing walk and talk shot. 

The 14 year old and I recently watched both the Shadow and Bone series and the movie The Maze Runner after he finished those respective books. I am now not the only person in the house who spends the whole show/movie announcing what’s different and how the book is better. #ProudMama 😂

What I’m Listening to

As both a coach and a writer and a general human, I got a lot out of a recent episode of the Ten Percent Happier podcast hosted by Dan Harris. The episode was How to be Productive Without Burning Out with Cal Newport (author of Deep Work*, which I loved). As a writer and solo-preneur, it can be tempting to overwork as well as get mired down in little logistics while avoiding or putting off the big projects for a false sense of productivity (look at all these things I crossed off my to-do list!). Newport had lots of tips for slowing down to get more done as well as how to reframe what productivity is for you and your life. 

What have you been reading, watching, and listening to in March? Reply in the comments and let me know! 

*These are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission if you purchase through the link.

Featured photo by Diane Helentjaris on Unsplash

Fail in Order to Create

I saw this amazing clip from Paul McCartney about the song Blackbird, one of my all time favorites. 

Did you catch what he said? He and John, while messing around with Bach and got some of the song wrong because they didn’t know the scond half.. That bit of “wrong” highlighted the chords he was truly interested in that became the basis for one of their most popular songs. 

A mistake led to something new. Something great. 

He could have, once he learned of his mistake, felt embarrassed he’d gotten it wrong and dedicated himself to learning the correct second half. 

He didn’t. 

He ran with it. He let what he liked inspire him. 

I want to tell you a secret, which is probably no secret if you’ve been around these parts for any length of time, there have been lots of times when I wouldn’t have probably handled that in the same way. 

I would have beat myself up for getting something wrong. The shame might have kept me from actually exploring the new thing knowing it was based on a wrong thing. 

Mistakes are opportunities. Many inventions were the result of a different invention attempt. 

Take the Post-it note. 

A 3M employee was tasked with creating an adhesive for the aerospace industry. All his attempts were too easily removable. Many years later, when a colleague needed something to mark his place in his Sunday hymnal he remembered this “failed” adhesive and tried it–boom! The Post-it was born. Technically, the original invention was a failure, but the Post-it note is anything but. 

So what’s my point? 

It can be really tempting to judge our own writing by how long it takes us or how many revision passes we need. 

Stop. 

It takes what it takes. We need to fail in order to create. Reaching for great and coming up short is how we know to keep working, to get creative, to innovate, to try new things. 

No one, and I mean no one, writes a book or a poem or a short story or a paragraph perfectly on the first try. There is always something to improve, to enhance, to cut, to experiment with. 

Don’t self-censor before you even begin. Go in looking to make mistakes, to fail. Because only then can you learn and grow. 

Go write and make mistakes with abandon. 

Because you never know where they might lead you next. 

It may be somewhere great. 

And enjoy this beautiful cover of Blackbird from Joy Oladukun:

Need help revising? Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know about a new tool I’ll be releasing soon called The Revision Road Map.

The Revision Road Map is perfect for new writers unsure where to begin, seasoned writers looking for a better way to stay organized on deadline, and any writer hoping to avoid the overwhelm that can take place during the revision process.

SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER HERE

Spring Into Writing!

Spring is springing where I live in central NC. The daffodils and tulips have come and gone. The pear trees are snowing down on street corners–beautiful despite their dead fish aroma. And the pine pollen is fit to bursting (we’re at slight dusting right now but I imagine we’ll be at full on yellow cloud level by the weekend). 

We’ve been back in the yard doing our first mow of the season, preparing for fresh mulch, clearing out the debris to make room for spring’s magnificence. 

Now is the perfect time to take stock of our writing life as well to see what needs clearing out and what needs a little extra nurturing. 

Take a look back at your 2024 word, if you chose one. 

Mine was mountain. Meant to connote that this journey will be long and challenging but with pretty views along the way and more fun with friends. 

As I look back on the last few months, I can see places where I cursed the mountain, forgetting that the mountain is the goal, not the summit. Time to spread a little mulch around that idea. 

Are you sticking to the intention you had for this year so far? What adjustments can you make? 

What’s clicking and clunking in your current writing routine? 

I wrote about how to analyze your writing for what’s clicking and clunking, but you can easily use this to see what’s working (or not) in your writing routine. 

I have made some adjustments this year based on what’s clicking and clunking in my routines: 

  • I’m attending daily writing dates to stay accountable to my new manuscript
  • I am getting more intentional about  time blocking and scheduling projects
  • I’m adding reflection time to my Friday to look back on the week to see what worked, what didn’t, why, and how to adjust for the week ahead 
  • I created a new system for content creation to save me time and energy in the long run so I can focus on my writing and my writers 

When you have a good writing day or week, take a moment to reflect on the circumstances. Same for a bad day. Are there patterns? There may not be, but noticing that good writing days come on the same days you work out in the morning as opposed to the afternoon, for instance, is important knowledge to have. 

What seeds do you want to plant this spring? 

After taking a look at your 2024 goals and analyzing what’s working in your routines, what do you hope to see harvested by the end of summer? 

Dream, plan, imagine! 

For me, I am planting seeds in my manuscript by writing new words. I aim to have a rough draft ready by mid-summer. I am also polishing up the final pieces of a new revision tool I can’t wait to tell you about. Look for that to be blooming in the next few weeks! 

These are the things that excite me, much like the promises of warm spring afternoons. While I know some cool or rainy days are par for the course in our up and down southern spring, the payoff will be worth it. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to nurture your writing this spring! I can’t wait to see how you bloom! 

Is coaching part of the nurturing your writing needs this spring? 

Let’s chat and see if we’re a good fit. 

SCHEDULE FREE DISCOVERY CALL HERE

Writing Distractions

Oftentimes this blog is me writing advice to myself. I figure if I need to hear it, someone else might, too.

This week, I’m thinking a lot about distraction.

Probably because thinking about why I’m distracted is also distracting me from my writing.

It’s a vicious cycle, people.

But a cycle that I’m pretty sure isn’t unique to me.

This year, I have joined a daily online writing group. I log on to Zoom, have a moment of chit chat with the group, we state our goals for our writing time, then turn off our cameras (or leave them on for extra accountability) and write. I thought this might hold me more accountable to my creative writing time.

And it has. For the most part.

It gets my butt in the chair in the mornings when I am most creative. It forces me to open the document. It lights a fire under me to get something done before the host brings us all back together 90 minutes later. I know spending time on my creative writing in the morning makes me more focused in the afternoon.

All good things.

And yet…

I still find myself distracted.

If I forget to put my phone on Do Not Disturb, I will answer it. I still reach for Instagram or Facebook for no justifiably good reason. I stare at my word count tracker and wallow at how I’ll never make it to the end of this novel.

Let’s compare that to the afternoon when I work on coaching business. If I’m working on client feedback, I’m in the zone. Seriously, the time flies by. But when I’m working on the mini-course I’m building, forget it. Distraction city. I gave myself a deadline to complete it and have pushed that back several times.

So, what makes my client work so much easier to focus on? Why do I allow myself so many distractions on projects like my new manuscript and this mini-course? Both of which are things I’m actually really excited about?

What I’m discovering is that client work is easier to focus on because — and this may not be a surprise — it has an external deadline. If I don’t send clients back their feedback on their designated days, I have not only broken my promise and contract to them, but their call schedule is affected which has a domino effect on the rest of my schedule. 

Accountability is a strong motivator.

Setting deadlines for myself, while important, are easier to break or push back and justify with millions of excuses.

Emotions also play a role. When I’m working on client feedback, I’m in a zone of support and assistance. I’m curious and feel a sense of purpose. Despite how it might feel to receive it, I’m never judging my client’s work, more assessing and shining a light on places where they might find opportunities to strengthen their craft or story.

When I’m writing my own work, my Judgy McJudgerson voice can be loud. If I’m the driver, she’s that annoying backseat driver who has an opinion and complaint about everything: this scene is stupid, that character is flat, where are you even going with this story? It is super tempting to just let her take the wheel for a bit while I check out some Insta-stories to shut her up.

While creating the course, I am having to learn a lot of new technical things as well as build something from scratch that is not only informative but digestible and ready for writers to apply quickly. While I’m confident in the content and have client testimonials on how well this system works, there is still a voice that whispers “What do you know?”

In those moments? Distraction feels like relief. A nice dopamine hit of social media or pulling focus on a task that feels easier to accomplish is nice in the moment.

The problem?

It doesn’t last.

And I’m left feeling yucky about the choices I’ve made and how far behind I may be getting in my project.

So, what can I do about it?

First, I can recognize what’s happening. Allow myself to accept that I will be distracted because what I am working on is challenging and won’t be an easy fix.

Second, I can remind myself that’s exactly why I’m doing it. The easy stuff doesn’t make me proud the way that conquering those Canva slides does or hitting my word count goal for the week.

Third, I can give myself some grace when I slip. Just because I find myself on Instagram doesn’t mean that I have to stay there.I can put my phone in another room, install website blockers, take advantage of Scrivener focus mode, turn off my wifi, turn on Do Not Disturb on my devices, and try again. There is no limit on how many times you can try something.

Fourth, I can be honest about those struggles with others. Realizing we aren’t alone with these challenges is one of the best parts of the writing community. We all hit blocks and feel pulled down the research rabbit hole when we intended to be writing. It happens. Together we can laugh about it, commiserate, share tips, whatever. But pretending that I’m just chugging along generating manuscripts and mini courses and whatever else like it’s not work is a disservice to writers who may be thinking that if it’s hard, they must not be doing it right.

Newsflash, y’all — this stuff is hard.

Writing, creating this course, whatever, it’s hard because I’m putting myself out there to be judged and that can be terrifying. And terrifying is hard. But with the right support — this community, my writing date friends, my in real life friends, my family — I know I can learn to better navigate my distractions.

Distractions are the little detours are brains are taking us on thinking they are short cuts around the traffic when maybe we would have been best served to simply stay on the route we were on and wait a moment for the accident to clear.

There are no short cuts.

We have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable to do the work.

So this week, when you get distracted, take a moment to recognize it, acknowledge it, indulge it if you have to, then get back to work with no judgement on what that distraction says about you as a writer or creator.

Then try again.

I’ll be right there with you. 

Share in the comments — what’s your most common distraction? 

The Trick to Mastering Show Don’t Tell In Your Fiction Writing: Be Specific

The number one piece of feedback I give writers regardless of where they are in the writing process is:

BE SPECIFIC

Often, a sentence or a scene or the protagonist’s stakes are entirely too vague.

Vague writing only leaves readers confused, disengaged, or having to fill in the blanks based on their own experiences which may or may not be at all close to what you intended.

Specifics allow you to more accurately create emotional resonance and understanding in your reader because they can take the scene you’ve written and more accurately compare it to something in their own lives.

For instance, I may never have jumped out of an airplane, but describing what it feels like to give up control, trust the tandem diver, see the world spread out in an unnatural way before our eyes, and simply leap feels a little bit like the time I decided to move to a new town with no support system beyond my new husband because I thought it might be the right move for my career. I felt safe enough, but not truly safe. And the year that followed definitely had my world tilted.

I may also not know the physical feeling of free falling through space, but detailed descriptions may be enough for me to compare it to that roller coaster ride or turbulent flight experience. Some kind of physical touchstone I can imagine and viscerally engage with as I’m turning the pages.

But if your story says only: “Sophie jumped out of a plane on her 40th birthday,” the reader misses all that nuance and relevance and, most importantly, meaning.

Showing doesn’t necessarily mean literally showing a scene with no context (the most common mistake I see from writers who have been given the show don’t tell advice). It means using specifics and details to color in the meaning for your reader.

I know, this gets tricky. That level of showing feels like telling.

Let’s try an example:

Sophie went skydiving for her 40th birthday.

To the point. Fine. But maybe a little pedestrian. And it doesn’t show us anything about Sophie. It simply tells us what she did. We don’t know why it matters or what it means to Sophie.

What if we tried:

Sophie’s husband laughed when she announced she planned to jump from a plane for her 40th birthday. Her thirteen year old daughter barely lifted her head from her phone. Her mother insisted it was a phase, after all, remember how she’d panicked at the top of the high dive forcing her father to climb up the hot metal ladder to help her back down? But here Sophie was, strapped back to chest to a rather good looking, very blonde, muscular younger man in a black flight suit and helmet adorned with stickers to what she assumed were band names she wasn’t familiar with about to fall twelve thousand feet to the patchwork Earth below.

Better. We’ve got context. We see that maybe she’s not really being seen by her family, or at least respected. We’re told a lot, but all that telling shows us something about Sophie and maybe why she’s going skydiving.

Let’s try another example I see a lot.

“What are your plans for your birthday?” Mom asked.

“I am going skydiving,” Sophie said.

“Skydiving? But honey, you hate heights. Remember when your dad had to rescue you from the high dive in front of all your friends at Molly’s tenth birthday party? And now you are going to jump out of a plane?”

Tears pricked her eyes. “Never mind, mom. How are you?“

We can infer from her change of subject and mom’s immediate disbelief that they have a strained relationship, BUT what do Sophie’s tears mean? Is she upset at the memory of the story? Or at the lack of support from her mom? Or is the fear of heights enough to drive her to tears? There are so many blanks to fill in here and the reader doesn’t know enough to fill them in. Not even with the conversational context clues. There isn’t enough to know if she’s embarrassed, defeated, having second thoughts, or something else entirely.

What if it read something like this:

“What are your plans for your birthday?” Mom asked.

Sophie took a deep breath and announced with as much courage as she could muster: “I am going skydiving.”

“Skydiving? But honey, you hate heights. Remember when your dad had to rescue you from the high dive in front of all your friends at Molly’s tenth birthday party? And now you are going to jump out of a plane?”

Her father had rescued her. But he’d been kind, reassuring her not jumping was just as brave as jumping and backing down the ladder first as she climbed down so she was protected in the makeshift cage of his arms.

Tears pricked her eyes. Dad had been gone well over five years now and she still missed his unwavering support. He would have called her brave and wanted to be at the landing spot to greet her. Probably in a cheesy t-shirt with a target on it or something.

“Never mind, mom. How are you?“

Now the tears show us more about Sophie and where she is in life and what she may be lacking, not just that she’s feeling emotional.

Finally, here’s an example from the planning stage that may also apply to when you’re writing your query or synopsis. When I help writers plan, we dive into questions about the protagonist’s goals, motivation and stakes (hint: something you also need to be clear on in your query/synopsis). One thing I see a lot is responses like:

Joe faces a decision and is forced to change.

Ack! All the vagueness! What does any of that mean?!

What type of decision? To sacrifice his first born or to have pizza for dinner instead of chicken? Change how? His outlook, his underwear, his job? And why is he “forced” to change? Does he have a gun to his head or will lose the love of his life or his integrity?

Readers want to know. Readers need to know.

And the more specific you can be about this protagonist as a person with unique wants and needs and stakes, the better.

Do not be afraid that a unique problem will scare off a reader or not be universal enough. I don’t think many kids are getting letters from Hogwarts on their 11th birthdays revealing they are a wizard, then growing up to defeat the villain who killed their parents in order to save the world. But a whole lot of people (young and old) read, loved, and felt seen in the Harry Potter series.

Throughout the process ask yourself these questions:

  • Who is your protagonist?
  • What do they want?
  • What do they need?
  • What stands in their way?
  • What is at stake if they don’t get it?

Continue to come back to them and shore them up with more specifics as you write forward and discover more about your characters. Look at your dialogue, your descriptions, your protagonist’s actions and make sure they are acting in specific ways that reveal or show the answers above.

Practice being specific from your planning to your drafting and it will make shining up those beauties in revision much easier.

My Favorite Things: February 2024

It’s the end of the month, so it’s time to share a few of my favorite recommendations from February! Luckily, this month was less eventful than January. Not that it was quiet by any means– \my oldest plays snare in his school’s winter percussion group and his school hosted a large indoor winter percussion, winds, and guard event in the middle of the month. And of course yours truly is a band booster volunteer! My feet are still tired and my ears may still be ringing, but it was great fun and it’s always amazing to see so many unique and creative shows.

What I’m Reading:

Mad Honey* by Jodi Piccoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan was beautiful, heartbreaking, twisty, and with the signature structural fun you can expect from any Jodi Piccoult book. I found myself completely immersed while also wanting to dissect it like honeycomb to see how they had done it (I still may go back and do that!). This book has voice for days, questions that will linger with you longer than it takes to finish it, and a subtle beauty that stings, much like the bees that feature throughout.

I was so excited to read my friend Sheila Athens’ book, Neena Lee is Seeing Things*. This is a terrific read about grief, parenting, love, guilt, and forgiveness. Neena Lee is reeling from a panic disorder after the death of her brother. Desperate to get back to her life and pay the bills, she takes an assignment to go to Cumberland Island, GA and write a piece about the anniversary of JFK Jr and Carolyn Bissett’s wedding that took place on the island in one of the greatest secret celebrity weddings ever pulled off. During a private tour of the small chapel where the couple were wed, Neena is shocked to find JFK Jr himself sitting in the back of the church, despite being dead. Even stranger, he speaks to her, desperate to have help finding his lost bride. This book is full of emotional heart — funny, heartwarming, and a realistic depiction of one woman’s grief and need to let go of her family’s burdens.

I sped through (pun very much intended) The Breakaway* by Jennifer Weiner this week. This was an impulse pick up when I saw it on the library shelf and the perfect palate cleanser after a couple of non-fiction titles I was reading for business. I love a missed connection story (see One Day below!) and this didn’t disappoint. I love Jennifer Weiner’s books for always bringing reality-based yet complex relationships and topics to the forefront.

What I’m Watching:

Beef has been on our watch list for awhile and we finally got around to it this month. First of all, it is brilliantly acted by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun. Secondly, it is a genius exploration of story trajectory. If you’ve ever struggled with the action/consequence/obstacle balance that drives a story forward, watch this show. The escalation of action is steeped in character motivation and stakes and it’s just brutal and beautifully done. The ending is completely inevitable, satisfying, and yet still ambiguous enough (which I love). Note: If you’re squeamish, just be prepared for a little eye covering in the penultimate episode (I’m not sure how graphic a particular scene was because I am awfully wimpy and closed mine once I realized what was coming!). Did anyone else watch? What did you think?

I got leveled by a head cold this past weekend and used the excuse to binge the Netflix adaptation of David Nicholls’ book One Day.* I loved this book when I read it years ago. The movie adaptation was fine, but the new series format allowed for much more depth and nuance. If you aren’t familiar with the book, please know this is not a true rom-com with an easy breezy happily ever after. I don’t want to spoil anything but I will say that watching it with already congested sinuses was probably not my smartest decision. I may have needed an extra box of tissues after.

What I’m Listening to:

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season — give me your atmospheric singer songwriter albums any day. Love this one, plus bonus tracks with some of my favorite artists, like Brandi Carlile and Hozier.

I’m loving my friend and coaching colleague Nicole Meier’s new podcast: Steps to Story. Nicole provides weekly, bite-sized advice perfect to set the stage for your writing time. This podcast is great for writers of any stage, but will be fantastic to share with the emerging writers in your life.

Broadleaf Write Now Member spotlight with Kristine Rudolph. I’ve known Kristine for ages when our juniors in high school were wee little babies bundled in strollers at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. We didn’t realize until well into our relationship that we both were writers. It has become one of my most precious writer friendships. This podcast is an excellent discussion of how her “what if” questions latches her onto each new story, where she gets ideas, and her switch from writing adult domestic thrillers to middle grade. And if you’re in the Atlanta area, please check out Broadleaf Writers Association — this is an excellent organization for writers that provide amazing support, opportunity, and education for writers.

What have you been reading, watching, and listening to in February? Let me know so I can add them to my list!

*These are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission if you purchase through the link.

Featured photo above by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Creating Emotional Resonance in Your Novel

I posted this quote on Instagram Monday. I had just heard of the passing of someone who was dear to me and all my memories were about how that person made me feel–joyful, engaged, confident, prepared.

The details of exactly how he did this or when or what we were doing at the time were unimportant. Sure, I had memories, too, but those memories came with the feelings. It was honestly the feeling that I was physically feeling.

When we write, we want to leave our readers with a feeling as well.

Whether you are writing a romance or a thriller or an allegory, you want your reader to feel something.

What is it?

Often, as writers, we’re distracted by the plot problems and the stakes and the logistics of the story telling that we might forget the emotional layer. And not just the emotional layer for the protagonist. Rather, the emotional layer for the reader.

I’m a big believer in writing your story for yourself without the pressure of an external audience. It can often lead to judgment at a time when you need to be free to simply write words.

At some point during revision, however, it’s time to think about the reader’s experience. Understanding what you want the reader to feel will help you make your scenes more resonant, more memorable to their subconscious, more indelible so that they recommend your book to others — “This book was amazing! I felt so seen/sad/hopeful/happy/scared when I read it!”

Not sure what you want the reader the feel? Here are some tricks questions you can free write on to dig into that emotional layer:

  • What is the point of your story? I’ve written about story point here and here before. It’s that important to so many aspects of your writing journey! Don’t skip this step. A point may sound like a cliché in the end. That’s okay. Love conquers all may be the most written story in the world and it never gets old, does it?
  • What feelings does that point elicit in a reader? Take your point to the next level. Write down how a reader might feel about that point. With that love conquers all points, a reader may feel hopeful, inspired, warm, generous, content, etc…. Be specific to your story and your story goals.
  • What does your character need? Your character need is that internal train that chugs along your character arc. If they need acceptance or vulnerability or to let go of an old relationship, that will all color the love conquers all story. Look at what they need and think about the feelings that go along with that need.
  • What do you have to say/Why are you writing this book? Your motivation, as opposed to your protagonist’s, may be the single strongest driver of the emotional heart of your book. Understanding your part in the story will help you deliver that deeper level feeling to your reader. Dig into this and don’t let it be the first answer — examine what you have to say and why you want to say it. Be curious. Often, we are own ideal readers, so what feelings are behind your why? Make sure that those feelings, then, are present in your novel for your reader.

I know I love books that I close with a sigh and a feeling of deep emotional satisfaction. Some books that brought me intense emotional reactions as a reader include:

What are the books that emotionally resonate with you?Go back and reread them and see how the author did it — what about the book stayed with you after you closed it? What about the book made you feel the way you did? Can you find examples in the pages? See if you can apply that to your own writing.

Reply in the comments with your favorites books that left you in your feels. I’d love to expand my emotional reading list!

*Note: these links are all my Bookshop.org affiliate link and I do receive a small commission if you purchase via these links. Whether you use these links or not, Bookshop.org is my favorite for supporting local bookstores and is a great alternative if you don’t have an independent shop in your community.

Want to Chat?

Each week, I reserve time for 20-30 minute discovery calls with writers to discuss where they are in the writing process, what’s holding them back, and how to find the right kind of help. Want to chat?

SCHEDULE A FREE DISCOVERY CALL HERE

Writing a Novel is a Marathon Not a Sprint: How a Book Coach Can Help

As a writer, I often wish for a magic wand that will make all the things happen faster.

The drafting.

The revising.

The proofing.

The pitching.

The querying.

The response time.

The submissions.

The wait time again.

The publishing process.

But the fact of the matter is, it takes what it takes. And there is no way around it.

Writing is most definitely a marathon and not a sprint.

You need to pace yourself. Train for it. Be prepared to hate it halfway through the journey. Barely cross the finish line in some cases. Maybe even fail to finish and start again on a new race.

But, I am here to tell you as a book coach, that every little step counts.

First, you start with a word that becomes a sentence that becomes a paragraph then a page. Each page stretches into a scene and then a chapter. Pretty soon you have a whole act, then a second one, and finally a third one.

Then, you go back and analyze it. Revise it. Restructure it. Add to it. Cut from it. Polish it to a high shine.

Each step is its own journey, but if you keep walking, you will eventually reach your destination.

As a book coach, my job is to keep you on the path to finishing. I am the equivalent of your trainer and biggest cheerleader. Some days, you’ll love what I have to say. Others will feel like I’ve assigned the writing equivalent of burpees.

But in all cases, my goal is to help you figure out what’s holding you back and arm you with the tools to keep going. To keep writing. To make your writing stronger. To finish.

Sometimes in our writing journeys we need that. A guide, a plan, a way forward.

It can be hard to stay on track. And not to beat a marathon metaphor into the ground (but I think we all know it’s too late for that), no one wants to add extra miles to their run if they don’t have to. And no writer wants to write ten chapters that end up being unnecessary because they veered after a shiny object that ended up having nothing to do with their protagonist’s character arc.

Just like a coach can’t run the marathon for you, you still have to do the writing work. I am just here to help the process and make you a fitter, more efficient writer so you can cross the finish line.

Featured photo above by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash

Need Help?

Each week, I reserve time for 20-30 minute discovery calls with writers to discuss where they are in the writing process, what’s holding them back, and how to find the right kind of help. Want to chat?

Schedule a call! You don’t have to run your writing marathon alone.

SCHEDULE A FREE DISCOVERY CALL HERE

Finding Time to Write Your Novel

At the end of January I gave a talk at a local women’s empowerment conference about the importance of creativity in our lives, regardless of whether it is our career or not. In fact, I’d argue that it needn’t be our careers. Creating for creating’s sake is a beautiful endeavor. I hate that our capitalist society implies that everything we do must make money to be valuable. Sometimes the most valuable part of my day is working on something that will never sell. And I am okay with that.

I truly believe that our creative pursuits are paramount to our self-care and self-expression. Honoring our creativity allows us to show up in our relationships, work, and communities as our full selves. Creativity allows us to make meaning of our world (macro) and our lives (micro). Creativity benefits our mental health, brain health, and more.

The group of women attending my presentation were predisposed to buy into that message — that’s why they were there. We dug in together on how to find our creative purpose, set a creative intention for 2024, and started making a plan to honor that creative goal. When I asked this group of women what their primarily obstacle was to creating, the majority said…time.

Ah, time. The one thing we have yet to figure out how to make more of.

Between day jobs and parenting and caring for older parents and spouses and relationships and volunteering and errands and cooking and exercising and commuting and whatever other nonnegotiables exist on our calendars, it can be really easy to determine that we just don’t have enough time for creating.

There are times in life when that is undeniably true. I have experienced them. When there are literally not enough hours in the day to appease the demands on my time because of grief or illness or moving or sick kids or other things take priority. I get it. Sometimes we do not, physically, have the time.

But when it’s just our normal day-to-day demands and drudgery? Do we honestly not have time?

First, let’s let go of the notion that time means hours or days or entire weekends to spend in cabins in the woods like Thoreau living deliberately (while his mother brought him lunch and clean clothes, by the way). I wish.

For the sake of this conversation, I mean 30 minutes in the morning before the kids have to be up or 10 minutes after dinner or those wasted minutes waiting for the carpool line to start moving.

In other words, can you identify a few cracks in your day?

An exercise that helped me identify not only my cracks but bigger swaths of time I could take advantage of was using a time tracker (I like Toggl, but there are lots of them out there. You could also simply write down what you’re doing on a notepad or in your notes app on your phone).

I logged every minute of my day from when I woke up until I went to bed for a week. And let me tell you, anytime I wrote down “Checking Instagram” or playing Wordle, I was chagrined. While I still check Instagram and play Wordle every day (family bragging rights are on the line), I am now more intentional about it because creating is a priority for me.

Tracking my time gave me insight into what I am doing when and how often. So instead of checking Instagram during lunch AND during carpool AND during commercials or whatever at night when supposedly watching something “with” my husband, I make choices. I check Insta in 5 minute increments. I bring a book to carpool or listen to a podcast instead of picking up my phone. I put the phone away in the evening knowing there is nothing there that can’t wait until tomorrow and fill that time with either creating or refilling my creative well.

You may decide to now only check Instagram in the carpool line so you can spend the 20 minutes you normally scrolled in bed at night now sketching something beautiful you saw during the day or journaling or writing or whatever. You could force cracks of time into your day by doing a challenge — taking a photo of a flower/tree/sunset/whatever every day for a year on your iPhone, knitting a row in a scarf (I’ve seen folks knit a row based on the daily temperature to make a temperature scarf or a local woman knit a black row for a loss, red for a win, and white for a tie depending on the outcome of the Carolina Hurricanes game), journal every day or start a Morning Pages practice…or Google til you find the challenge that’s right for you.

I find, too, that when I allow other distractions to take priority over my creative time, it’s less about the available time and more about something else. Something deeper. Something more uncomfortable. Maybe it’s fear or doubt or a story I’m telling myself (see what I spend my time on must make money to be worthwhile above). If you find your constantly giving away your creative time for something else that you’d really rather not be doing but find easier in some respect to do, sit with that. Investigate it. Figure out what’s holding you back from doing this thing that you truly value.

Some days, the answer may be a sick kid. Fair. But sometimes the laundry or the dishes or the out of the way errand could wait until another day. If you’re choosing to fold towels instead of spending 10. minutes creating, ask yourself does folding the towels bring you more joy than your creative task? If it doesn’t, then ask yourself why you chose the towels over joy?

We’re all susceptible to the Instagram rabbit hole or wanting to clean the bathroom instead of write because at least then we (and others) can see the results of our labor. But if creating is important to you, you need to give it some time. Whatever time you have to give it.

My point is, be intentional about your creativity.

Take yourself seriously.

Honor that creative impulse inside of you.

If you want to honor your creativity and be a creative person, you need to be creative. And that might start with getting creative with your time.

Featured photo by Malvestida on Unsplash

My Favorite Things: January 2024

Typically, January seems to drag for me — the slow winter blah after a hectic holiday season. But this past month, not so much! I had two big things happening this past week that kept the sand speeding through the hourglass and somehow we’ve reached the end already. Here’s hoping that February has a more leisurely pace to it.

What I’m Reading:

In January, I read some great books.

For the book club I’m in, we read Winterland* by Rae Meadows. A fascinating story about a Soviet gymnast in the 70s. Our book club theme in January is always a wintery book, but with much of this book set in Norilsk, the northern most city in Siberia and inside the Arctic Circle, we decided we might need a tropical setting next winter.

Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake* has been on my shelf for a while and I am so glad I read it when I did. It was the perfect after-the-holiday-rush balm. Set in the summer of 2020 on a Michigan cherry farm, a mother is recounting to her early 20s daughters her time at a summer theater program in Tom Lake where she had a summer romance with a man who would go on to be a famous movie star. It was a slow paced, lovely read that I didn’t want to end. Highly recommend.

Similarly, Lisa Roe’s Welcome to the Neighborhood* has been hanging out on my Kindle for months. My family got me a new Kindle to replace the OG I’ve been nursing along and this was the perfect inaugural read for it. Welcome to the Neighborhood is full of great characters, difficult choices, and that feeling of finding your footing after great life change. Definitely lived up to its description as a “mom-com!”

I am a big fan of Colleen Oakley’s work. Her latest, The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise* may be her best yet. It’s got an octogenerian on the run from her past with a lost 21-ish year old behind the wheel of a classic Jaguar. This book is the perfect balance of intrigue and emotional growth with a dash of unlikely friendships that kept me glued to the page. I’ve seen it described as Thelma & Louise meets Golden Girls — a bit of an oversimplification, but I don’t hate it!

*These are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission if you purchase through the link.

What I’m Watching:

My husband and I started The Diplomat in December, but the holiday crazies and our aggressive family holiday movie schedule kept us from Netflix for the rest of the month. We finished up and both gave it a thumbs up. Complex and morally gray characters are always fun to watch navigate tricky national security issues and the reveal in the season finale plus a shocking cliffhanger have us desperate for season 2. All in all, a fun, but smart, watch.

I also binged the American Nightmare series (okay, it’s short, it didn’t take a lot), but found it fascinating. It’s a real life Gone Girl type situation and the series sets the story up similarly to the book: The first episode focuses on the boyfriend, the second on the kidnapped girlfriend, and the final in a more omniscient perspective driven by law enforcement investigations. True crime is not my typical go-to, but this sucked me in and is a story that would be almost too crazy to believe if it weren’t actually true.

What I’m Listening to:

To be honest, I’m all over the map in my listening habits this month. I’ve been listening to lots of random music as I’ve been planning my next manuscript and adding songs I think fit the vibe to a new playlist. This has been lots of fun and I love using Spotify and Apple Music’s algorithms to find new music that becomes the perfect fit. That and asking my kids!

What have you been reading, watching, and listening to in January? Share in the comments!

Featured photo above by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash