Comments on: 5 Ways to Weather a Creative Winter https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/ A Blog On Writing Sun, 02 Feb 2025 07:05:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Top Picks Thursday 02-26-2015 | The Author Chronicles https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-75219 Thu, 26 Feb 2015 18:08:17 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-75219 […] Jami Gold asks: What scares you about writing or publishing? One fear is being unable to sell your next book. Kathryn Craft tackles that fear in 5 ways to weather a creative winter. […]

]]> By: debherbert2013 https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74676 Wed, 25 Feb 2015 07:28:47 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74676 Thanks, Kathryn for sharing the highs and the lows in this business. I thought once I broke through and had my first book published that I would never again experience rejection. I would have 'Arrived.' Sadly, this is not the case. I received word from my agent yesterday that a publisher had passed on a manuscript and that old bee-sting of pain unexpectedly pierced my heart for a moment. Okay. several moments. 🙂 I've known even a best selling writer experience rejection and go through a period with no contracts. I appreciate the strategies and reframing options you listed.

Best of luck in your future endeavors!

]]> By: Kathryn Craft https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74652 Wed, 25 Feb 2015 00:24:30 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74652 In reply to lorihenriksen.

Wow Lori, what an unexpected gift your comment is! You touched my heart as well. Thank you.

]]> By: lorihenriksen https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74649 Wed, 25 Feb 2015 00:20:39 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74649 We hunger for writing that comes from the soul and touches our hearts. There are too many stories of reaching for the book on the shelf that contains the words that offer the strength needed to take another breath and go on. Your writing is like that. I'm sorry that Sourcebooks decided to pass. It is their loss. Your story will find its home.

]]> By: Kathryn Craft https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74634 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 18:15:14 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74634 In reply to Jennifer Jensen (@jenjensen2).

Talk about reorienting to the new reality, Jennifer! Everything you take for granted—where to buy groceries, how to get there—suddenly takes new creative energy when you move. It's a great metaphor for what reorienting means when other types of unanticipated course changes occur. Thank you!

]]> By: Jennifer Jensen (@jenjensen2) https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74628 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:37:59 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74628 I've had "winters" that mostly occurred because of military moves or changes in family relationships, and I love your list of strategies. I used several of them myself. I haven't really hit a writing winter yet, mostly because I'm new at the full-time, this-is-my-focus aspect of it, but I especially love your advice to "take time to reorient to the new reality." Priceless counsel for any type of winter.

]]> By: Kathryn Craft https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74625 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:21:56 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74625 In reply to Jenny Hansen.

We all need our support staff and interesting hear Kristen Lamb offered that to you, Jenny—she'll be at my hometown writing conference (The Write Stuff in Bethlehem, PA) in March this year. I too benefitted from Cameron—her chapters in The Artist's Way seemed to appear exactly as I needed them. I think there's a lot of wisdom in the Zen saying "When the student is ready the teacher will appear" because seekers are finished with feeling bad. It isn't working for them anymore, so they WILL find answers.

But our trials are great fodder for our stories. If we haven't experienced deep conflict, how can we ever write of it convincingly?

]]> By: Jenny Hansen https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74622 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:12:30 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74622 Kathryn, it's so kind of you to share these ups and downs with others. I've had a grand time reading these comments. 🙂

I had my creative winter in the years surrounding my pregnancy. It was a very difficult, high-risk sort of thing that sucked up every bit of energy and creativity I had. I wasn't sure whether I'd ever write again. Plus my MIL passed. And we moved.

But I read one chapter a day of Julia Cameron's "The Sound of Paper." Just one chapter. And I thought about writing, but it all felt scary.

Then I started blogging, and that turned the key for everything. Blogging helped me discover my writing voice, and gave me the confidence to get back to my fiction, and to pursue a freelance career. God bless Kristen Lamb and the gals here at WITS - I don't know where I'd be without all of them!

]]> By: Kathryn Craft https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74610 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 15:41:12 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74610 In reply to Julie Glover.

I'll take that wish, Julie! Thanks so much, and the same to you.

]]> By: Julie Glover https://writersinthestormblog.com/2015/02/5-ways-to-weather-a-creative-winter/#comment-74594 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 03:29:39 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=17870#comment-74594 I have such admiration for those who can take a personal hit, then turn around and offer generosity and wisdom to others from their experience. Thanks so much, Kathryn! I had a less-than-stellar day, so this was perfect timing. May life bring you joy and many fulfilled dreams!

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