Writers in the Storm

By Lori Freeland

As writers, we have seasons. Seasons when our muse visits daily. Seasons when the muse packs up and moves to Mexico. Seasons when life comes in swinging and sucker punches us in the gut.   

We have some control over the muse. We can learn to be disciplined, make “butt in seat” a priority, show up even when we aren’t feeling it, and work to find our writing groove. You’ve probably heard all the tips and tricks for writer’s block. There are a lot of great ideas out there.

But what about when life sucker punches you in the gut? Sometimes writer’s block has nothing to do with laziness or lack of organization or bad time management. Sometimes it’s about being physically, mentally, and emotionally drained, where no matter how much you want to write, you just can’t.   

I’m talking about when you’re:

• dealing with a financial crisis
• going through marital issues or a divorce
• relocating across the county and leaving your support system
• struggling with your mental health
• struggling with your kids’ mental health
• suddenly a caretaker to a parent or other family member
• diagnosed with cancer or a chronic illness
• someone you love is diagnosed with cancer or a chronic illness
• dealing with grief and loss

As someone who’s walked through six of the above, I’ll tell you that no amount of discipline can break through the mental and physical exhaustion of being kicked to the curb by life. Not right away, anyway.

5 Things to Try When Life Gets in the Way

If you can relate, I’d like to offer 5 things to try when life throws a roadblock between you and writing. Because even in the toughest seasons, the artistic piece of you is still in there. As a creative, “creativity” is part of who you are. It’s part of your soul. And it longs to be fed. I’d love to say I figured these things out right away. But that would be a lie. Instead, I learned from my mistakes. Here’s what I wish someone would have told me:

1. Tune out the destructive voices.

Just because you’re not writing, it doesn’t make you a quitter. You’re not giving up your dreams. You haven’t lost yourself. This is a season. It may last longer than you want, but things will change. Life doesn’t stay the same. Look back at last year. And the year before. Writing may take a backseat today. But it isn’t going away forever. Hang onto that and learn to be okay with it.

2. Take care of yourself.

Start with the basics. Sleeping. Eating. Exercising. Without them, the hard things can feel impossible. No one functions well when they don’t take care of their bodies. Prioritize you whenever you can. Consistently being good to yourself gives you room to be creative.   

3. Talk to your muse.

Then listen to what it says. Feeding your soul is just as important as feeding your body. Let your creativity come out in other ways. Embrace what helps. Release what doesn’t. Take up doodling, knitting, sculpting, journaling, painting, cooking, whatever outlet gives you peace or brings you joy—even for a second. Just because you’re not writing doesn’t mean you’re not creating.

4. Today is all you have to deal with.

Say it. Believe it. Walk it out. Forget about counting the hours in a day and focus on budgeting your energy instead of your time. What you feel like you can accomplish won’t be the same every day. If you have the energy, jot down a story idea or write 500 words in your WIP. If you’re drained by noon, watch reruns of Gray’s Anatomy and cry on the couch. And don’t feel guilty about it. Guilt sucks energy and serves no purpose.

5. Take a break—for now.

Life will get better. Even if it doesn’t seem like it. I’m a walking testimony to this. And I’ve been through some pretty terrible stuff. Writing is a muscle. Like your stamina for biking or jogging or swimming, it may get out of shape temporarily. But you can get it back with some practice. When you’re ready to embrace “butt in chair” on a regular basis, take it slow. Set small goals that will boost your creativity, not tear it down. Baby steps are still forward progress.

Have you walked through hard times? Felt like you lost that creative part of yourself? What worked for you? Better yet, what didn’t? Realizing we’re not alone can be powerful. Knowing someone else stumbled through the dark tunnel and came out on the other side is the kind of encouragement that can carry us as we limp along. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please share them in the comments.

About Lori

Lori Freeland wrote her first story at age five. It wasn’t good. But it left her with a firm belief that everyone has a story to tell. An author, editor, and writing coach, she holds a BA in psychology from The University of Wisconsin and lives in the Dallas area. She’s presented multiple workshops at conferences across the country and writes articles, novels, and everything in between. When she’s not curled up with her husband and dogs drinking too much coffee and worrying about her adult kids, she loves to mess with the lives of the imaginary people living in her head. You can visit her at lorifreeland.com or lafreeland.com.  

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Some accidents were meant to be. 

Gabe isn’t a werewolf. He just plays one on TV. 

Jess isn’t a guy magnet. She just writes about teen romance. 

TV heartthrob Gabriel Wade has never met a party he couldn’t rock, a problem he couldn’t dodge, or a crowd he couldn’t play. Homeschooled Jessica Thorne has never met a party she couldn’t wallflower, a problem she couldn’t stress over, or a crowd she couldn’t escape. But they both know what it’s like to lose someone—someone who’s still here. 

After a hotel escalator dumps Jess into Gabe’s spotlight and he unknowingly hijacks her first kiss, he decides she’ll be the perfect decoy for the paparazzi—if he can convince her to play his “girlfriend of the week.” Jess wants nothing to do with TV’s Hottest Hairball or his Hollywood ego. And by the time she figures out he isn’t who she thought, it might be too late to admit she needs him as much as he needs her. Even if he wants her for real. 

Buy it on Amazon today

Lori Freeland author/editor/writing coach   lorifreeland.com (young adult & contemporary romance fiction)  lafreeland.com (inspirational blog & resources for writers)  Buy Now | Amazon Author Page

by Colleen M. Story

One of the things we have to learn as writers is how to take control of our writing careers.

Nothing happens unless we power the machine, so to speak. It’s one of the lessons of writing—we have to be self-motivated and self-directed.

So it’s common for writers to celebrate when things go right…and then to seriously beat themselves up when they don’t.

After publishing six books so far (3 traditional, 3 self-published), I’ve learned something important: as hard as we writers work, we can’t control everything.

Sometimes the proverbial sh— happens.

It’s at these times that we have to stop, exhale, and learn how to let go.

And man is that hard, particularly after all that learning to take charge!

But letting go at the right times can help ease your stress and keep you sane.

Why It’s Important to Realize When You’re Not In Control

Trying to maintain control when you’ve already lost control is an experience in crazy-making.

You feel bad enough already when something goes wrong. If you then try to control it when you can’t, you’ll make things worse for yourself.

“One of the reasons we worry too much is because we tend to focus on problems that are beyond our ability to solve, or things we cannot control,” writes holistic coach Dr. Gala Gorman. “Accepting the fact that you cannot control everything will lift a lot of burden from your shoulders … and will eventually end your worry.”

The big problem for writers is that we feel we can control our writing futures—and in many ways, that’s true. Many things are up to us—how much we write, what we write about, how much time we spend marketing, etc.

But then when something goes wrong, we can take it especially hard because everything falls on our doorstep. Whatever it was, it had to be our fault.

If so, we can learn from our mistakes and try again. But sometimes, what happens isn’t our fault and the best thing we can do is remind ourselves that we’re not always in control.

5 Times When Writers Are Not In Control

1. When the Market Fails to Respond to Your Book

Most of the time when a book doesn’t sell well, there is a reason for it.

Maybe the cover design was wrong for the genre or the audience. Something may have been off about the story itself in terms of pacing, plot, or characterization. The marketing campaign could have used some tweaking, or maybe the writer didn’t do enough to get the word out.

It’s always best to examine all the possible contributing factors. But it also helps to know that sometimes, the market just doesn’t respond for some unknown reason.

There are a lot of examples of classic books that didn’t sell well when they were released. LitHubhas a list of 15 of them, including T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and James Joyce’s The Dubliners.

The good news is that after a time, these books found their audience. Yours might too, but in the meantime, you may have to let go a little.

2. When Your Publisher Makes Changes

My latest novel, The Beached Ones, suffered through several of my publisher’s mistakes when it first came out.

This was mainly because the publisher changed distributors just as my book was being released (bad timing). That caused a lot of chaos. Initially, there were a few canceled pre-orders because of it. (I received emails from some readers wondering why their orders were canceled. Argh!) Then some of the books were released with the wrong copy on the back cover.

Worst of all, several books were released with the wrong interior file—one that had not gone through a final proofread/edit. This one drove me nuts! I was running around trying to replace the incorrect books with the correct ones. The publisher paid for these copies, but it was still embarrassing for me.

For a while, all of this was super anxiety-inducing and I struggled a lot. Here was the culmination of all my work on this novel and instead of the launch being an exciting, fun time, it was disappointing and dispiriting.

I finally realized that all of this was out of my control and I had to let go. Otherwise, it was going to keep eating at me incessantly. Eventually, everything got ironed out and now I can proudly share the book knowing that everything is correct.

3. When a Reader Doesn’t Like Your Work

This one can also be hard to take. You put your heart and soul into a story. You thought you did everything right.

But then one reader got ahold of it and just didn’t like it. Worse, that person decided to share that opinion in a bad review. On multiple platforms.

Writers work ridiculously hard to write, market, and sell their books. One bad review, however, can turn off a lot of potential readers.

You see it sitting there and your heart plummets because you know two things:

• the book was good—it just didn’t click for that reader, and
• you can’t do anything about the fact that the review will influence some readers who otherwise might have bought a copy.

It’s frustrating. And discouraging. But you can’t control it. All you can do is let go and move on.

4. When You Feel Lousy About the Tough Times

Writers are supposed to develop a thick skin.

“Learn how to take rejections, bad reviews, and poor sales in stride!” they say.

When we feel horrible about these things, we can tend to then feel guilty for feeling horrible. Talk about a double whammy of negative feelings!

This sort of self-recrimination sets up a vicious cycle of feeling bad, feeling bad about feeling bad, then feeling worse.  

The thing is, we can't control how we feel. Those emotions live inside us, and trying to squash them isn’t healthy. All we can do is let go and accept that they’re there, then find healthy ways to work through them.

5. When Other Things Interfere with Writing

Even the most disciplined writing routine can crumble in the face of difficult life events.

I’m talking about the big ones like death, divorce, the loss of a job, health problems, and the like. When life gets tough, sometimes writing has to take a back seat.

This is hard for many writers to accept. We tend to blame ourselves when we’re not getting the writing done or when other things like book marketing fall through the cracks.

Many of us also feel out of sorts when we’re not regularly writing. It contributes to the stress and anxiety we may already be feeling because of the trauma or upheaval we’re going through.

We can’t control when these things happen, or the toll they can take on us physically and emotionally. The best we can do is take a deep breath, let go, and assure ourselves that we will get back to writing as soon as possible.

Other Coping Techniques for Accepting the Things You Can’t Control

As a writer, you can count on things occurring in your writing life that will be out of your control.

The key is to identify when these times are, then learn to let go. “Identifying” is key because sometimes there is something you can do to make things better. But if not, it’s time to try these coping techniques:

• Accept that this is something you can’t change. (Easier said than done!) Focus on “not resisting” and letting it be.
• Journal about your feelings, or talk them out with a good friend. Don’t bottle them up.
• Redirect your energy toward something you can control—like your next book or marketing effort.

There are a lot of quotes about accepting what you can’t control. But in case you haven’t heard it, here’s one I liked:

“Anything you can’t control is for teaching you how to let go…”

(part of a poem by Jackson Kiddard)

Note: Get Colleen’s free report on finding your blogging niche plus free chapters of her award-winning books for writers here!

What is your biggest writing struggle you have gone through? Have you turned a sour situation around in your writing work? Share and commiserate below!

About Colleen

Colleen M. Story is a novelist, freelance writer, writing coach, and speaker with over 20 years in the creative writing industry. Her latest novel, The Beached Ones, was released with CamCat Books on July 26, 2022. Her previous novel, Loreena's Gift, was a Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others.

Colleen has written three books to help writers succeed: Your Writing Matters, Writer Get Noticed, and Overwhelmed Writer Rescue. You can find free chapters of these books here. Find more at her author website (colleenmstory.com) or connect with her on Twitter (@colleen_m_story) and YouTube (@ColleenMStoryteller).

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Internalization breathes life into your characters and allows readers to connect with them on a deeper level.

What sets a novel apart from a movie or play is the ability to see inside the character’s head and understand what makes them tick. You aren’t simply watching the action from the sidelines, you’re right there with that character as they experience the story and face the novel’s problems.

You see what they see. You feel what they feel. You know what they think and why they think it.

Not only is this more fun to write, it gives the reader a much more immersive reading experience, which increases the odds they’ll rave about your book to all their friends.

Let’s look at some benefits of crafting a strong internal narrative:

Internalization Shows Who the Character Really Is.

Characters come alive through their internalization, because it’s where they reveal their true selves. They share information with readers they wouldn’t tell anyone else, hint at secrets or even confess terrible wrongdoings. Readers get to muck around in a character's psyche and gain a deeper understanding of their core identity and how they view and interact with the world.

It’s also where character voice shines through, and internal thoughts play a significant role in differentiating your point of view character’s voices. No other character in the book will have their same perspective or opinion on what’s going on, or think about things the same way. Those difference show up in their internal narrative.

No matter what facade a character puts up, inside, readers can see their real fears, desires, and beliefs, which helps them understand the character’s motivations. And knowing someone that “intimately” helps readers connect with the character, which makes them more relatable.

Internalization Does the Heavy Lifting for the Plot.

Plots are created by characters making choices, and the more you understand what a character wants, why they want it, and what they’ll do to get it, the easier it is to write how they pursue those goals. Their thoughts will tell you what they need, so you’ll know what needs to go into each scene.

Even better, internalization shows the emotional struggles a character faces, revealing the moral dilemmas and conflicting desires that crate strong internal conflicts. These internal conflicts make the external plot harder, which adds tension and suspense as the character fights those inner demons to succeed.

It goes even deeper. Internal conflicts are the backbone of the character arc. If readers can’t see inside a character’s head, how will they know what they’re going through or what they’re struggling with? Their thoughts show how they evolve, learn from their experiences, and become a better or happier person in the end.

But it doesn’t stop there—internalization is also a powerful tool for adding plot twists and reveals. It lets you hint at a character's secrets, and unveil their hidden agendas at the right time to surprise readers with unexpected revelations that can reshape the plot and send the story in a whole new direction.

Internalization Gets Readers on the Character's Side.

Empathy is the bridge that connects readers to characters and makes them care. The better a reader understands a character, the more they’ll feel invested in that character’s goal and what they hope to achieve in the story. They’ll root for them, worry about them, and feel like they’re part of that character’s journey. The novel will feel more real, because the characters feel like people, not actors on a stage.

They’ll even care when a character slips up and does the wrong thing for the right reasons. It’s a lot easier to forgive someone for making mistakes when you understand how those mistakes happened, and what the character’s intent was all along. Often, readers care more because they know the character’s heart was in the right place all along.

Internalization Helps Control the Pace.

Dialogue is fast paced, description is slow, and internalization bridges the gap between them.

It can work like description and let you slow things down so characters can process their experience, giving readers a breather and a chance to catch up and process what just happened as well. It can work like dialogue and speed up heavy descriptive passages by slipping in a character’s opinion or judgment, making the description relevant to the scene.

It can create a stronger sense of urgency and heighten emotions, which also increases tension. It can add moments of levity, or be an emotional touch point in heavy actions scenes, drawing the readers back into the story.

Internalization Clarifies the Point of View and Narrative Distance.

Unless it’s first person, readers don’t know whose point of view they’re in until they see a character’s internalization. If those thoughts are personal, and clearly the thoughts of the character, then readers know they’re reading a close, subjective point of view. If the thoughts feel more distant, or are shown through an outside narrator, then readers know they’re reading a more objective viewpoint.

This is particularly important in third person point of view novels, where several characters are introduced in an opening scene. Without the internalization, any of those characters could be the point of view character, which makes it harder for the reader to connect to the protagonist and get on board with the story. The longer it takes them to connect, the more likely it is they’ll put down the book.

Internalization Lets You Show, Not Tell.

One of the most powerful aspects of internalization is that is helps you show and not tell. Being inside a character’s head forces you to show what they think is important or worth noting, so they won’t just be spouting random details. You’ll be able to add judgment to what a character sees or thinks, so even small infodumps read like opinions or observations.

At the core, internalization is how you reveal your point of view and show what’s important to a character.

It connects the internal to the external and gives everything that happens in the story relevance and deeper meaning. The story won’t be an explanation of things that happened, but a character’s tale of woe and how they endured a difficult time in their lives.

And those are stories readers want to read.

Want to dig further into internalization and strengthening your point of view?

I’m giving my Make the Most of Your Point of View workshop for Lorin Oberweger’s Writing Success Series on June 15, 7:15 PM ET - 9:45 PM ET on Zoom. This is a great workshop that goes beyond the basics and really explains how to use POV and just what it can do to improve your writing. Plus, it has fun exercises to put what you learn into practice right away.

Here are the details: Point of view is the single-best tool writers have in their toolkit. With it, you can create immersive scenes and deepen the emotional layers of your story. A strong point of view helps you determine what details and to share, understand how a character will react in any situation, and even helps you develop character voices. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to see your story from the eyes of your characters (no matter which point of view you use) and how that unique perspective can make your novel stronger.

Cost: $39. Ten percent of webinar proceeds to benefit World Central Kitchen. Recordings will be sent to all participants within twenty-four hours of the webinar. Registrations will be accepted up to twenty-four hours in advance of each workshop. Hope to see you there!

About Janice

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy. When she's not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University, and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series. Sign up for her newsletter and receive 25 ways to Strengthen Your Writing Right Now free.

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