Writers in the Storm

I don't know about you, but I often have trouble asking for help.

It's not that I don't want help and it's not that I don't need help. It's that I don't want to be a bother. Or that I don't have time to explain what I want. Or that I feel like it is something that I "should" know how to do (even if I don't), and so asking for that particular piece of help means I feel less than.

Should is one of the worst, most shaming words in the English language, isn't it?

I know I'm not alone in this help discomfort. In fact, if I polled all of my friends, I'll bet "I need help" is likely to be one of the least frequent phrases crossing their lips.

Writing Life Help

The interesting thing about writing as a career is that it is an often-solo profession where it is very hard to succeed without help. We need writing friends and critique partners, writing teachers, editors, proofreaders, beta readers, cover designers, street teams, and in some cases, agents and publishers.

To do all that we must to be successful as authorpreneurs, we need help. Period. And what I've noticed is that most of us dislike asking for it. Even worse, many of us don't even realize that we can ask.

I'm going to get the ball rolling with some real-life examples:

Finding Other People Like You

In the Fall of 2000, I joined my local romance writing chapter. I was a baby writer who had no idea there were other people like me within driving distance. It had literally never occurred to me to go find other writers and I had no idea that entire writing chapters existed.

A financial analyst co-worker, who was also my SCUBA diving partner, read a few category romances and decided that "she could make a lot of money writing short little books that went to gobs of people via mail every month."

How hard can it be, she said.

[I can hear y'all laughing at that ignorance.]

So, she dragged me along to the local writing chapter, where she attended 3-4 meetings and I attended for decades. I don't actually write romance but that chapter is still the most welcoming writing home I've found.

New Writers Don't Know What They Don't Know

I went to meeting after meeting and (very slowly) began to understand how many writerly things I didn't know.

I learned how hard professional writers work, and that I'd better not quit my day job. I became friends with actual published writers and sat in awe of them at every monthly meeting, with no idea how to get from baby writer to published writer.

I didn't know that I could ask them about how to shorten the journey, because I didn't want to bother those busy professional writers.

Really...Just Ask!

About four years later, I attended my first big writing conference where, Lord help me, I signed up to pitch a story. On Day 1, two of my published writer pals sat me down at a table in the conference lobby bar and asked me what I was pitching. I gave them the title and word count of my book. And that was all.

They exchanged a look across the table that I can now interpret as "we'd better save this poor little baby writer peanut." And they absolutely saved me that week.

They taught me how to pitch in that hotel lobby, and sent me to my room to practice. Then they both took an hour out of their own schedules to sit in the pitch line with me and hold my cold sweaty hands. I got through it, as we all do, and later that night one of them asked why I hadn't spoken and asked the more seasoned writers for some pitching feedback before this.

My answer makes me sad today: I didn't know that it was okay to ask them questions.

I didn't know that nearly all of my published author pals were dying to help new writers like me succeed. They were just waiting to be asked.

It was a revelation.

Think of how much faster I could have learned if I'd reached for the help that was within my grasp.

Hindsight Takeaways

• If you have an established friendship with other writers, you should absolutely ask them questions.
• Experienced writers want to pay forward all the help they received when they were baby writers.
• As long as you're respectful about it, your request for advice will make those seasoned writers feel like rockstars.

Everyday Help Is Hard Too

Most people, especially Americans, are hard-wired to want to do things on their own. Even as toddlers, we're independent-minded, yelling at our parents that "I can do it myself."

Many of us don't learn early enough that leaning doesn't have to make you weak.

Here's a story about an experience I had with a friend who hates asking for help. Actually, hate probably isn't a strong enough word. She loathes asking for help. Viscerally despises it. She's one of the most helpful people you'll ever meet -- especially to other writers -- but she literally can't ask for help.

Many years ago, we were at a writing event held at a local hotel right after she'd had foot surgery. She was getting around via scooter at home, but she needed a wheelchair for the event. I knew she absolutely hated it, and I also know how tiring it is to sit in AND push a non-motorized wheelchair around.

I was her chauffeur to and from the hotel and I was happy to push her chair around that day because it allowed me to spend more time with her.

Full Disclosure

I have the helper gene, and I'm a nurse's daughter. I literally grew up in and around hospitals, watching my mama help people. When someone needs help, especially someone I love, I automatically rush forward. I don't even register that I'm doing it.

For someone who loathes asking for help, I'm pretty sure my helper gene can feel intrusive. This friend in the wheelchair was fine while we were surrounded by people and she was busy. But when we went to the parking garage, she whipped out her independence card.

She could put herself in the car, thank you very much.

She literally wanted to get out of the chair near the trunk and walk herself around the car to the passenger seat. And no she didn't want help. She was fine.

She was absolutely not fine. She stood up "so I could put the wheelchair in the trunk." Then she swayed. And then she fell on me.

I don't mean she fell on the ground, I mean she fell on ME.

I staggered and prayed I was going to be able to hold her up. (I was partly facing away from her, dealing with the chair, and I didn't have a good grip on her.) Thankfully, there were two nurses watching us from the next row of cars and they ran over and handled our nonsense.

We are still friends and we still laugh about "that time in the parking garage." And I'm about 90% sure she still dislikes asking for help.

Hindsight Takeaways

• It's always better to ask, especially among friends who love us.
• Many of your pals are dying to be helpful to you.
• It is often more work to refuse help than it is to accept it gracefully.

Why asking for help is a milestone.

Asking for help isn't just a skill we hope to acquire, it is an important developmental milestone.

In Psychology Today's article, What Makes It So Hard To Ask for Help, the author argues that asking for help is an essential aspect of emotional strength. (The article was eye-opening, y'all.)

[Excerpt below.]

3 key aspects of experiencing oneself as emotionally strong

1. Being Capable

"Your sense of being or feeling capable of facing life’s challenges emerges out of your experience of effectively handling eight unpleasant feelings: sadness, shame, helplessness, anger, embarrassment, disappointment, frustration, and vulnerability. These are the most common, everyday, spontaneous feeling reactions to things not turning out the way you need or want."

2. Being Resourceful

"Being resourceful..involves embracing the dependent side of your nature; it takes feeling vulnerable, courageous, and comfortable enough within yourself to recognize when you need help. When you are able to do that, you are more apt to openly and genuinely acknowledge your specific needs and limitations. This acknowledgment enables you to take the next, most essential move—that of asking for help. Asking for help is part of what it takes to be emotionally strong."

3. Receiving graciously.

"When others extend their assistance, wisdom, availability, time, talents, or enthusiasm to you, unquestionably, they are giving of themselves. Gracious receipt of their generosity not only meets whatever needs you may have, it also honors them. When you allow yourself to receive, you have reached that harmonious balance between independence and dependence."

Final Thoughts

The more I read about the psychology of help, the more I realize that one of the barriers to asking for help is fear of rejection. We think someone will say no, even when it is very likely they will say yes if the request is clear and concise.

An interesting addendum to this point is mentioned in this article from the Verge:

"Research shows that people who have rejected you in the past are actually more likely to help you than other people. [Author's quote] When I reject you and you offer me another opportunity to help, if I can, I jump at it. I want to feel better."

Plus, most of us are far more likely to ask for help for other people than we are for ourselves. I know I am. It's easier to ask when it's for someone else.

One final quote for y'all, from the Psychology Today article linked above:

"Asking for help is not a burden nor a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of humanness."

I'm going to tape that quote to my bathroom mirror. Who's with me??

Questions for you:

How easy is it for you to ask for help, on a scale of one to ten? Using that same scale...how easy is it for you to give help? I can't wait to see your answers down in the comments!

Sources:

• Psychology: why we should ask for help more often - Stylist
• A Social Psychologist explains why we should ask for help more often (The Verge)
• Asking for help is a big part of emotional strength

About Jenny

By day, Jenny Hansen provides corporate communications and LinkedIn advice for professional services firms. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20 years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Facebook at JennyHansenAuthor or at Writers In The Storm.

Top Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

by Monica Corwin

Inspiration starts in the brain. I’ll save the health and wellness lecture for another time, but please make a note that your diet, exercise, and sleep all affect your brain’s neuroplasticity, allowing for what I like to call free-range inspiration.

Have you ever experienced one of those moments where you are watching or doing something and suddenly THE LIGHTBULB flashes and you have an idea in your brain? It might be a tiny little nugget of an idea that needs fostering. It also might be a fully-fledged idea, with shoots and roots ready to grow.

Inspiration can strike at any time. A moment between mowing your lawn or driving to work. The key is staying open and ready for whenever the muse pops in.

8 Tips To Keep Yourself Open for New Ideas

1. Do something relaxing, mundane, or repetitive.

These situations allow for your body and brain to relax. This, in turn, can give your brain some dopamine, allowing for ideas to flow in. Finally, relaxation can also facilitate the idea train, keeping you from blocking inspirational thoughts with worries or fears. It’s exactly why you get ideas in the shower and why waterproof shower notebooks are a thing that exists.

2. Go Outside.

There’s a reason many authors of old spend hours out in the countryside, or on beaches, walking. It’s why many of them retreated to the country, or their forest cabins, to complete their novels.

The outdoors helps inspiration in many ways. First, it can offer new views and experiences to allow new neural pathways. These pathways can help ideas flow. Like the first tip, nature can also relax you, and let ideas come in when they will, and not be hampered by Jeff from accounting breathing down your neck.

3. Create outside of your art.

This might sound strange, but humans are creative creatures. If you create art that isn’t your usual medium, you can often find yourself able to relax easier, and you can layer inspiration traps into these arts and crafts to double down on this tip.

The second medium you choose should be for fun. Something that you don’t have to monetize, therefore, doesn’t bear the same pressure as your original medium. For example, I write books for a living. When I need to relax, I do zentangles or cross stitch. I use colors that entrance me to help boost my mood and help me stay inspired and ready to sit down at the computer again.

4. Create routine, but also mix it up.

This might sound like I’m contradicting myself, but both methods can supercharge your creativity. This tip is all about what works for you, but don’t be afraid to do both. Routines are a great way to build in that relaxed state you’ll seek but mixing it up can also create new neural pathways and strengthen neuroplasticity. Do what works best for you, maybe keep a journal to track how you are feeling about either path.

5. Spend time with other creatives.

This is a two-fold path. If you spend time with other creatives, people successfully doing what you want to be doing, it can sting, but it can also inspire you to charge forward and try to reach your goals harder. Being around other creatives, talking about your art, sharing your art, can also supercharge your inspiration and send you home longing to dive into your work.

6. Keep your brain open.

Life is hard right now. So very hard for so many people. Use tried and true methods to stay above stress and keep your mind free from clutter.

Journaling is an amazing, and well-documented way, to help clear the stuff from your mind and allow those free-range inspirational thoughts to wander in. Journaling can’t pay your car payment, nor will it help you figure out your sister’s medical care, but it can help you get those thoughts that are weighing you down out of your head for a little while.

7. Be a collector.

Shhhh…don’t tell Marie Kondo. Collect things that inspire you.

I put things on the wall around my computer monitor. Stuff like quotes, postcards, pictures, fabrics, colors, textures. Don’t be afraid to branch outside your medium. Colors and textures can be an inspiration for a character’s dress, or the exact fabric of your villain’s suit. Gather those rocks that look cool, or the sea glass you found by the river.

Save what makes you wonder, ask questions, or leaves you in awe.

8. Be a good listener.

A lot of the writers I know are wonderful listeners. You can use this skill in a couple of ways to gather that free-range inspiration. Eavesdropping is the most common way I see my fellow writers employing this method. It can also be beneficial to meet new people, talk about things with them, and more importantly, listen to their stories.

Inspiration, or rather lack thereof, can be debilitating for a writer. Use these tips to ensure you are ready for the muse to swoop in and save your story. Also, carry a notebook, or use your phone notes, because there’s nothing worse than missing a call from the muse because she doesn’t leave voicemails.

What helps you tap into your muse or find creative inspiration? Are there experiences or places you've found particularly helpful? Please share them with us down in the comments! (And help us welcome Monica!)

About Monica

Monica Corwin is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She always tells her dog when she’s leaving, and she apologizes to inanimate objects when she bumps into them. If you like your heroes broody, then check out her "classically sexy" romance novels at www.monicacorwin.com.

by Lisa Norman

In my last post, I talked about digital readers, a group of readers who like to interact with stories in new and creative ways. Many of these readers are young, but not all. People of all ages are discovering the fun of interacting with stories and the passion is contagious. Now I want to show you my favorite new toy for writers: writing software designed to build worlds that readers can become immersed in.

(Note: this is a simplified version of an interview I did with Janet Forbes that you can read on my website.)

What is World Anvil?

• A magical writing notebook that organizes your notes
• A novel-writing software connected to that notebook
• A publishing platform where you can share your work — IF you want to (It can be used both as a digital publishing platform for your stories similar to Wattpad, and as a website content management system similar to WordPress.)
• A vibrant community of writers, artists, and readers

If you are like me, your first question is, "How much does this cost?"

World Anvil has a free tier, which is good for testing how the platform works, but for a serious writer, this won't be enough. I recommend at least the Master level, $58/year. This will give you the ability to create private articles and to use the manuscript-writing tools.

Breaking with my normal frugality: if you decide you love World Anvil, check out the Sage level if you can afford it: $300/year or $35/month. (There's also a lifetime option available.) While there are functional differences to the levels, I love the Sage tier because of the training that the World Anvil folks provide at this level.

World Anvil cares deeply about the success of their Sages. They provide ongoing live seminars and an archive of business education that I wish every author could have. Think high-level marketing education designed just for writers and creatives. None of the confusing marketing education designed for coaches or widget salespeople being modified for authors. This is focused on helping writers and game developers succeed. During the live sessions, they have times when you can ask your questions and get genuine answers.

What do game developers and writers have in common?

Both fields focus on storytelling. In both careers, building immersive worlds is the key to success. A game master built World Anvil for writers. He built it as an act of love. As you explore, you'll find tools and prompts designed to help you not only build immersive worlds, but write beautiful stories and finish your writing projects. Two features of the tool surprised me:

A Website Builder

I build websites for authors. With the Sage membership, you get the ability to link your custom domain name (the address to a website) to a world you build with World Anvil. You can build a world at any level and link to it, but linking a custom domain name to your world turns the experience into an interactive website that your fans can explore. You still need to bring your own domain name to the party ($20ish/year) but you don't have to pay additional hosting fees for this environment. If you've paid for website hosting, you'll see the value here.

This isn't a WordPress website. WordPress is a content management system used for website development. World Anvil is a unique content management system which can create a website that you design to show your world to your fans. These spaces can be shared for free, or they can be monetized by selling memberships through Patreon, Ko-fi, or even on your own website.

Monetization

Every level of World Anvil is designed to be friendly for monetization, helping creatives make money. The individual pieces of a world will be articles of different types. You can set permissions — easily — for each article. Some can be free and public. Others can be restricted to those who have finished book 1 of a series, for example, or for members of a certain level of support on your Patreon account.

How does World Anvil work?

I've worked with software like World Anvil before and loved it. The initial appearance can be overwhelming.

My husband maintains and repairs airplanes. In his hangar, there is a big red toolbox with many drawers. Open any of them and you'll find carefully polished tools, obscurely designed devices, each designed to fix a specific issue.

World Anvil is a writer's toolbox.

There are tools in there for everything you can imagine! The choices are overwhelming. Where do you start?

The answer is: you start with a world. Give your world a name. Don't worry, you can change it later.

From there, the next important step is to realize that you can use any tool you want. Nothing needs to be finished and polished until you are done. You don't need to follow a set procedure. World Anvil works the way you work. It lays out all of the tools and invites you to pick up whichever one you want to start with.

Stories, characters, worlds — all of these things grow slowly from many smaller pieces. In World Anvil, you start by putting your pieces together, adding ideas, and letting the structure build over time.

You aren't trying to bend your creative process to fit into a specific software's process. Instead, let your creativity explore. As you work, you'll find that the software will begin to make connections between related things. As you add more pieces, these connections will grow.

There are videos and tutorials spread throughout the software to help you if you need help. You'll also find thriving communities on Discord, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as a YouTube channel full of video tutorials.

World Meta

If you are truly lost, I suggest you start with the world Meta. This is a magical creativity-boosting section with prompts to get you to think about your reason for writing this story. When you open it, you'll see an introduction that will explain how this area works.

The world meta is a series of questions. You'll make notes on your genre, themes, focus, drama, scenes, people, and inspiration. The goal here is to create a design for your world that will guide you when you drift off into the weeds. If you lose focus or motivation, you can come back to this section, and it will use your own words, music, and images to motivate you and get you moving in the right direction.

Writing Notebook

Once you have a world, you fill that world with articles.

Think of articles as the research and worldbuilding notes for your world.

Here is a glimpse at the toolbox. There are pre-set types of articles, but note that you can always just do a generic article, a place to store any piece of the world that doesn't fit anywhere else.

This toolbox is not the writing software. It is the world-building software. Each article type is full of prompts to get you thinking, but remember: everything is optional!

As an example, let's talk about characters. You create a character, starting with their name. As you are building that character, you have the option to add parents, spouses, children, etc. If you add these, the system will automatically create a family tree.

If you create ethnicities for your world, you'll be able to assign those ethnicities to your characters. The same applies to organizations, religions, etc. Articles link together because in a world, things are interconnected.

If you create a tradition, for example, you can attach it to a location, an organization, or an ethnicity.

Interactive Maps

World Anvil lets you import maps that you've created for your world. (Don't worry if you don't have one. If you want one, they'll direct you to resources where you can create a beautiful map, or there's that wonderful community where you'll find mapmakers who are happy to work with you and design a map for you.) Then you can create articles related to countries, settlements, or buildings and you can place those on the map. Once you link the article on your map, you can click one of the icons on the map and the related article will open up. You can even link city maps to country maps so that you can drill down and see more details.

Whiteboards

The software now includes a new feature: whiteboards. Think mind-mapping software empowered by that writing notebook. Everything in your notebook can be placed on a whiteboard, interlinked, and connected. You can also add text, colors, shapes, free-form drawings, etc. This is a great way to plot out a novel or a series!

Writing Software — Manuscripts

The manuscripts feature is a basic text editor, similar to Scrivener in some ways. You create folders (chapters) and documents (scenes) inside the folders. These documents exist inside a manuscript that you can then "publish" on World Anvil or export to an HTML file that is suitable to pull into Microsoft Word or your ePub software. More export options are rumored to be coming soon. To see samples: https://www.worldanvil.com/community/manuscripts

While you are working, you can easily search all of your research and world-building notes to double-check, edit, or copy details that you may need.

World Anvil is a community.

One of my favorite parts of World Anvil is the vibrant community of authors, gamers, artists, and other creatives. As an author who occasionally feels alone, it is a wonderful experience to pop over into the Discord chat and ask a question.

You can ask questions related to story design, characters, or just look for someone to do sprints with. The community provides motivation and group challenges to give you ideas. You can participate, or not. Like everything else in World Anvil, entering challenges is optional.

To give you an example, the community recently had a challenge to build a tavern (or a bar) for your world. It could be in any setting. There were blog posts and teaching videos to spark ideas. People then shared their taverns and discussed them and how they could make them better.

Let's say you're designing your characters and you would love to have pictures of them for your family tree, but you can't draw. Pop into the community and hire an artist to draw your characters or learn about resources to help you find free images.

Welcome to a world of possibility.

This is a much-abbreviated introduction to World Anvil. If you have time, I hope you'll read my interview with Janet Forbes, the writer at the heart of World Anvil. https://deleyna.com/level-up-your-worldbuilding-skills/

What has your experience been with building worlds? What tools do you use? Please share your experiences with us down in the comments!

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, an indie publishing firm. She teaches for Lawson Writer's Academy.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? See her teaching schedule below.

Classes:

• May: Digital Organization Skills for Authors
• June: Crazy Easy Awesome-Author Websites
• July: Crazy Easy Social Media for Authors

Credits:

Images are all screenshots from World Anvil used with permission.