Writers in the Storm

Julie Glover

I'm a fan of fairy tales. Not so much the Disney re-tellings—though some are good—but rather the rich lore of the originals.

But what if your writing career was a fairy tale? Which one would it be?

Cinderella

Cinderella was a hard-working young woman cursed by a stepmother who didn't care one bit about her dreams. But Cindy was special, so when a fairy godmother showed up and offered her a pretty dress, slippers, and a carriage to the prince's ball, she headed out the door. Even better, she came upon Prince Charming, who fell in love with her at first sight and made all of her dreams come true.

I used to believe this was the writing fairy tale! I'd get my fairy godmother agent who'd set up my meeting with a publisher who'd fall in love with my writing...and together they'd make all my dreams come true. Yeah, I was a little naive and starry-eyed back then.

Look, I'm not knocking Cinderella's work ethic—the girl is forced into servitude and hangs out among the cinders to keep warm, for heaven's sake! But she's not the hero of her own story.

Likewise, imagining that someone else is going to deliver your writing happy-ever-after on a silver platter is a bit unrealistic these days. Be your own fairy tale hero. Get the manuscript finished, be smart about your choices, and take charge of your writing success.

Snow White

Snow White is a tale of jealousy, pure and simple. An evil queen approached her looking glass each day and asked how she measures up. But she didn't do it based on how looked the day before or how she'd look the day after. She compared herself to others. And what happened? Well, she got bested by a sweet young thing who hung out with seven dwarfs in the deep of the forest and a local prince who fell in love with that black-haired beauty. As Dr. Phil might say, "How'd that work out for you, Queenie?"

Yet, plenty of us fall for the same thing. We plug away at our writing, look over and realize that someone else is ahead of us, and become discouraged, frustrated, and jealous. Well, guess what? Someone will always be ahead of you. If you write 5,000 words this week, someone else will write 10,000. If you get a five-figure book advance, someone else will get a six-figure one. If you hit the New York Times bestseller list, someone will too—and stay on it longer.

What if the queen had just looked in the mirror and concluded, “So I’m not 20 anymore, but I look dang good. In fact, I'm one hot mama. I’m going to get on my exercise steed, use a beauty product or two, and look even better tomorrow”? Of course, there'd be no conflict and thus no story, but everyone would have gotten a happy ever after!

Forget how you measure up to others. Write the best story you can, so you can look in that mirror and say, "Heck yeah, I'm the fairest I can be!"

Rapunzel

Rapunzel was locked away in a tower at the age of 12 and didn’t cut her hair for years. Of course, it was the enchantress who shut her away in the story, but it's a story of isolation until some guy comes to rescue her. (And here's where the Disney version is better, because she totally rescues him back. So there.)

Do you, like Rapunzel, feel isolated and alone in this journey? We've all heard those stories of the writers who lock themselves away for the sake of finishing a manuscript. They ignore healthy eating, sleeping, and grooming and write so much that they're only a few hours away from naming their blinking cursor "Wilson."

But is the "always writing" approach a great idea? Actually, more and more research is showing we need playfulness and novelty and social interaction to keep our minds functioning at full capacity. It's okay to let down your hair now and then, take care of yourself, and enjoy time with others. Maybe hang out with some other writers. I hear they're a cool bunch.

Beauty and the Beast

A widower in need of sustenance came upon a palace and found food and water within. But the Beast who owned the palace would not let the man go unless his daughter took his place. Once the daughter arrived and swapped spots with Daddy, the Beast tried to woo her, but she would not return his affection. Finally, he let her leave to visit her family, but after a while, Beauty worried he was back at the palace dying without her. Upon her return, she found the Beast almost dead, realized she loved him, and brought him back to life—as a human prince.

Writing can be a beast, can't it? Maybe it's at the level of drafting the manuscript, when you can't seem to make it all work. Maybe it's just finding time to write among the pushes and pulls of life. Maybe it's marketing that makes you want to roar like a beast yourself.

And yet, stories keep wooing you, and deep down, you know you love writing. It's just a matter of bringing them all to life with all your Beauty-ness. Mind you, it will take time, and you wish the road was easier. But with some attention and nurturing, you may well turn your beasts into bestsellers!

Now that would be a happy ever after.

Can you compare your writing journey to any of these fairy tales? Or how about others?

About Julie

Julie Glover writes cozy mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart®. She is also co-author of the Muse Island supernatural suspense series, which begins with Mark of the Gods, under the pen name Jules Lynn.

When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit Julie’s website hereand also follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

by the WITS Founders

One of our founding members, Sharla Rae, recently passed away after a long battle with cancer. She was pivotal in all of our lives here at Writers In the Storm. Fae, Laura and Jenny have shared memories of her below, as well as photos of our great times together.

Jenny ~ Ah, that Charla. She could always make me laugh and she sure did know how to sexy up a boring scene. Her heroes were alpha and her heroines were feisty. She was an Iowa girl, married to a Chinese man from Singapore, and she could cook Chinese food better than any restaurant I've visited.

I miss you and your sweet smile, Char. I know you're organizing a glorious party in heaven right now that includes great food and fun, with your beloved son as your co-host.

Laura ~ In 2008, I was a newbie to RWA (Romance Writers of America), having belonged to a local chapter in Orange County, CA for about six months. I was hungry. I wanted an agent and a New York contract. But I knew I needed input on my manuscript (embarrassed to admit I'd titled my WIP, A Fawn in Winter, which became my second book, Her Road Home. Yeah, newbie). Someone in the chapter said that a long-standing crit group had lost a member and was looking for a new one. Score!

I got up the courage to approach Charla Chin (a published author!), and she told me in a no-nonsense tone that I would need to submit a sample of my writing, then attend a crit session so they could judge if I were a good fit. Yikes! I submitted, and went to the group, palms sweating. It was the most important interview of my writing career to date, and I needed this! There was Char and Jenny, and to my horror, I was told there was another applicant (Fae). She'd "interviewed" the night before, and they told me her stuff was good! I was toast. All was lost. But the next day Char and Jenny told us they decided to take us both on—alleviating my need to hate Fae Rowen forever—which is good, because she's about my best friend now.

Char was an integral part of starting this blog, but that's a story for someone else to tell. I'm just proud that Sharla Rae allowed me to use her name for my main character in my first published book, my RITA winner, The Sweet Spot.

Thank you Char for all you've given me. Sweet dreams.

Fae ~ I first met Charla Chin the night of my "interview" to become a "Slick Chick." The name of their four-member critique group was The OC Slick Chicks, which, of course, provided us with a lot of laughs.

I knew the member who had moved, Theresa, and the group wanted a replacement. I sent them my chapter, they each sent me theirs. I showed up for our meeting, copies of my critiques of their work in hand.

After I finished explaining my comments, they shared their individual thoughts on my chapter. I'd been in two critique groups before health and moves blew them up, so I was used to people reading my words and making comments like, "But what are they feeling?" or "Real people don't do that."

Charla, Jenny, and Deb gave me good feedback, but even better, at the end of that evening, they told me they had one more person to interview, but they wanted me to become part of the group.

I drove home happy, sure that I'd found my "forever home" in the writing community.

A couple of nights later, Char called to let me know that they'd decided to invite the woman who'd met with them the next night—Laura Drake—to join, too. I knew who Laura was from OCC meetings, but, I have to admit, a bit of my sparkle and glitter dimmed, knowing that I hadn't gotten "the nod" by myself.

Best turn of luck, ever! Funny how the Universe does that for you.

Charla was a great critique partner. She was multi-New York published and she could write sexy! Sometimes I wasn't happy with her comments of "You need to sex this scene up, Fae." But she had great suggestions about how to do that, so it ended well.

Soon after Laura and I joined the group, the fifth member, Deb, took a writing hiatus. We were down to four.

On one of the rare nights that we met at someone's home (for some reason we had dinner at Charla's that night), we talked about getting into the social media age as a writing group by having everyone join Facebook. Jenny showed us how to do that, and we all left with Facebook accounts, including one for our group. I have to admit, I did nothing with mine for at least a year.

We also came up with the idea for this blog site. We threw out different names and nothing stuck, until I semi-channeled The Doors and suggested Writers in the Storm. Laura and I have the same musical sensibility, so she jumped on the name, looking for pictures for a banner. Jenny talked about administration of the site and volunteered to get it up and running and shepherd it through the first three months as long as we all wrote one blog a month and learned how to post it, as well as comment on the other posts.

This was a new time-sump for all of us. We asked every writer we knew to blog for us. The technology wasn't easy for us to master, so we bothered Jenny. A lot.

Unfortunately, Char's son was diagnosed with cancer. She was very involved with his treatment and semi-moved to Texas to be with him. When his treatment was over and it appeared he was cancer-free, we celebrated with her. But then, his cancer returned. After his death, she was diagnosed with cancer and chose to remain in Texas for treatment. During this time we prayed for her, e-mailed her, talked on the phone with her.

She, too, was declared cancer-free and sent home. But the drug protocols had been brutal and taken a toll on her. She tried to get back up to speed with her writing, critiquing, and Writers in the Storm, but eventually decided to concentrate on her family. Her rights were reverting to her on her first three books, and she was going to revise them for self-pubbing.

I wish she'd had time to finish that task.

I miss our rides to our WITS critique sessions. I miss hearing about what was going on in her life. I miss her excitement when she added a doll to her collection. I'm sorry we all lost her so early.

Some links to her most popular posts:

• Are Your Characters Stylin'? Descriptive Fashion Phrases and Terms
• Writing About Hair: The Thick and Thin of Descriptions
• Character Eye Descriptions: The Window to Your Story
• Using a Crowd To Create Tension in Your Story
• 10 Tips for Writing Children and a Descriptive List
• How is Writing a Futuristic Novel Like Writing a Historical

If you'd like to share a memory about Sharla Rae, we'd love to hear your story.

by Kathryn Craft

I’ve written here before about the importance of community in carrying our writing careers forward and I stand by that advice. You’ve only gotten where you are because of the hands you’ve held. But no one community may be able to carry the upwardly mobile among you all the way to your goal.

Is it time for you to leave your communal nest? Consider the following.

1. The organization may no longer be a fit. Everything about the publishing industry is in flux, so why not writing groups? The group that supported you during the decade you sought an agent may now advocate for self-publishing. The programming on story craft you signed on for may now be devoted to marketing talk. If majority rule means you are not progressing toward your goals—and especially if your needs feel sidelined, or belittled in any way by the people masquerading as your comrades—the culture of your organization has become a poor fit. It’s time to get out and try another.

2. Your critique group may be holding you back. When critiquers are secretly flummoxed about what a writer is trying to accomplish, they’ll often focus on minutiae when the root problem may be weak story architecture that a one-chapter-per-month analysis won’t allow them to identify, even if they knew how. The writer walks away from the group relieved that the session has gone so well—but carrying a well-worded, perfectly meaningless story. While critique groups can be a great place to gain early workshopping experience, there may come a time when you’re trading your valuable time for advice that is holding you back.

3. Growth happens outside of your comfort zone. The creative mind thrives on new experiences and alternate ways of thinking, and you can’t acquire those if you stay in the same place with the same people doing the same thing. Your writing organization may feel like home, but there may come a time when you need mentors with more depth in the industry to inform you, challenge you, and open new doors for you. To do that, you must reach up—not back.

4. Even empty luggage causes drag. Remind yourself of your goal in joining the group in the first place. I doubt that it was to make friends, even though that may be a valued side benefit. If you find that that marketing cooperative you joined does more drinking than retweeting, it may be time to cut ties. You could try to adjust your expectations and stay—your friends are still sparking joy!—but it won’t work for long. A writer only has so much time in her life, and she needs to surround herself with similarly dedicated colleagues who can help her career.

5. A big fish who stays in a small pond casts a large shadow. Leaving a writers’ organization can be fraught because we worry about hurting people’s feelings. But what if you are hurting others by staying? Others may benefit from the opportunity to fill a leadership role you’ve vacated. Annual contest wins and self-published anthology entries may feed your ego, but may not equal the career advancement you seek. Meanwhile, you’re standing in the way of others who need the chance to shine.

If you are getting all you want or need from your writing group and are satisfied with your career as is, I’m not trying to suggest you leave behind a valued resource.

But if your needs aren’t being met and you think it may be time to make a move, please don’t worry that you’re ditching your friends. In this business, you need all the friends you can get, and those who really care about you will find other ways to keep in touch.

No two writing paths are the same, and you’re simply seeking to further yours—and that was always the point.

Is it time for you to leave the nest? Have you ever had to leave a group that was no longer serving your needs? Did it end up being a good move? Were you able to preserve valued relationships?