Writers in the Storm

Every writer, whether they're starting the journey or standing atop the bestseller lists, feels like a hack at some point. Like an imposter, a phony, a gigantic fakeball loser. It might happen once a month or once an hour. The point is, it will happen.

Woody Allen says “80% of success is showing up.” The other 20% of our writing success is courage, perseverance and a stockpile of big girl/boy titanium underpants.

I need to repeat this lesson to myself every single year. Every. Single. One. So, if some of this feels familiar, read on! This could be the year the motivation and courage stick to all of us.

I'm sure we're all well-acquainted with the tricks our writer's brain has up its sleeve. The torturous, defeating messages it sends out when we sit our butts down to write.

• I'm too tired.
• I'll do this after [fill in the blank].
• This book is crap.
• No one will buy this.
• No one will read this.

And the #1 favorite from the top of the post:

• I am such a hack.

These messages are where those titanium underpants come into play. [Y'all know about my obsession with the Undie-verse, right?] 

Your courage and your willingness to make mistakes is what will keep you in that chair, even when you're squirming against whatever doom and failure happen to be chasing through your psyche that day.

Neil Gaiman posted this wish for his readers a few New Year's Eves back:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Isn't that awesome???

All the great minds of our time embrace mistakes because they embrace learning. They dare to suck, and that's a beautiful thing. Aristotle described it like this: ”We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.”

There's a lot to be said for just showing up.

Elizabeth Gilbert's (incredibly amazing) TED talk references these two elusive ideas - the concept of "showing up" and how it relates to the creative muse.

Whatever creative gorgeousness there is in your universe needs your fingertips to help it into existence. If you don't show up to the page, that beautiful cranky bipolar muse is going to go show up for someone else who is doing the work.

https://youtu.be/86x-u-tz0MA

She expressed it this way:

"And what I have to sort of keep telling myself when I get really psyched out about [writing] is don't be afraid. Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be.

"If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then Olé! And if not, do your dance anyhow. And Olé! to you, nonetheless. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. 

"Olé! to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up."

Just showing up can be an act of great courage. Even if the only thing coming out of your fingertips is crappy writing and hangnails - especially if that's where you are - showing up is an act of defiance that will pay off. That kind of iron will is what forges successful writers.

Sometimes you have to channel social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, and fake it till you make it.

In fact, at the end of the snippet below she says, "..don't fake it till you make it. Fake it till you become it. Do it enough until you actually become it and internalize."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXfrVdhmilI

Note: Cuddy's entire TED talk is here, and is worth your twenty minutes to watch (and the two minutes afterward you will spend pretending to be Wonder Woman).

Here's hoping you show up to your writing in 2018, in some cute-but-mighty underpants, in time to catch the gorgeousness and get it to the page. At the very least, I hope you make some incredibly grand mistakes. 

Olé! 

Do you make New Year's resolutions? At WITS, we do the "one word of the year" - do you do that? What is your greatest writing challenge? And do you have any inspirational quotes to share?

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About Jenny Hansen

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes news articles, humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18+ years as a corporate software 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 Twitter at JennyHansenCA or at Writers In The Storm.

I am a shark when it comes to reading. Always have been. In elementary school I walked home for lunch, book in hand, reading. The neighbors told my mother, urging her to tell me not to read on the twenty-minute walk. But I walked that same stretch of sidewalks on three streets four times a day, and with only one crossing of two lanes of traffic, she just reminded me to be careful—and that the neighbors were watching me. It's no wonder that I read ten books a week and looked forward to my Friday night visits to the library to check out the limit of ten books for the next week. In the eighth grade my parents signed for me to get an adult library card. My first read? Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood.

I still read, but not as much. I'd love to do nothing but read. Unfortunately the adult world requires responsibilities be fulfilled.

I've made no secret of being a science fiction freak for half my life, concentrating on reading all the best from writers who tell stories about future societies and how humanity is the same...or different. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury, Gordon Dickson, Orson Scott Card, Kurt Vonnegut, Niven and Pournelle, Saberhagen. And many more.

But then James Preston's wife introduced me to romance. It was hard, no—virtually impossible—to find science fiction romance books. So I read historical romance. Jude Deveraux, Diana Gabaldon, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsey, Judith McNaught. Like a shark. I read some contemporary, Jayne Ann Krentz mostly, since I loved her Amanda Quick regencies.

Fast forward to the past few years, and a more "balanced" reading list: Tessa Dare (historical romance), Linnea Sinclair (SF/paranormal romance), Lynn Raye Harris (Hostile Operations Team series), Cora Seton (The Heroes of Chance Creek), Zoe York (SEALs Undone series). And, of course, everything by Laura Drake. I'm always on the lookout for new authors to read. 

I read authors who write stories about strong-willed characters, both male and female. Usually there is some danger or suspense or mystery involved. And I do enjoy the occasional twist. Lately I've enjoyed reading series. It's fun to find out what happened to secondary characters from a previous novel and check in with the main characters from related books.

I've found that my taste in books has changed the longer I've been writing. I'm more discriminating in what I read. Gone are the days of waiting for a book to develop in the first hundred pages. I used to be more interested in the plot, but now I want emotion and character arcs. I want the characters to end up smarter, better than they started, and I want to know—gut-level know—that they're going to be happy for the rest of their lives. I want to know that the world is a better place with them in it.

And that brings me to writing. Engaging a reader in the first couple of pages by helping them root for my characters is as important as capturing their emotions in a fast-paced, hopefully engaging, story with twists and turns and new ideas and fresh challenges. I look for these elements in the books I read and the samples of work from prospective new authors. Don't you love it when you've thought about something you read yesterday, and you can't wait to continue the journey with those characters today? 

I read to be entertained. I could watch television or play video games, and sometimes I do enjoy those activities. But I have a much bigger TBR pile than list of TV shows to binge watch or games to lose myself in. When I read a book, I lose myself in that environment. I want to feel what the characters feel. For me, that's much easier to accomplish with a book than a game or a television show. And that's why I read. 

 

What genre do you read, and why do you read it? Who are your go-to authors?

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ABOUT FAE:

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes  that she can live anywhere but the present. As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

Punished, oh-no, that’s published as a co-author of a math textbook, she yearns to hear personal stories about finding love from those who read her books, rather than the horrors of calculus lessons gone wrong.  She is grateful for good friends who remind her to do the practical things in life like grocery shop, show up at the airport for a flight and pay bills.

A “hard” scientist who avoided writing classes like the plague, she now shares her brain with characters who demand that their stories be told.  Amazing, gifted critique partners keep her on the straight and narrow. Feedback from readers keeps her fingers on the keyboard.

P.R.I.S.M., a young adult science fiction romance story of survival, betrayal, resolve, deceit, lies, and love.

When she’s not hanging out at Writers in the Storm, you can visit Fae at http://faerowen.com  or www.facebook.com/fae.rowen

Fae also blogs at YA Outside the Lines on the fifth of every month.

 

I love the idea of a fresh start.

There's something so appealing about a new beginning, an uncharted course, a do-over. It's why every year, I make New Year's resolutions and manage to keep many of them.

But for the last few years, I've also followed along with the idea of choosing a single word to steer your course. Our Writers in the Storm team chose single guiding words in 2016 and 2017, and we're ready to go there again. Here are our 2018 words:

Fae

My word for 2018: Balance

Last year, in my focus to publish my first book and prepare the next two, my life became directed to one thing: THE BOOK. I spent twelve to twenty hours a day working on revisions. Seven days a week. I didn't take trips with friends like I usually do. I even turned down week-end excursions. I didn't go to movies or out to lunch with "the usual suspects." I ate what was fast and easy. Not only did my body suffer, so did my writing.

For 2018 BALANCE is the word for every day. At least seven hours of sleep, at least two healthy meals, continuing with my exercise regimen—which saved me last year—and writing on a reasonable daily basis, which to me means four to eight hours when I'm not on a trip with friends. This seems like a good plan to publish two (maybe three!) books, get healthier, and enjoy my life. Healthy and happy will be the outcome of balance in my life.

Jenny

My word for 2018: Focus

My word last year was Becoming and I definitely allowed myself to play on the page, to write to the edges of my abilities, and to learn enough to increase those abilities as much as I was able. But I don't feel like I moved forward on my goals as much as I would have liked. All that learning takes time, and sometimes the work needs to be turned in as "good enough."

"Good enough" is a rough one for us perfectionist writers and the only way to get through it, in my humble opinion, is by setting (and meeting) manageable milestones and goals. I've downloaded Jamie Raintree's Writing and Revision Tracker and vowed to set firm weekly and monthly goals. I'll be depending on my tribe to help keep me focused.

Julie

My word for 2018: Forward

For too much of 2017, I felt like my writing career was moving backward or at least standing still. Some of that experience involved circumstances beyond my control, and some was self-inflicted. Regardless, by the fall, I was simply wallowing in my lack of progress.

In 2018, I want to leave those feelings behind, set my goals, and focus on moving forward. While I'd love to leap forward, I've been around the writing life long enough to know that you can't plan the tipping points of success, but you can keep moving in the right direction. This year, no more backwards movement or standing still—and no more wallowing. Instead, it's all about going forward.

Laura

My word for 2018: Rebuild

2017 was NOT a banner year for me. Lost my hearing in my left ear to a virus that fried the nerve for balance as well (didn't know that at the time). That led to losing my balance while fly fishing in Oregon in May, stepping in a hole, and snapping both bones in my lower right leg. A boat rescue, a titanium plate, 13 screws, and three months later, I was back on my feet.

Because my best plotting is done on my bicycle, this wreaked havoc with my WIP... and I had a deadline. A tight one. I made it, but about lost my sanity doing it.

In 2018 I'm rebuilding: my health, my bones, my writing process. I'm trying new 'planning' techniques (refuse to call it plotting, for fear my brain will revolt).

July, my first book of a new series comes out — I hope to rebuild sales as well!

 

Now we want to hear from you! What one word will guide your writing life in 2018?