Writers in the Storm

by Holly Lasky

Optimize Creativity While Navigating the Ups and Downs of Life

In writing this blog, I was struck by the title of this group, which is “Writers in the Storm”. In the “about” section of this blog, it states, “Along the way, we’ve discovered that there’s more to life than writing, and sometimes life can be the richest story of all… Every writer must weather the storm within: self doubt, rejection, deadlines and balancing our writing passion with everyday life. Not to mention the storm raging outside — the paradigm shift in the publishing industry.”

Speed bumps on the writing journey.

It is exciting to consider when we are in the ups and downs of the storms of life, our creativity can be an expression of the journey.

• How can we bring “The richest story of all” into our writing? 
• What happens when those ups and downs don't feel very manageable or we're in crisis mode and all of a sudden our best intentions go sideways? 
• What do we do when our carefully, meticulously plotted schedule takes a left turn and we find ourselves at the end of a very busy day and yet we haven't accomplished any of the things we wanted to accomplish? 
• Instead of being tossed around in the storm, what would happen if we could ride the waves and be empowered instead of drowning?

It's easy to feel frustrated and beat ourselves up and think there's something wrong with:

• Our ability to focus. 
• Our ability to organize. 
• Being able to do what we love in our creative expressions, be it writing or anything else. 

Andy Andrews said, “If you're not in a crisis right now, you've just come out of one or you're about to be in one.” 

This idea of crisis, or ups and downs as a way of life can take on new meaning for us. It's important as we navigate these times to have tools and strategies so when we are in moments of:

• Overwhelm 
• Crisis 
• In the middle of those days that just go completely wrong. 

There are ways to: 

• Create momentum. 
• Spark our creativity.
• Encourage ourselves. 
• Be empowered in the choices we're making.

In part one, we took a look at the tools of:  

• Breathing techniques.    
• Getting out of overwhelm.
• Eat That Frog for 90 minutes a day 

Let’s examine three more tools that can be instantly incorporated into your daily creative life.

The idea of optimizing creativity when things are not going well in life is a priority. Often in those moments, it seems like time is slowing down or stopped, whether dealing with a loss or illness or the car broke down and you're stuck by the side of the road. Whatever it is that causes your day, your week, your month to not be what you expected it to be, we can get unstuck by taking daily small steps. The small decisions every day compound into massive growth, change, and progress in our life.

Grace

• We tend to be very unkind to ourselves. 
• We say unkind things to ourselves. 
• We are more kind to the people around us than we usually are to ourselves. 

This is where we can have grace for ourselves. 

Grace for Ourselves

• We're NOT broken.
• We haven’t done anything wrong. 
• We're not  terrible people. 
• We're not lazy or unmotivated.

Getting things done and optimizing AND being creative is a process. We have days where more happens and days where less happens. One Client came down with flu symptoms. It turns out, they were avoiding a confrontative conversation with a key person in their life. The moment they showed themselves grace and then took responsibility for their actions, their flu symptoms were immediately gone. 

As we begin to understand what's driving us consciously and unconsciously we can have a lot more compassion for ourselves.

95% of our brain is unconscious and 3 to 5% is conscious. The 95%, the unconscious mind, is driving everything. Consciously we may be trying to be super productive, get stuff done and hit our word count for the day. All of a sudden we find ourselves staring out the window or watching Netflix or completely avoiding whatever it is we need to do by doing something else. Whatever it may be, there can be other things driving it. 

The First Step

The first step is awareness. Are you in a pattern or a habit that isn't working for you? We default to these patterns, not because they work anymore, they worked maybe once upon a time, it's just that they're familiar and comfortable. Well, familiar and maybe uncomfortable, but they're still familiar. We are creatures of habit and we default to whatever is familiar. Often where we go in stress is the familiar places of childhood trauma. 

One of the things that inspires me about being a coach is helping people gain that outside perspective to figure out why it is that they're not finishing their book or finishing the edit or coming up with their next great idea. Usually it is rooted deep in early childhood. Beyond understanding where it came from, we can have resolution. 

• What if our creativity was fueled by wholeness and healing and love?
• What if our creativity was fueled by our growth journey? 
• What if our creativity was powered by something bigger than our old story of the terrible and unfortunate things that have happened to us?

This is such an interesting perspective because resolution comes consciously and unconsciously when we look back and learn the lessons of the past, apply them to the present day and then take what we want into the future.

Consult Your Future, Next Best Version of Yourself 

When we say we want something, it is negative because we're going towards something we don't have. One of the practices I like is to consult my future whole, healed, empowered, next best version of myself. When I'm making a decision or casting a vision for the next thing I'm doing or working on a creative project, or what is the next best step, all of these, I take a moment, breathe, and then ask my future self:

• What would she do?
• What would she be eating for breakfast? 
• What would she be working on? 
• How would she prioritize this project? 
• What's important to her? 

Instead of this being somewhere way out in the future, this is now. Calling my future best self into right now creates empowered choices from a more healed perspective. What is she going to do? Is she going to binge watch Netflix? My future best self is going to sit down and prioritize the project and work through the next step. This is one of my favorite tools to get out of being stuck.

Divine Economy-Our life is happening for us, not to us

The last idea to consider is something Danilo Bridgens, the Founder of Via Vetera, calls the economy of God. Regardless of your spiritual context and beliefs, you should consider that nothing in our life is wasted. In the ups and the downs, in all the things we are unconsciously and consciously choosing in our life, not only is there hope of actual resolution, there's also the hope and the promise that we can learn, we can take forward into the future, we can call into now the person we are becoming.

The past, the present and the future begin to merge together - our healed self from the past, our healed self in the moment, now consulting our best self in the future. We begin to form a partnership within ourselves when we understand it's not about defining things as good or bad or up or down, they just are. Everything happening in our lives is because there's a lesson to be learned and growth to work through. We can empower ourselves by choosing what we bring into the present and future.

In coaching, it is really amazing to help people bring up to the conscious level, these long-running patterns and strategies that don't work, that keep them in the overwhelm, keep them in non-productivity, keep them in the workaholic mindset. This is where we perhaps take on the belief I've got to work harder to be successful. What if success came easily and effortlessly because you're doing something you love and you're passionate about? 

The Current Crisis - Growth Opportunity

Andy Andrews was right. If you're not in a crisis, you've just come out of one or you're about to go into one. As I was deciding what to write about for this blog, I realized this is exactly the perfect thing to write about because I am in a crisis personally.

The last 18 months have been a journey of 3 emergency rooms, 3 hospitals, 3 skilled nursing/rehab facilities and 5 ambulance rides as my husband is experiencing a catastrophic illness and a very long-term recovery. As the medical advocate, caregiver, domestic glue and CEO working full time in this season, I am using every tool in these articles and more. Also, I'm working with several coaches in my life who are helping me see the things that I can't see by myself, so I continue to grow and become the next best version of myself, even as my world is pretty stormy. 

Consider the possibility! There are tools and ways to move forward and understand the deeper core issues that are driving you. Through coaching, there's a way to resolve them. Even the things that seem like they're not going to change, will change. 

As we grow, the world changes around us and people around us change. Say it the way you want it. Step into your next best self right now and you will discover as I have, everything is possible, even in the most challenging times of our lives. Our life becomes the richest story of all.

Questions and Journal Prompts to Consider:

• Are you in a crisis, just come out of one or about to go into one?
• What are your strategies, patterns and ways of coping?
• Are your current strategies, patterns and coping working or not working?
• What is fueling your creativity?
• Write a description of your next best future version of yourself.

Check out the link below and join us for a free workshop:

“Empower Your Unconscious Mind: Get What You *Really* Want Now”   
https://linktr.ee/HollyLasky

About Holly

Holly is an Internationally Certified Master Coach, Professional Musician, Writer, International Speaker, Encourager & Founder of Aligned Optimum Vitality Coaching. Holly coaches Executives, Entrepreneurs, Coaches, High Performers & Creatives in eliminating blocks and trauma in the areas of life they most need & then create  intuitive, congruent goals. Holly helps her Clients achieve repeatable, optimum results without rah-rah motivational & accountability coaching, toxic positivity, unnecessary & unproductive busywork & years of therapy. 

You didn’t come this far to only come this far!

Click this link to learn more and to connect: https://linktr.ee/HollyLasky

Let’s chat and get clarity on what’s blocking you. Interested in one-on-one coaching or our new group coaching program? Click the link above to reserve time on my calendar.

Images from Pixabay

by Ellen Buikema

There are things writers do: eat, dream, write if the muse is good to us – and handle rejection. The last is frequently painful, but it’s a writer’s occupational hazard. Every writer, from beginner to the literary greats, gets those demoralizing emails. While the following suggestions can’t take away the hurt left by literary rejection, these tips may help keep you on track.

Deal with your feelings.

After a rejection letter, it’s normal to experience sadness. Denying feelings can be damaging, so feel free to wallow about in misery for a short time, and then do something positive.

• Talk to other writers.
• Give yourself a peptalk.
• Write about it.
• Have a jog.
• Create a treat and consume it.
• Dance.

Indulge for a while then pull yourself together and move on.

Research psychologists advise us to talk to about ourselves with kindness. Speaking or writing encouragingly to yourself can have a positive impact on your ability to recover quickly from a rejection. The research of Ethan Kross, a psychologist at the University of Michigan shows that “distanced self-talk” helps people to separate the rejection from themselves. He also shows how.

“Imagine that a friend comes to you after a rejection,” Kross said. “You’d say, ‘You got one rejection. You’ve got to move on. There will be plenty of other opportunities for you.’” He’s said that it helps when people think and use self-talk about themselves in the same friendly way with non-first-person pronouns. Instead of thinking, I was rejected, I must suck, use narration in the second-person—“Ellen, you don’t suck”—or in the third person to write about yourself. Any mode of communication used to get this information across can sort of trick your brain into rational, objective thinking. Kross mentioned there’s evidence that “distanced self-talk” helps people cope with rejection.

Accept that rejection is a way of life.

Don’t dwell on this thought, just be aware that it happens. Dealing with rejection is part of life, this goes for all the arts. Actors deal with this often.

Hearing “No” can be demoralizing, especially if you are certain that the editor or agent is a good fit. At times, a rejection can be an eye-opener, helping you for the better–work or career-wise.

A rejection email from editors and agents is better than silence. Sometimes pitches go unanswered, even after a follow-up. Editors and agents don’t have a lot of spare time but, if possible, it would be wonderful to get a short note of encouragement, even if it’s a “You write well, but your manuscript isn’t a good fit for us at this time.” That extra step means a lot.

Handling rejection and self-worth.

Writer Michelle Tea suggests, “Try not to over-identify with your creative work. It can feel like if somebody doesn’t like your work, then they don’t like you. But your work is this mysterious thing that comes out of you. It’s your job to serve it, help it, and then let it go and move on to your next thing.”

Your rejected work is not you. The writer’s journey is filled with bumps in the road. Believe in you and work out the rest.

Literary taste is subjective. Don’t let one person’s thoughts on your work get you down. Do more homework and find another agent or editor. Consider submitting to an agent/editor with a smaller list of authors.

Dealing with rejection is a numbers game.

Getting published really is a numbers game. It’s important to be persistent. Some people will like your work, others won’t. There are many tales of a book being turned down by multiple publishers, eventually finding a home, and go on to become successful.

Change rejection to motivation.

Do you feel that the agent or editor who rejected your manuscript is wrong? Channel that energy to start on a new and improved campaign to send your work to new agents.

Don’t anger the editor/agent.

Be the writer who is remembered for good reasons. Do not upset the person who someday may be able to help launch your career. Don’t argue or insult them if they reject you. That’s a great way to get blocked or ghosted.

Editor Chris Monks wrote that he’ll get pushback on rejections he sends out. Rather than engaging the angry writer, he places “these mean messages in a folder I’ve titled ‘Jerks’ and occasionally share screenshots of them (with the names of the jerks redacted) to my followers on Twitter.”

Get back in that seat and write.

After the emotional bruising of rejection is past, get back to writing. Prepare to create.

Rejection can be viewed as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and become a better writer. Ponder what may have gone wrong with your work and find what can be improved.

• How is your narration-dialogue ratio? Find a good balance of description and chatting.
• Did you focus too much on the plot and not fully develop your characters?
• What about head-hopping? Be careful with the Point of View!
• Did you put your content out before it was ready? There is no rush.
• Were there plenty of eyes-on your work? Critique groups/partners are invaluable.

When you’ve found areas needing improvement, do what you need to do so they don’t cause you grief in future projects—increasing your probability of success.

Try to be positive.

Try to look at the situation positively. Consider your writing and focus on how to improve.

• What did the reader/agent/publisher/ not like about my project?
• How can I make my work more interesting?

While not easy, thinking about these issues and learning to take constructive criticism will make you a better writer and help you to develop a “thicker skin,” something we all need to work on to some degree.

Keep moving forward.

You cannot publish unless you send out the work, beginning with query letters. No one is going to come knocking on your door. That’s your job until someone says, “Who’s there?” If someone does knock on your door it is likely a predatory publisher. There are many who are eager to separate a writer from their funds.

For more tips on dealing with literary rejection read Lucy O’Callaghan’s article.

Final thoughts.

Every writer gets rejected. Every famous author started out dealing with the aftermath the of the “not right for us” or “I signed a book just like yours last week.” Here’s an article about best-selling authors who were initially rejected. It’s a common problem.

The “not right for us” doesn’t mean the book is unworthy. It’s likely that the agent doesn’t have a buyer for the book at that particular point in time. Keep writing and don’t give up hope.

Literary taste is subjective. Don’t let one person’s rejection of your work demoralize you. Do your due diligence and find another agent or editor.

“This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘Not at this address’. Just keep looking for the right address.” — Barbara Kingsolver

* * * * * *

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Top Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

by Juliette Hyland

I started writing category romance for Harlequin/Mills and Boon in 2019 with my first book published in 2020. Twenty-five plus books and online reads later, I still get the following question all the time: What is category romance? Usually they immediately follow up with: Okay, but why would you write that? The answer to the first question is in the next section, but before I answer that, I have to address the second.

I fell in love with category romance as a teen. I snuck them off my mother’s and grandmother’s shelves (though today’s category does not look like the ones I read under my covers with a flashlight).

Category Romances are what I like to call mental candy. Their whole purpose is to make the reader feel good. Yes, there are suspense categories, and you might jump off your seat a bit, but when you read that last page, you are satisfied. Everyone in the story is happily loved up.

Some big names either started in category romance or still add category books to their impressive list of publications. Nora Roberts, Maisey Yates, Jeannie Lin, Farrah Rochon, Teri Wilson and many others. I will admit that seeing my books on shelves or in ads from Harlequin with some of these ladies was more than a dream come true.

What Category Romance is? And where it exists in trad and indie publishing.

Honestly, the best way to think of category is a romance book not just with a central romance focus (part of the romance genre requirement) but as a romance book taken down to its core—the romance between the main characters. This is the only real focus of the book. Everything else is a distant second.

These books have tight word counts. Most are between 50k and 55k; though there is some wiggle room based on which category you are in. The side characters that are a staple in longer romances (called Single Title) are largely absent. There might be a quirky best friend who runs a coffee shop, but she, or he, is window dressing. No real substance. Everything is drilled in on the main character’s path to happily ever after.

Traditional

The other thing that makes a category romance a category romance are the requirements for the line you are publishing in. Each category line has requirements around the main characters, location, and heat level expected. At its heart, these requirements are promises you are making to the reader.

The biggest name in category romance is my publisher, Harlequin/Mills and Boon. But they are not the only name in the game. Tule Publishing has lines dedicated to locations in the US and more than one of their romances has hit the television screen. Entangled Publishing also has submissions open for their category lines.

Indie

Category works in indie publishing, too. You might not see it marketed as category romance; though a quick search in Amazon generates multiple indie stories mixed in with the trad published books. Why does it work in indie? Because category at its heart is all about meeting reader expectations. So, if you are reliably delivering a short and spicy mafia romance or a lovely cowboy romance or any other consistent short romance type to your readers, you are writing a form of category romance!

Meeting the reader’s expectations

All genre fiction requires you to meet reader expectations. Write a cozy mystery and don’t have your mystery solved? Watch how fast the knifes come out. Romance requires a happily ever after or happily for now ending. It is the promise you are giving your reader.

Category takes the happily ever after requirement and layers in the line requirements. If you pick up a Harlequin Medical or a Tule Montana Born, you know you are getting your happily ever after plus medical professionals or a story set in the hills and ranches of Montana. The reader goes for exactly what they want.

When I write for Harlequin Medical, the main characters must be in the medical field (or veterinarians) but I have wiggle room in location. I’ve set stories in teaching hospitals in large cities and in the Alaskan outback, with two doctors doing their best to serve a community in a harsh winter environment. Medicals also have a large heat difference, so while mine are on the higher heat level, others have no on page intimacy. The Romance Line is all about wealth and fantasy. The locations need to scream power, wealth and privilege, as do the characters. Like the medical line, there is a range of sensuality levels.

You can find the requirements for each Harlequin/Mills and Boon category at this link. Tule is located here and Entangled here. Remember, these are not suggestions, they are requirements. And that is fine because readers eat them up.

Crafting your own story. No, I am not talking about following formulas.

So you’ve found a category romance line that calls to you. You understand the basic line requirements. Now what?

Category romance follows the same romance beats as single title romance, just in a much tighter word count.

• Intro to the main characters
• A meet cute
• The moment where they can no longer go their separate ways
• Your main characters grow together, and it looks like everything will work out
•  But before that growth finishes, they fall back into their old ways (a little)
•  The black moment: where our main characters fear all hope is lost
•  Finally, the grand gesture where our main characters proclaim their love and live happily ever after

The best resource I have ever found for reader expectations in romance is, Romancing the Beat, by Gwen Hayes.

But Juliette the heading says you aren’t talking about formulas!

I’m not. There is no formula for a category romance, or any other genre fiction, books. But there are reader expectations or beats, if you are a Save the Cat Writes a Novel fan.

The world is still very much your oyster. As a medical romance author I have stories with a secret prince OBGYN, a former child actress turned GP, a doctor who moved into the research lab and runs into his former college boyfriend, an emergency doctor at the South Pole—my newest release.

In the Romance line, I have a princess lottery that starts with the prince drawing her name out of a giant glass bowl. Book two in that series (yep, you can do series in category romance) has the king choosing his queen by yanking her name out of a hat. Well, technically her sister’s name, but still.

The story possibilities are literally limitless! That is one of the reasons I fell so hard for category romance as a reader. And it is the reason that I continue to come back to the lines as a writer over and over again.

Drop any questions you have in the comment section below.
Added bonus, tell me an over-the-top or just regular romance idea you have and I will see which category line I can slide it into.

Opportunity:

Someone who answers the bonus will win free registration to Category Romance: Writing Short for the Win, my August 4-29th email class on crafting your very first category romance where we really dive into how to make the magic happen. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll have random-org draw a name and post it at the end of the comments — so check back then, because class will start soon!

About Juliette

Juliette Hyland has written more than twenty-five books for Harlequin/Mills & Boon, Imprints of Harper Collins. She's given workshops around the country, in person and via Zoom, on writing craft. Her favorite topic of all time is writing tropes - she always finds ways to sneak it into conversations. Her favorite question for authors - why? 

You can find Juliette here:

• Website: www.juliettehyland.com
• Facebook:  www.facebook.com/authorjuliettehyland
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/juliettehyland/
• Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/16954530.Juliette_Hyland

Top image by Juliette Hyland via Depositphotos and Canva.