Writers in the Storm

Heather Webb

You’ve been DYING to hear back from that critique partner, editor, agent, friend. You stalk your inbox. When the document finally arrives, you break into a sweat. What if they HATED everything? Then you think, naaah. That’s not possible. Your pages are so shiny you’ve gotta wear shades just to read them. So you open your manuscript with confidence only to find the page is bleeding, okay, SPURTING red ink. How do you deal with the mountain of criticism?

Most of us fall into one of these four categories:

THE SELF-DEPRECATING SNIVELER
If you’re this writer, you implode when you receive feedback. You’re paralyzed for days, weeks even, because you’re nothing but a phony anyway–the one who barely calls themselves a “Writer”. You don’t have any talent and now the critique has just proven that. You have a meltdown (possibly in public, though let’s hope not).

THE PROACTIVE SUPERHERO
You ponder the comments for twenty-four seconds and then pull on your revision cape and x-ray grammar mask. You attack your manuscript with force, adapting everything. The critiquer must be absolutely dead on, right? You thank your reader and tell them they’re the smartest person on the planet. Your savior!

THE ANGER-MONGERING INFIDEL
You’re insulted by the comments. WTF does this person know about your research, your characters, your method of madness? What do they even know about writing? Nothing! Not only that, but they don’t even have the experience you do. You tell that ingrate how massively intelligent you are, how stupid they are. You even consider degrading their reputation all over the internet so that others won’t be foolish enough to seek their help. (I doubt anyone will admit to being an anger-mongering infidel, but denial ain’t a river in Egypt.)

THE YODA
You read the feedback and calmly digest it. It flows over you, through you, and the important pieces stick to your subconscious. You digest it for as much time as it takes and make notes on how to fix the issues. Next you attack the draft with newfound wisdom and inspiration. You send thanks to your beta reader and offer something in return. GAME ON.

Recognize yourself in any of these categories? Once you know your strengths and weaknesses, you may better be able to shape and reshape the kind of writer you’d like to be. Knowledge is power. So what do you do with that knowledge?

CONSIDER THESE WORDS OF WISDOM

1. GROW A THICK SKIN. It doesn’t matter how you process feedback, this is essential in the biz. Period.
2. TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS. Don’t assume you’re inferior and that your critiquer knows everything. It’s your book, your characters, and your style after all. On the flip side, don’t disregard advice entirely just because you think someone doesn’t “get you”. There is ALWAYS something to learn. Always. Even if you’re Stephen King or J.K. Rowling or Phillipa Gregory. If nothing else, the feedback sheds light on how the manuscript affects readers.
3. EMBRACE YOUR IDIOSYNCRACIES, but aim high! Work toward THE YODA. Ultimately it will make the writing and editing process more enjoyable.
4. LET IT MARINATE Give yourself proper digesting time—especially if there’s quite a bit of feedback to work through. Take on one piece at a time to avoid becoming overwhelmed. You will get there. You’ll shape your novel into something beautiful, with one word at a time.
5. TREAT CRITIQUERS WITH RESPECT. This is the golden rule. Someone has just spent hours of their time, paid or not, on your work. Their goal is to help YOU, the writer, improve both the story and your skills–not make you feel lousy. Don’t lash out, even if the feedback you receive is harsh. Show gratitude for their effort and be professional. You never know who that writer/editor/agent knows. The last thing you want to do is damage your reputation, thus your ability to sell books, because you were a hot head one day. Publishing is a small world, after all.

Tell us how you dealt with criticism and you'll be entered to win a signed copy of Heather's newest release, RODIN'S LOVER.

About Heather

Heather Webb writes historical novels for Penguin and HarperCollins,which have been translated to three languages and have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan magazine, France magazine, and Reuters News Book Talk. BECOMING JOSEPHINE follows the life and times of Josephine Bonaparte set to the backdrop of the French Revolution, and RODIN’S LOVER releasing Jan 27th, chronicles the passionate and tragic story of Camille Claudel, sculptor, collaborator, and lover to the famed Auguste Rodin. A FALL OF POPPIES releases in 2016. Heather is also a freelance editor and contributor to award-winning writing sites WriterUnboxed.com and RomanceUniversity.org. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

Steena Holmes

My house is quiet and I’m nursing a hot cup of coffee (my third actually) while staring at the screen and wondering what else I have left in me to write today. I don’t think there’s much. You see, last night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning working on some chapters that literally yanked my heart out of my chest and I haven’t quite recovered. Which isn’t a good thing because the story isn’t complete and I am on a tight deadline.

This is only my sixth novel where I’ve experienced this but I’ve learned something about the process I wish I had known back when I wrote my first book. I’m sure the more I write the more I’ll learn and I may discover a better way to experience the heartache but for now, it’s a process.

What process? Of realizing when to write those scenes that destroy me and when not to.

You’d think it would be simple right? It was when I wasn’t on a deadline, when I could write or not write whenever I wanted. If I needed to take time off from writing the next chapter, then okay … whatever it took. I heard of authors who took a year or more to write a novel so it must be okay. My first novel took six months to write. Now I average less than three months, although this one I’m working on now has been less than that thanks to poor planning on my part and the holidays just being here.

I’ve learned that I can’t write those scenes that are dark or painful while my kids are around. So that means on weekends or holidays or even at night before they go to bed. And if I wait until everyone is in bed and stay up for hours (like last night) then I need to make sure my family will not be home the following day either.

There’s a reason for this.

When I write a story about a woman whose marriage is falling apart because she can’t handle her grief, or about a woman so lost in her own mind that she can’t tell truth from reality, or if I touch on subjects dealing with abuse…I become those women. I am those characters in that moment while I’m writing about them. It’s my marriage that is falling apart, it’s my child that I’ve just lost, it’s my husband that was killed and my baby who died in my arms, I am the one reliving the memory of being raped…it’s hard for me to walk away, to close the screen and go back to my every day life as if what I’d just wrote didn’t matter. (I will always remember hearing Jodi Picoult tell an audience that she is able to do this and wondered what I was doing wrong because I couldn’t).

So you can image I’m an emotional wreck. I’m low, quiet, needing space, alone time in order to regroup. My husband once asked me if it was worth it – if the emotional toil was normal and worthy of my energy. Normal? I’m really not sure (if it is, and you go through this as well – I’d love to know how you handle it!) but worthy of my energy – absolutely. Writing these type of stories…it’s what fuels me. I face my fears as a woman, a mother, as a wife in these stories. It’s my happy place (as odd as that sounds) - when I feel the most fulfilled and energized and excited! Worth it? When I read reviews from people who believe that I must have gone through these experiences, that I write them as if I know first hand what it feels like…yes, it’s worth it to me as a writer. I’m always afraid that one day he’s going to ask me if it’s worth our marriage. I hope that day never comes.

There is an emotional toll, make no mistake about it. In order to write a story that comes from your heart (and every story should if you want to touch your readers hearts) then you have to be willing to go to that level. How everyone reacts will be different. I would love to be able to walk away after a scene and be fine – to be able to distance myself from my characters and not have it affect me so much. Maybe one day I will. But maybe by then, I’ll realize that I don’t want to. That this is the process that works for me.

In the meantime, I sit here, sipping my coffee (I should get a refill) and waiting for that boost of energy to open up my laptop where my story is stored (yes, I have a ‘writing’ laptop and a desktop computer where I do all my ‘other’ work – helps me to ‘switch gears’ when I need to.) If I wasn’t under such a tight deadline, I’d take a few days breather, enjoy the slightly warm weather, maybe make a cake for dessert tonight and just enjoy life. But I can’t – and so with my choice of profession comes discipline, and that means pressing on. Or as my mother would say suck it up buttercup.

How do you handle emotional scenes when you write?

About Steena

NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author

Growing up as a small town Canadian girl, there wasn’t much to do but ride your bike, hang out with friends on the beach and daydream. I always wanted to write but never dreamed it was something I could do as a career. I love to travel and fell in love with the sheep covered hillside, old castles and romantic history of Scotland and England. I dream about waking up in Tuscany and touring small town shops in the south of France with my husband, of placing my toes in the ocean and experiencing history first hand. As a mother with three daughters, I’m learning that teaching them to pursue their dreams is a lasting legacy. I love to wake up to the Rocky Mountains, will forever enjoy the taste of coffee and chocolate and can’t imagine the day when a story doesn’t unfold in my heart. Living a life with passion and pursuing dreams is a life well lived. Find her online at www.steenaholmes.com

Jamie Raintree

The beginning of the new year is always a great time to step back and reevaluate our routines. Sure, we all have resolutions and goals for the coming year (finally finishing that book probably being one of them) but if we continue to approach our goals and resolutions in the same way we did last year, we'll likely find ourselves on December 31, 2015 in the same position we're in now--no finished book, disappointed in how little progress has been made, or maybe even with a finished product but not very happy about what it took to get there. If the previous tactics haven't worked, it's important to continue trying new things until you find the best system for you.

I actually got a lot accomplished this year. I'm proud of the progress I made, even though there were some setbacks along the way. I'm the kind of person that tends to stick to my commitments to a fault--even the self-imposed ones. It's a great way to get things done but it isn't always the best way to be happy while doing it. Yes, productivity is great, but how meaningful is that progress if the stress of chasing our dreams sucks the happiness out of our daily lives?

Is there a way to have both--productivity and happiness?

This year I'm trying out a new routine myself and I thought I'd share it with you. Here are 4 steps to think about incorporating into your routine for happy productivity:

1. PLAN
The thing about planning is that even if you don't want to do it and don't like to do it, you still sort of have to. If you're not much of a planner, you might not recognize it as planning--it might show up as procrastination when you sit down at your desk to write as you try to figure out what to write next, how much you want to accomplish, etc. That's planning--it's just eating into your writing time now. Taking ten minutes to plan ahead of time--how much your want to write this week, which scene you want to write next, what might happen in that scene--will rescue your writing time because by the time you sit down, you'll be ready to go.

2. TRUST
Trust is not easy for me. I stay at home with my toddler and preschooler all day, every single day, without a relative in a fifty mile radius. I have a lot of anxiety around the idea of accomplishing my writing each day. I spend so much time worrying about whether or not I'm going to hit my goal today, and when, and what it might look like, that by the time I sit down to work I'm out of energy. I build it up in my head so much that it becomes an insurmountable task. This year, I'm adding in trust as a step to my routine--trust that the time will present itself and because I have a plan, I'll be ready to jump on it when it happens.

3. FORGIVE
That being said, some days it still just isn't going to happen. I know a lot of us have the habit of beating ourselves up about the days that life gets in the way or we're just flat tired and can't connect with our creativity. The problem with resenting ourselves about it is that we drag that into the next day's writing and then the day after that. Especially if that resentment prevents us from writing for days on end and it grows into this monster on our shoulders. Life happens. So does writing. Forgiveness and going with the flow gives each days' writing a fresh start.

4. TRACK
Because writing a novel is such a long process, it's important to reward ourselves along the way for a job well done. Unfortunately, having a party for every 500 words isn't exactly feasible and a piece of chocolate for every 50 probably isn't advisable. Still, a daily pat on the back can spur us on to go at it again tomorrow. Rewarding yourself is not something to be ignored if you want your productivity to be happy productivity. The best reward I've found is tracking my progress. It could be something as simple as an X on a calendar to create the famous Seinfeld chain, writing down your word count in a notebook, or if you're visual like me, a pretty progress bar to keep track of the percentage completed. Find a way that gives you a little thrill at the end of the day and easily proves that your work today was meaningful. If you don't have your own way, I'm happy to share my Writing Progress Spreadsheet with you.

These are some steps that have already begun to make a difference in my productivity and happiness this year, but whatever works for you, don't let the New Year's excitement wear off before you take a look at your routines, assess them, and make them work for you. And may you have a fulfilling, prosperous, novel-filled year!

About Jamie

Jamie Raintree writes women's fiction about women searching for truth in life and love. She is currently working on revisions of her first novel in preparation for submission to publishers. In the meantime, she blogs about her journey toward a well-balanced life and a career in publishing--her struggles and successes along the way. She lives in Northern Colorado with her husband and two young daughters and is a Workshop Coordinator for the Women's Fiction Writers Association. Subscribe to her newsletter for more blogs, book news, and writer tools and other free downloads for dreamers. To find out more, visit her website below.

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