Writers in the Storm

Feeling Overwhelmed? You’re Not Alone.

I don’t know about you, but last year was a wild ride for me, and, I think, for a lot of writers. Between the tech shifts, ever-changing marketing demands, and the constant pressure to do more faster, it’s no wonder so many of us are feeling drained.

We’re constantly told we need to write faster, market harder, master new tools, and somehow still enjoy the process. It’s exhausting. And honestly? It’s not sustainable.

So, let’s try something different this year.

Instead of chasing the next big thing, let’s focus on writing more with less stress. No burnout. No guilt. Let’s build a simple, low-pressure plan to help get words on the page while keeping our sanity intact.

Step 1: Define Your “Enough”

One of the biggest causes of overwhelm is the feeling that we’re never doing enough.

We see other writers publishing five books a year, running TikTok empires, and launching massive newsletters. Meanwhile, we’re just trying to get a few words down between life’s demands.

Here’s the truth: You don’t have to do everything.

Even those people we’re looking up to and watching don’t do everything!

Remember: we only see snapshots of other people’s lives. Likewise, they only see snapshots of ours. That TikTok influencer may struggle with cooking healthy meals or getting enough sleep, but we rarely see that part.

I’ve worked with authors who put out rapid-release books with great reviews, but who secretly longed to write something different, something closer to their heart. From the outside, they look successful, but inside, they’re not doing what they really want to.

I’ve coached authors who look great on social media, but who are so burned out and depressed, they’re struggling to write. They’ve drained their creativity tank on things that look good but that don’t meet their personal goals.

Before you even think about setting your goals, take a step back and ask:

What is “enough” for me this year?

For some, it might be finishing one book. For others, it could be writing three times a week or sending a newsletter once a month.

Your version of success doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. The moment we stop measuring ourselves against what other authors are doing, the weight of “not enough” starts to lift.

I have lofty goals for this year. I run multiple businesses, and I have goals for each one. Write more. Build the school. Publish more client books. The list could be endless.

But what is “enough” for me?

I want to find time to write and enjoy writing the stories I love, whether that means finishing them or not.

In my other businesses, I want to maintain the pace I have now. If I can grow them, great. But if they just continue as they are, that is “enough.”

Step 2: One Small Change at a Time

If you’ve ever tried to overhaul your entire writing routine in one go, you know how that usually ends—burnout and frustration.

Instead of aiming for a total reset, focus on one small shift at a time.

• Want to write more? Instead of setting a massive word count goal, start with 10 minutes a day. Or if a daily goal is too much, schedule a special time once a week to let your writer self come out to play.
• Feeling stuck on social media? Choose one platform you actually enjoy and let the rest go. When I talk to writers struggling with social media, I often find they’re trying to be some place they don’t want to be. You don’t HAVE to be anywhere. People are attracted to those who are having fun. If you aren’t having fun, you won’t succeed there anyway. So give yourself permission to be somewhere else.
• Struggling with marketing? Set aside one day a month to batch your content instead of trying to keep up daily. I have found this one particularly helpful.

Small changes lead to lasting habits. And lasting habits lead to progress that sticks.

Step 3: Set a Low-Stress Writing Rhythm

Somewhere along the way, we picked up the idea that “real” writers write every day and churn out books at lightning speed. That might work for some, but for many of us, it just leads to guilt. And—shock—guilt does not lead to productivity! Instead, it drains away our energy, which leaves us tired… and feeds the guilt monster.

Here’s the reality:

• Not every season is a high-output season. And that’s okay.
• Writing more doesn’t mean writing faster. Slow, steady progress still gets you to the finish line.
• Your best writing rhythm is the one that fits your life.

Maybe you write best in morning sprints. Maybe weekends are your time. Or maybe you need to embrace short bursts rather than marathon sessions.

Whatever it is, own it—without guilt.

I’ve coached writers dealing with huge life crises. The guilt they pile on themselves for things completely outside their control is stunning. They’d never criticize another writer for not writing during a disaster, but they DO criticize themselves.

Give yourself even more grace than you’d give your best writing friend.

If you’re going through something—and aren’t we all?—reward yourself with some writing play time. And then look at those words with joy.

Step 4: Build a “Stress-Free Writing Toolkit”

We often think of writing as just putting words on the page, but the environment we create around our writing matters just as much.

A stress-free writing toolkit can help you stay grounded and keep creativity flowing. Some ideas:

• A writing playlist that signals “it’s time to focus.” I have a few of them for different stories and moods.
• A designated writing space—even if it’s just a favorite chair. Or maybe a change of place. Going to a coffee shop, a beach, or a park can give you a sense of freedom and adventure.
• A list of “easy” writing tasks (brainstorming, outlining) for days when drafting or editing feels impossible.
• A low-pressure accountability group (or just a good bestie) where the goal is progress, not perfection.

Writing doesn’t have to feel like a constant uphill battle. Set yourself up for success by making it easier to start.

Let’s Make This Year About Sustainable Success

This year, let’s trade stress for sustainability. Burnout isn’t a badge of honor, and writing more doesn’t mean sacrificing everything else.

Here’s to more words, less stress, and a successful writing year.

What’s one small, low-stress change you’re making this year? Drop it in the comments—I’d love to hear your plan.

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 No Stress Writing Academy. She also runs Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image from depositphotos.

by James R. Preston

Across the electronic gulf in the early years of the twenty-first century the Writers in the Storm web page was likely being watched keenly and closely by intelligences searching for ways to improve their art and craft of writing.

With thanks and apologies to H. G. Wells, welcome to The Shadow Before, some thoughts on foreshadowing, and Mars. 

Heads

The beginning and ending link your story together. They help to make it a whole, instead of simply a series of incidents. And one of the strongest techniques for the first part is foreshadowing.

Let’s take a look at what foreshadowing is, what it can do for you, and why it’s so useful. 

An overview

• Foreshadowing is a narrative device where the storyteller gives advance hints and clues about what is to come later in the story.
• Foreshadowing most often appears early in a story. It helps develop the audience's expectations about upcoming events.
• Foreshadowing can show detail or it can explain the whole story.

When it doesn’t work, it’s often either too obscure or too heavy-handed.

Torso

Ready? Off to Mars, as envisioned by Robert A. Heinlein in 1949. 

From Red Planet

“The thin air of Mars was chill but not really cold. It was not yet winter in southern latitudes and the daytime temperature was usually above freezing. The queer creature standing outside the door of a dome-shaped building was generally manlike in appearance, but no human being ever had a head like that. A thing like a coxcomb jutted out above the skull, the eye lenses were wide and staring, and the front of the face stuck out in a snout. The unearthly appearance was increased by a pattern of black and yellow tiger stripes covering the entire head. The creature was armed with a pistol-type hand weapon slung at its belt and was carrying, crooked in its right arm, a ball, larger than a basketball, smaller than a medicine ball.”

A Caveat

Now before you start writing me to complain, I know this is not the real Mars. This is the Mars of Perceval Lowell and canals, where a dying race created enormous irrigation projects to move water from the poles to their cities. In real life it ain’t like that, but Red Planet was written over seventy years ago and as a story it works as well today as it did when Truman was President.

A brief digression will shed some light on this. 

In 1888 Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli announced that he had observed what he called canali on Mars, and drew a sketch. To Schiaparelli, these were purely natural features of the landscape. “Canali“ is Italian for channels. Translated into English, the word became “canals,” Lowell believed it, and the rest is history. 

Some analysis

Let’s take Heinlein’s opening apart and see how in a few sentences the Grand Master sets up the whole book. 

• It’s cold, but not winter so it’s going to get colder.
• The helmet has tiger stripes, so residents decorate their headgear.
• There is air, just not much. You can go outside with a respirator.
• There are Martian natives.
• And the hero is carrying a weapon.

Those are basically the important  story elements of Red Planet.

In this case foreshadowing works well; it sets the reader’s expectations. When changes turn up, like being trapped outside at night to freeze to death, they don’t come out of the blue to break the narrative flow, nor does the writer have to stop to explain what’s happening. 

Foreshadowing across multiple books

Working on this essay, I realized that foreshadowing can stretch across a whole series. In One For the Money Janet Evanovich opens with “There are some men who enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me—not forever, but periodically.” And that’s it, the heart of one of the most famous series of thrillers ever. 

Prologue

Ok, here’s another famous one, from The Bard himself. 

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

That’s right, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet opens with direct foreshadowing of the entire tragedy. 

Shapes of the Shadow

Just as shadows are longer in the afternoon, foreshadowing comes in different degrees, and the examples in this post illustrate that.

• Heinlein sets up the elements of the story — climate, aliens, weapons.
• Shakespeare encapsulates the whole story.
• Evanovich lays the foundation for over twenty novels.

When you think about your “Heads,” think about how much you want to reveal, and should it be background or plot? Here’s some free advice: most of us should avoid telling the whole story up front. That requires enormous skill. 

Too Much is — Too Much.

A personal rant. Note that I have filed off the serial numbers to make this next example unrecognizable. I have a policy of not criticizing work by name. In reviews of course I do, but this is different and I don’t want to distract from the message. Ok. Here’s the opening of the story.

Our young, talented Hero who is going steady with a really nice young woman, meets the slinky Bad Girl, ditches his girlfriend, and destroys his talent while he’s having a good time. Yikes. I got that far and bailed.

You see the rest of the story, too, don’t you?

At the last minute he comes to his senses and . . . Ok, l could be wrong, but I was not motivated to invest the time to find out. If foreshadowing is too heavy-handedly applied, your reader will think she knows the story and quit reading. 

. .  . And Tails

Or tales. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

Kids who are bullied learn to watch for shadows coming up behind them on the playground because it may be the neighborhood bully looking for lunch money. Many readers have learned to keep an eye out for early clues, and writers have learned to provide that shadow.

Ignoring famous pitcher Satchel Paige, who said, “Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you,” we have come from the sands of a Mars that never was (but should have been IMHO) through Trenton to ancient Verona, looking at shadows. Teenagers with alien friends, star-crossed lovers, all their stories benefitted by the shadow before. 

The best way to learn this part of the writing craft is by studying examples, and that's where you come in. Do you have a "favorite shadow?" Have you created one? Now’s your chance to tell us about it in the comments!

About James

James R. Preston is the author of the multiple-award-winning Surf City Mysteries. He is currently at work on the sixth, called Remains To Be Seen. His most recent works are Crashpad and Buzzkill, two historical novellas set in the 1960’s at Cal State Long Beach. Kirkus Reviews called Buzzkill “A historical thriller enriched by characters who sparkle and refuse to be forgotten.” His books are collected as part of the California Detective Fiction collection at the University of California Berkeley. 

Find out more about James at his website.

Top photo purchased from Depositphotos.

by Selene Grace Silver

Developing unique characters is the most important thing a writer does, especially in genre fiction. Characters shape the action and trajectory of a story. They make the reader and audience care about the story. And, ultimately, they make a story unforgettable.

When we read Pride and Prejudice, we don’t imagine what it’s like to fall in love with someone we don’t like at first sight; we imagine what it’s like to be Elizabeth Bennett falling in love with Mr. Darcy, or to be Darcy trying to earn Elizabeth’s love.

Why Use Personality Theory?

Researchers tell us that reading fiction helps people develop empathy. Readers don’t develop empathy by solving the mystery, falling in love, or going on an adventure. They develop empathy by connecting with characters and living the story through those character’s experiences.

Creating memorable characters requires developing their personalities deeply and widely. Listing a character’s physical attributes and exploring their backstories and emotional wounds helps us describe them and understand their motivations, but doesn’t necessarily help us show their actions on the page. 

Fortunately, using personality theory with its well-documented traits is a fantastic way to bring our characters to life on the page.

The 16 Personality Types

Based on the Myers-Briggs theory and originally developed from psychologist Carl Jung's turn-of-the-century work on extroversion vs. introversion, these types are the most dynamic system for understanding personality traits and how they manifest in people and in characters.

Professional psychologists study and develop personality theory from extensive observation and research. Versions of Myers-Briggs theory get taught in university courses. Corporations and the military use it to determine job placement for new hires and recruits. Writers use it to create characters.

The Basics of Personality Theory

Before we explore using personality theory to develop characters, it’s important to understand two important words underlying it: tendency and preference.

The 16 personality types are scored on a spectrum. Classification depends on how someone tends to be. Of the hundreds of individual traits, a single person can exhibit all of them at some time or another, depending on where they fall on the spectrum. The theory asserts that some types prefer to be punctual more than other types, not that tardy types are incapable of arriving on time for their own wedding. Also, personalities, like tendencies and preferences, can change for an individual as they mature. The flexibility of the system actually makes it the best theory for shaping authentic fictional characters and their arcs.

The Paired Traits

The 16 Personalities/Myers-Briggs theory combines four sets of paired traits on a spectrum from low to high to produce 16 unique types:

• Extroversion vs. Introversion: how a person tends to interact with the world socially.
• Sensing vs. Intuition: how a person tends to gather evidence to make important decisions.
• Thinking vs. Feeling: how a person tends to value specific types of evidence.
• Perceiving vs. Judging: how a person tends to resist or embrace decision-making.

Those traits are then represented by the associated letters. For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is an ENFJ—favoring extroversion, intuition, feeling, and judging, while Mr. Darcy is an ISTJ, favoring introversion, sensing, thinking, and judging.

Most people slide one way or the other in each category.

Introverts vs Extroverts

Some people tend to be extroverts, meaning they are happiest when around other people in social situations, while others tend to be introverts, meaning they are happiest when alone or around only a few people at a time.

Extroverts can still like reading a book, but they’ll tend to talk about the book with other readers before, during, and after. Introverts can enjoy large social gatherings like family reunions, but they’ll tend to be the first going home at the end of the night.

Sensing vs Intuition

When faced with a decision, an individual who tends toward sensing asks for other people’s opinions—sometimes a lot of other people’s opinions—before they make up their mind. An individual tending towards intuition is more inclined to follow their instincts when they make decisions.

Thinkers vs Feelers

Thinkers place greater value on facts and objectivity, while feelers place more importance on emotions.

Perceivers vs Judgers

Perceivers are slower to make decisions, preferring to keep their options open, while judgers prefer to make quick decisions before moving on. Judgers also have fewer regrets if the decision turns out to be a poor one.

Other considerations

As we mature, we often become less extreme, and even, on occasion, slide across the middle to an opposing trait. An introvert, after years of working in a job that requires public speaking may cross over into extroversion. A feeler may eventually place more value on facts and logic after training to be a critical thinker.

All of these traits can be applied to our characters’ development as they act and react throughout our stories. Matching a character up with one of the 16 types helps us create recognizable but complex characters, not unlike the people we know in the real world.

Six Ways to Use Personality Theory to Create Better Characters

1. Expand & Deepen the Characters’ Personality Traits

The 16 personalities do a deep dive into important aspects of human life: individual strengths and weaknesses, relationships, work, responses to stress, decision-making strategies, career choices, etc.

For example, Elizabeth Bennet is extroverted and highly social, witnessed by her enjoyment at dances. Her passionate desire to marry for love demonstrates her preference for feelings over ideas. She is intuitive, trusting her instincts about Darcy and Wickham, even when her sister Jane warns her against making rash judgements. Only when presented with indisputable facts about both men’s actions is Elizabeth willing to revise her initial judgements.

2. Avoid All-Good & All-Bad Characters

Because the 16 personalities identify both positive and negative traits for each personality, using their descriptions helps a writer build more complicated characters. Elizabeth tends to be overly idealistic, and that negative trait makes it difficult for her to understand initially why her friend Charlotte would marry the horrible Mr. Collins. She is also condescending towards Darcy, another negative ENFJ trait, mocking him after his stinging comment about her not being attractive enough to entice him into dancing.

3. Assign Each Character Consistent, Authentic Actions

It’s one thing to say an ENFJ wants to create a positive impact on the world, but sometimes difficult to figure out how that trait reveals itself in her actions and reactions. But at various times, Elizabeth enjoys seeing her efforts pay off by standing back to witness and appreciate both her friend Charlotte’s contented life and her sister Jane’s renewed romance with Bingley. The fact that Darcy actively helps Elizabeth achieve her sister’s happiness only reinforces her change of heart about his core values.

4. Tie the Protagonist’s Wound or Misbelief to Their Weak Traits

ENFJs also like to right every wrong. This tendency leads Elizabeth into believing Wickham’s lies about how Darcy wronged him. It blinds her to Wickham’s duplicity, convincing her that her instincts about Darcy must be right, further strengthening her prejudices. Elizabeth’s already deep resentment towards society’s rules about marriage is irrevocably connected to her personality type, and even moves her to reject Darcy’s first proposal.

5. Enhance the Character Arc

One of the best things about the 16 personalities system is that it’s not static. People develop and evolve, moving towards the center of each spectrum as they become older and wiser. Feelers learn to place increasing value on facts and to consider them fairly instead of reacting emotionally to stressful situations.

Elizabeth learns to do this when Darcy discloses Wickham’s true nature with facts about the villain’s predatory nature with young women. Knowing how the opposing descriptors work and exhibit people’s personalities helps writers persistently move their characters from an unhealthy extreme on the spectrum to a more moderate one, and in Pride and Prejudice, allows Elizabeth to experience her true feelings for Darcy.

6. Choose Complementary/Contradictory Personalities for Rivals and Lovers

Jungian psychologists theorize that people are attracted to similar personalities in their friends—we can hear the extroverts screaming “let’s party!” while the introverts think “let’s not”—and are attracted to opposite personalities in their partners.

Darcy is attracted to Elizabeth’s extroverted, charming personality and her confidence. He is an introvert, a thinker, and slow to trust his instincts about Elizabeth. As an ISTJ, Darcy is nearly Elizabeth’s exact opposite. The only trait they share is being judgmental. Readers witness this trait expressed in Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth, in which he lists every reason he should not marry her, analyzing and then passing judgement on Elizabeth’s suitability to be his bride. Elizabeth reacts emotionally with her own scathing judgement over Darcy’s cold, arrogant attitude.

Ancient Greek philosophers encouraged us to Know Thyself

If you’ve never taken a Myers-Briggs or equivalent test, free tests and resources about the theory and the 16 types are easily found online. The challenge is to answer the questions quickly and honestly, resisting the urge to choose answers that are still aspirations.

One of the best sites, https://www.16personalities.com/ offers a free basic test and explanations of the different types. The site also maintains a growing database of articles and surveys on personality traits. In addition, the researchers behind 16 Personalities have further expanded the types, tagging each with assertive and turbulent classifications to address how optimism and pessimism can affect each personality type.

Do you use Myers-Briggs when you're developing your characters? What tools do you love to use for characterization?

Want to learn more? Next Monday, Selene begins an online class called "Build a Romance Blueprint in Four Weeks," where she will cover the nuts and bolts of using the 16 Character Types for your stories.

About Selene

Selene Grace Silver resides near the beach in Southern California with her romantic Scottish husband. Trained to read and write literary fiction, she never quite abandoned her early love of the romance genre.

After 20 + years teaching English, writing, and literature at the high school and college levels, she’s retired to write fiction full-time. She’s had to adjust her writing style and craft to suit genre fiction, which includes learning to plot and write complex characters. For Selene, an INFJ, writing is a journey of constant self-improvement. She occasionally teaches online, including the upcoming Orange County Romance Writers’ class Build a Romance Blueprint in Four Weeks.

To read a short prequel to the small-town beach romance series she’s developing, sign up for her newsletter. She’s also on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Featured photo purchased from Depositphotos.