Rachael Herron's Blog, page 15

Ep. 167: Podcasts I Love – Bonus Mini-episode

Rachael took a flight and listened to three podcast that may change the whole way she lives (and she loves that!). She shares them here. 

Food, We Need to Talk, all episodes

Ten Percent Happier, episode #221

The Happiness Lab, Mistakenly Seeking Solitude

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 167. This is a bonus episode and I’m fearing off the rails today. I am not going to answer a question, but if you’ve submitted one, they’re all still in the queue. I will get to them. You can ask me any questions if you’re a Patreon at the $5 level or above. 

But today, I really wanted to talk about some podcasts that I heard the other day. If you’re watching on YouTube, you can see that I’m in a hotel room. I’m in Austin. I was at these stories shop summit conference. It was lovely. And getting here, I spent some time on the plane, not reading, not working, but plowing my way through a few of the podcasts that I listened to. And I had one of those wonderful couple or three hours in the air. Austin is far from California, I found out. Listening to some shows that kind of blew my mind and I kind of wanted to share them with you because they gave me a lot of new stuff to think about. They are not about writing; they are just about kind of living in general. I will go ahead and list these over http://rachaelherron.com/blog  I’ll list the links because my podcast’ place is broken. It won’t take comments or leave comments and I’m really irritated about it. So you can just go to http://rachaelherron.com/blog when you listen to this, and I will put the links in there. The first one I listened to is something that, my girl friend Nicole Peeler told me about, and it’s called Food, We Need to Talk. And it is from WBUR, NPR, the people who bring you Radio lab. So it’s that kind of production and it is a conversation between two scientists about food and how we think about it. 

[00:02:13] I have been recently inspired by the rather annoying book called Intuitive Eating, which I didn’t want to read, and I’m still irked by. Because it flies in the face of the things that I have believed that, you know, I should cut out all sugar forever and I should be eating low carb because that’s what my body likes. This book argues something a little bit differently and this is kind of what they’re exploring on this podcast, is the idea – challenge the idea that there’s good food and bad food. I’m very good at falling into the idea that, you know, kale is good, morally and cake is bad morally. When I eat kale, I’m a good person. When I eat sugar, I’m a bad person. It’s really internalized in my system and it is for a lot of people especially in America, in the United States. So I’m really enjoying the podcast. It’s only, it’s short. It’s like, you know, 20-minute hit. And it talks about, some mindfulness about when we’re eating, the podcast and the book. Talk about that they are not linked in any way, but intuitive ideas; intuitive eating is kind of the idea behind it. And I was talking to my friend Jay Thorne on the Writers Well recently about how I was reading this book. And then I went to my silent meditation where they fed us three times a day. They fed us delicious vegetarian food, even though I’m not a vegetarian, and we were being mindful about it and I would take a bite. We’re encouraged to put down the fork, think about the bite. All the things that we don’t do in real life.



[00:04:00] We just don’t have time where, you know, you shoving a taco bell burrito in our mouth as we’re driving to the next appointment or to pick up the kids or whatever, and being mindful really did something to my brain and that I could feel my body filling up. I could feel my hunger getting faded and it was a lovely feeling. I want to point out that, I am an overeater in a lot of different kinds of ways, and I’m not going to ascribe good or bad to that. I, but I am going to say that that overfull feeling is something that I feel a lot and I don’t like it. It gives me heartburn and, and, it’s not a comfortable feeling. I went to the movies last night and I ate my face off with smothered fries. And afterwards I was like, Oh my God, could I have stopped? I don’t know. Should I have? I don’t know. But these are things that I am exploring. Sugar is something I do try to keep out of my diet because it can trigger migraines and generally makes me feel like crap, but there’s a time for sugar. There really is. It’s a celebratory thing. I really feel like for me it’s an addiction and it is a place to numb myself. I can sit down with a pint of ice cream and really affect my mood system. My, my emotional weather in my body I can affect that by eating sugar. But the whole point in my life right now, well, not the whole point, but a point of my life right now is to affect my life in a positive way by doing things that are good for me. And, or staying in the moment, including with the feelings that don’t feel good. If I don’t feel good for very many years before I quit drinking and using whatever drugs I was using, I always had a way to affect my emotional system and that is my default go to. If I don’t feel good, I reached for something that makes me feel better. And I’m trying to learn better ways to do that, that are more sustainable. I would like this body to continue to live healthily and strongly for a long time. That is a goal. So these are things I’m thinking about. I’m not fixing anything. I’m not changing much. But I am thinking, and I thought that you might like the podcast. I do apologize for any noise on the echo-y sound that is in here. I don’t have my normal podcasting microphone ‘cause I forgot it. So, and the maid is vacuuming in the room next door. So that is what is happening. 



[00:06:43] Another thing that I listened to on the way here was the Ten Percent Happier episode #221, which was called, “All Your Sleep Questions, Answered. Ten Percent Happier episode #221 is pretty recent, “All Your Sleep Questions, Answered.” Dr. Matthew Walker wrote the book, Why We Sleep, and it has been one of those that I have been waiting from the library to read for forever. I think I’m 4000th on the list. I could just buy it. Maybe I should, but I listened to this podcast and it was wonderful and it made me challenge a lot of things. In fact, I am going to buy the book and maybe read it on plane home. Maybe challenge some things that I should do. We all know how we should be sleeping. We have heard the stats, we know what they look like, but he provided some insane statistics about how we affect our health and mentality and happiness and, all the systems, everything is a system and all the systems connect. And when our sleep is affected, even by an hour a day, it really screws us up. And he was arguing in a very polite and kind though terrifying way that we really do start going to bed every night at the same time, getting up at the same time. I have never been able to do that, especially when I was working for 17 years on a graveyard shift or a 24 or 48-hour shift. I slept when I could get it. Many of those 17 years, I was on a 12 on, 12 off. I would set my body clock to be up all night for the days I was working, and then I would be up like normal people and sleeping at night for my days off. So I was jet lagging myself 12 hours a week, every week. It was one of the most, that was one of the –

the worst things you can do to your body. It’s classified actually as carcinogenic. So I am glad that I’m not doing that anymore, but I do feel like I have a lot to make up for and damaged my body for a long time that way, and I’d like to try to work on fixing it. So I’m saying this to you now, my best days are when I get up at 5:30 and I either do my movement, my yoga, or swimming or whatever it is, and meditate, or I go to my early morning 6:00 AM recovery meeting and follow that with meditation and or movement. Those are my best days. That’s when I get my most words written. I am done writing by 10 you know, I’ve gotten everything that I really need to do and then the rest of the day can be for business or for screwing around or whatever it is. 

[00:09:31] Those are my best days. I am going to –  here I’m saying it, I’ll get back to you in a couple of weeks, as to how it’s going. I’m going to start getting up at 5:30 every day because on Tuesdays, I get up at 4:30 AM so I can run the 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM Tuesday Write-in, which, if you’re interested in joining go to www.rachaelherron.com/Tuesdays. Or Tuesday? one of the other –  one of those (www.rachaelherron.com/Tuesday) and it is the most fun thing ever writing with people that early in the morning or wherever you are in your time zone. So one morning weekend you need to get up at 4:30 that’s fine. All the other mornings a week, I need to get up at 5:30. Because on the weekends I’m often sleeping until 9:30 or 10:30, there is a five-hour jet lag, a five-hour difference, and in the podcast it goes really into detail about how doing that on the weekends can really screw with the internal workings of our bodies and our brains. Not in a good way, so I’m going to try it and see how I feel. I am excited about this. It requires a couple of changes. It means that I’m going to have to eat dinner earlier than my wife who doesn’t know this yet, because I’m still in Austin. Because she often gets home at 7:30, and if I’m going to be going to bed at 8 or 9 to get up at 5:30 and try to get that optimal 7 to 9 hours of sleep, including time falling asleep. I need to go to bed early and I do not like to eat dinner right before I go to bed. That isn’t, Ooh, it doesn’t make me feel good. The other thing I’m going to miss is snuggling.



[00:11:09] I’m a big snuggler. I love to sleep in, in the mornings. The reason I sleep-in in the mornings is because my wife and I are such good spooners and we’re so cuddly and it’s just one of my favorite things to do is just snuggle in bed and drift in and out of sleep, and I have solved problems. I have solved both of these problems when my wife eats dinner, I will have a nice cup of tea or a sparkling soda or sparkling water with her and sit at the – dinner time for us is really important. We sit and we talk about the day every day, so I’m still going to do that. I’m just not going to eat with her. And the other thing can be solved with a text. She often sleeps in on the weekend even later than I do. And she can text me when she gets up and I’ll go into the bedroom and cuddle. And in the meantime, I’m getting maybe a bunch of work done or maybe some reading done on the weekends in this beautiful window of time that I’m generally sleeping through. I’m going to try it. I ordered myself a sleep tracker, which I have never used. I didn’t want to find out, kind of how my sleep changes, what it looks like if I’m getting enough. So I don’t know. It’s pretty exciting. I’m also going to commit more fully to meditating every day. I’m pretty good at meditating often, but if you do it every day, studies show that the average meditator falls asleep 40 minutes faster. And for me, a person who usually takes an hour to 90 minutes in order to get to sleep, 40 minutes faster sounds really good to me. The other thing that he says that I’m really struggling with on this podcast is that the bed should be just for sleeping, you know, and all sex. But, just for sleeping. And I love reading in bed. You’ve heard me say it before. I love reading in bed. If I can spend a whole day in bed reading, I’m in heaven and I always read in bed for an hour or two before I go to sleep. So I’m going to try also to move reading into the living room or into my office some places cozy that I can curl up and try using bed just for sleep. It said to work better. I don’t know. I would love your comments over at www.rachaelherron.com/blog on whether any of these things have worked for you or if you’ve given them a real try or if you listen to the podcast, Ten Percent Happier episode #221, tell me what you think about that. And if you’re gonna change anything. These are going to be experiments for me. You know, I love experimenting on myself, so I’m excited about this.



[00:13:45] The last one that I’m going to mention is the happiness lab, which is a podcast you should be listening to. And I was listening to; Mistakenly Seeking Solitude and put really quickly, this podcast shows that almost to a person, we all think we do not want to connect with the person next to us on the bus or in the line or at school or in places where we would talk to kind of strangers and this says that we all feel that way and we are all wrong. The Happiness Lab as a podcast its really about the way we think we’ll be happy, and proving that human beings as a whole do not understand what will make us happy. We think it is one thing, it is reliably something else that they document and I listened to Mistakenly Seeking Solitude and to me, talking to a stranger on a bus or on a plane is my idea of hell. Oh my gosh. I tried to avoid Lyft and Uber rides as much as possible because I don’t want to connect. But I landed in Austin after listening to the podcast with this episode still really fresh in my mind, and it changed everything for me about this conference. I wasn’t hiding, I wasn’t allowing myself the introv-  introversion that I prefer. I made myself talk to Lyft drivers and two people in the lobby and two conference attendees that I normally would have kind of tried to skirt by and avoid because I am truly, a secret introvert. And instead I went up to them and said, “I don’t, I don’t know anybody here. I don’t know many people here. Tell me about yourself.” And I had the best conversations. I had the best time. I ended up in places I did not expect to be in conversation and actually physically, because of these, cause I’m putting myself out there like that and it gave me happiness. It gave me these really sweet burst of dopamine.



[00:15:39] So I would recommend listening to that. Also, the Happiness Lab Mistakenly Seeking Solitude. And I think if you’re listening to a podcast, you are like the rest of us podcast junkies. Not only are you a writer, that’s why you listen to this one, but you are also trying to improve your life and podcast listeners have that over some people who go through the same day, groundhog day every day without thinking new thoughts, without trying new actions, without getting under the hood of our bodies and our brains and our spirits. So I recommend these podcasts. Go check them out. Feel free to come over to www.rachaelherron.com/blog and tell me what you have been listening to and loving lately. And thanks for listening to this bonus episode.

 I wish you happy writing. And we will talk soon my friends.

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 167: Podcasts I Love – Bonus Mini-episode appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 166: Nancy Richardson Fischer Share the BEST Tip for Ensuring Scene Flow

Nancy Richardson Fischer is the author of two YA novels, When Elephants Fly, and The Speed of Falling Objects, which published in October 2019. She’s also written multiple sport autobiographies and Star Wars books for LucasFilm. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband Henry and their Vizsla, Boone.

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing.

Transcript

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 166 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. Totally thrilled that you’re here. Today, we are talking to the charming Nancy Richardson Fischer, and she is going to share with us literally the best tip for ensuring scene flow. I’d never heard this tip. It’s brand new to me. It got me really excited. I bet it’s going to get you excited. So stay tuned for that fabulous interview with her.

So what’s going on around here? Well last week, there was no interview portion of the show because I was away at a silent meditation retreat. It’s my second. I went to the first one last year and it was wonderful. It was so good that I mourn that I’m not there now. I mourn than that I’m not in silence, eating gorgeous meals that are prepared for me and just waiting when I go to the dining room, it’s just wonderful. It is literally the best. It’s also kind of stressful. I admitted over on the writers well with Jay, I think that podcasts might not go out until next week, so I can admit it to you here first that I did try to sneak in a Kindle. I mean, I did sneak in a Kindle, it’s not like they have security dogs coming for your electronic devices. Thank God I turned in my phone. No problem. But I kept my Kindle and I know that you’re not supposed to have books or reading material, but I thought to myself, I’m reading, Pay Show John, I am reading about meditation’s stuff. And the first night I read and it felt really good to get out of my brain ‘cause I was already in inside myself doing meditation. We’d already had several hours of this and then went back to bed and read. On the next day, they had another time that you could renounce your devices or your books and they made me realize that I was paying a lot of money to be there for a meditation retreat. At which I didn’t want to be paying attention to anything, but what was happening in the present to my body and brain. And reading was keeping me from that. Reading, is always probably in my top three options of things to do, including like all things. So I’m never getting that up, obviously, but at that retreat I needed to, so I went and I turned it in and then I was alone with my brain, and it was painful and fun and really elating and dispiriting and disquieting and fabulous and all of those things.

So I loved it. I’m back. I’m going to do another one next year, maybe for seven days instead of, this was like four and a half days. So back from that, I just finished writing this months’ Patreon, which will go out soon, I guess when this air, when this airs, it’ll probably be out already and it’s really about the beautiful way that you have to corral your thoughts and your desires and your body not to fart at a yoga meditation retreat, because dude, they are feeding you Brussel’s sprouts, squash, beans, apricot, dried prunes, like their food is tremendous, but they’re like, ha-ha! Watch these sons of bitches try not to fart while they’re meditating and doing yoga in a dead silent room filled with a hundred people where the whisperer of a fart sounds like a clacks on. I managed it dear listener, I managed not to fart, in the big room. And although many, many didn’t… and my essay actually uses that as a beautiful metaphor. I had a really good time writing it. So that’s what I was doing today and yesterday.

Coming up, what’s going on? I am headed to Austin on Saturday to the story shop summit to which I was invited, very excited to speak there, and speaking on revision. And I’ve never been to Austin. So, that’s going to be fun back on yet another plane has been a very, very busy travel month. And in other exciting news, I am speaking this year at the career author summit in Nashville, which is going to be wonderful. That’s with my, partner in crime, Jay Thorne and Zach Bohannon, and it’s going to be wonderful. So if you’re interested in it, I think they’re sold out. But they might have a waiting list. They probably do have a waiting list and it’s going to be a good time. It’s in May and there’s some amazing speakers there. Some doing that, I don’t know if it’s official, but I’ll tell you anyway, cause really who is this going to leak out to? I got invited to do mink in Colorado, and whenever an ink is. I, I want to say September, but I can’t actually remember. And that was exciting enough. That was last week. That was like mind-blowingly awesome. I’m going to be speaking with like Beck. Oh, I think it is announced, because Becca had seen it with Becca Sime and, oh my gosh, who’s the other, I’m forgetting, and I’m not going to come up with these names right now. Mark Dawson. Sky Warren. Can’t remember the other person right now. So that was already mind-blowing. And then two days ago I was not feeling well. I think I was fighting a headache. I was lying in bed. It was like six o’clock at night, and we needed to go out and see my dad, who was in town for dinner, and I’m scrolling idly through email, which I was wildly behind in and I got an email. It was like the dream email. Y’all inviting me to be a keynote speaker at romance writers of New Zealand for their national conference this year. I’m going to be a speaker there, they are buying my plane ticket and buying my hotel rooms and they’re bringing me to New Zealand, which is no easy feat. It is so expensive to get there. I am a citizen of both countries, New Zealand and the United States, but I rarely get to back to my other country because it is so dang expensive to get there. And I’m very excited that I’ll be able to use my own New Zealand passport to get in ‘cause I’ve had citizenship. But getting a passport has been this whole pain in the arse. So, that’ll be so fun and I’m just, I’m really, really giddy about it. So my wife Lala will be able to go and we’re just gonna do a little quick vacation trip down. Down there. So I’m very excited. That’ll be right around the time that the paperback of Stolen Things is coming out too, which has an incredible cover and is available for preorder right now. So I don’t know, maybe I’ll be able to do some kind of signing or push for that while I’m there in the bookstore or something. So I’m pretty over the moon. That’s an email. I, I, I literally hurled my body out of the bed and ran to the keyboard to accept before they retracted the offer. Cause I really, really want to do it. And I’m very excited. So I’m really grateful and happy that I’m here and I get to do this, that I get to tell you about it, that your part of my community and that we hang out together in this way. On your car stereo or in your, in your headphones is really intimate. And to you, ASMR whisper, “Thank you.” Okay. That felt weird. I’m never going to do that again. No, no, no. Sorry about that. I find ASMR, which I do not react to very interesting. There might be a book in me about that at some point. 

Anyway, to business items of note, I would love to thank new patreons, Porsche Carrier and Maggie, darling Maggie Anne who upped her pledge to the point where she is a person who can ask me questions for those mini episodes. That’s the $5 level. Thanks to new patreon, Brianna Morgan and Tiffany. Thanks you all. It really means everything to me and it lets me, oh, you may want to cancel your pledge now, it lets me write essays about farting – not farting in meditation, silent retreat. So you all who are new to the Patreon enjoy the essay. 

Now we’re going to jump into the interview with Nancy. Please enjoy it and we will talk soon, my friend. 

Hey, you’re a writer. Did you know that I send out a free weekly email of writing encouragement? Go sign up for it at www.rachaelherron.com/write and you’ll also get my  Stop Stalling and Write PDF. With helpful tips you can use today to get some of your own writing done. Okay. Now onto the interview.

Rachael Herron: [00:09:05] While I could not be more pleased today to welcome to the show, Nancy Richardson Fischer. Hello Nancy! 

Nancy Richardson: [00:09:11] Hello! Thank you so much for having me. 

Rachael Herron: [00:09:12] I’m so excited to have you. Let me give you a little bit of a bio here. Nancy Richardson Fischer is the author of two, YA novels, When Elephants Fly, and The Speed of Falling Objects, which by the time this airs, we’ll be out at all vendors. She’s also written multiple sport autobiographies and Star Wars books for LucasFilm. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband Henry and their Vizsla, Boone, which is great name for a dog. Congratulations on the release of The Speed of Falling Objects. I was just reading what it’s about and it’s going right onto my Kindle to be read pile. I’ll have you talk about a little bit about what is about later. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:09:53] Okay. 

Rachael Herron: [00:09:54] But to start us off, it seems like you’ve been writing for a long time and you’ve done a lot of different things, but I would love to know how, now that you’re writing fiction like this, how has your process of all, what is, what is your process look like? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:10:09] Well, before, you know, I was writing someone else’s story. So when I wrote Squatter Scored Out of Bag of fees, there was someone else’s story. When I worked moving brothers’ circus, which was my first job, I was writing the stories of clowns or tight rope blockers or tuck keys artists, when I wrote for the University of California, San Francisco, I was writing great. So there was no creativity really there. So my process is changed because now it’s, it’s my story. It’s all up to me and I can just allow myself to go down the rabbit hole, ask what if, over and over again, hit dead ends, find my way back, and ultimately create a story that just comes from my imagination. 

Rachael Herron: [00:10:57] You might not be able to answer this, but do you think it’s more or less difficult to do it just out of your imagination? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:11:06] It maybe more difficult, but it’s way more compelling. 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:10] Really?

Nancy Richardson: [00:11:11] Yeah. Yeah, definitely. If it’s a great story, It’s up to me. If it’s, you know, not a great story, maybe that was because the athletes that I interviewed wouldn’t tell me anything, 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:22] Good point.

Nancy Richardson: [00:11:24] Or they, or they were so young that they didn’t have a really great story to tell yet. So now, you know, it’s up to me and I love that. 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:34] That’s so awesome. When do you get your writing done? What kind of writer are you? In the morning… 

Nancy Richardson: [00:11:39] In terms of like, what time of day? I’m a morning girl, so. I would usually get up maybe 5-5:30 have a quick breakfast, write for four hours. Then I have a Vizsla and they are in need, a ton of exercise and even though he’s 11 he needs a ton of exercise. If people are thinking about getting a Vizsla, you have to be a Vizsla. You have to be someone who doesn’t want to stop moving, which is me. So then I exercise Boone and my husband, usually we, we all exercise together. Go for a mountain bike ride, or we’d take her dog swimming and then I come back in the active unit and I edit whatever I’ve done. And usually in the evening I’ll send it to my Kindle, and I’ll read it on my Kindle just to see it a different way and then, you know, go to sleep and repeat.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:29] I love sending things to my Kindle, although I don’t usually do it until the book is done, and then I send it to my Kindle I spend a whole day in bed reading it, doing it that way. That’s super fun. And are you a plotter? 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:16] That works really well, although I get bored. I shouldn’t get bored. Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Nancy Richardson: [00:12:49] I am a planner in the sense I know the beginning and the end. I’m a pantser in the middle and I try and create a character who is dimensional enough that that character will then lead me a lot and surprise me along the way. But I don’t plot everything out in the middle. Middles are kind of the hardest to me. Really it’s where you create all of your arts. So, I just kind of go by feel and see where I lead. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:16] Woah, that’s awesome. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing?

Nancy Richardson: [00:13:22] Keeping my butt in the chair. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:24] Well, you did say that you’re a mover. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:13:27] I’m a mover. I think also it’s kind of lonely. Like I do something like this and I find myself really excited because I’m actually getting to talk to another person. It’s lonely. It’s lonely when you’re writing, it’s lonely when you’re, you know. If people don’t have an agent yet, I can totally relate to how that process is. You know, it’s lonely when your book goes out on sub because your agents with you. But really, you know, it’s you. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s you going out upset. It’s very personal and it’s lonely as you’re waiting for your pub date because you’re just hoping that somebody noticed this. Cause you know, there’s so many books out there and you stand out. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:08] Yeah. Yeah. So how are you handling that right now? Because as we talk. Your book release is coming up in about a week. How, how are you feeling emotionally? I’d love to hear that. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:14:17] Actually, you know, so I’ve only published two young adult books and I find each one, I’m a little depressed before it comes out. I don’t know why that is, 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:28] Interesting.

Nancy Richardson: [00:14:29] But I feel a little like down because I’m, how I’m scared that no one’s going to read it or like it or, or something like that. I’m keeping myself super busy doing a lot of, you know, Twitter and Instagram and doing different podcasts, so that’s a good thing. But always right before, seemingly like birthdays or things like that, I’m always glass half empty right before. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:58] I’m more glass half empty right after, that’s, that’s when I get the, like the book birthday blues or like the letdown. That’s where my emotions start to sink right there 

Nancy Richardson: [00:15:13] And I completely understand that. I think right after I start writing another book or I start editing another book, because…

Rachael Herron: [00:15:20] It’s crucial 

Nancy Richardson: [00:15:21] it’s way I can be saying while I wait to see if people are going to be mean or nice and write reviews or not write reviews. 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:27] It’s absolutely crucial. Yeah. I have finally gotten to the point in my career where I am not reading reviews on Amazon or any or good reads or anything like that. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:15:34] Oh, how did you do that? How did you do it? 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:37] I think it just takes time because I seriously heard an author say this when I was in maybe my first year of writing, and I remember looking at her and thinking, you must be lying. Like that is impossible. You must be lying. And I’m finally there that I just, I just don’t care anymore. I do. I do admit that I care about the star number. Like I’m- I look at the star number and I see how many reviews are there, and I look at the trade reviews, but otherwise I just, I just don’t believe any of them. I think I’m to that point. So. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:16:07] That’s where I want to be right now

Rachael Herron: [00:16:08] That’s good.

Nancy Richardson: [00:16:09] My husband was just saying, you have got to get to the point where your mood is not decided by whether someone didn’t like one of your characters or didn’t agree with the end of your book, but you’re writing and you’re writing a story for yourself because you have something to say, right? So also writing a story for other people because you have something to say and you’re hoping that it’s interpreted in the right way. And there’s no way to reach through the screen and say, “Hey man, you really need to give me three stars.” You don’t understand that. That my main character is a tool that helps my character on her journey. You don’t have to love him or you know. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:47] Exactly.

Nancy Richardson: [00:16:48] Oh, it’s maddening sometimes. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:50] Okay. That’s my wish for you then that that will just be like, you don’t care. You don’t care. Good or bad. Okay, so what is your biggest joy when it comes to writing?

Nancy Richardson: [00:17:01] I think when I lose myself in a story, I have this weird thing where when I’m writing and I’m really lost, the keyboard, you know, it’s like it sounds a little. I know that sounds bizarre, but it, I actually, my whole world feels like it’s tilted a little and all of a sudden it’s the end of the day and I’m so excited and I go to bed thinking about it and I wake up thinking about it. I have a new idea and I’m scribbling everywhere. And little post it notes. I mean, you can’t see my office. It’s behind you.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:33] I just looking at the nice white walls, yeah.

Nancy Richardson: [00:17:35] I got post its, and I’ve got whiteboards and I’m just going nuts trying to, you know, remember. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:42] Wow. I love the, I love that it’s actually a feeling of the keyboard tilting as it tips you into this alternate reality. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:17:50] It really is. Like what do you love the best about it? 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:53] I love exactly that. I love and, but for me being in flow, the fact that you’re in flow, you don’t know it until you’re out of it. It’s like meditation. You don’t know you’re, you’re in the flow of meditation until you’re out of it. So I love the feeling where I’m out of it. I’ve just come out of it and I look up at the clock on my computer and I think it’s probably been five minutes and it’s been 40 minutes. And that feeling of the contraction of time, because I’m hyper aware of time passing, always. I have this alarm clock, clock brain that if I set an alarm in the kitchen for 31 minutes. 30 minutes and 40 seconds, I’ll stand up and start walking towards the kitchen without knowing that 

Nancy Richardson: [00:18:31] That’s awesome!

Rachael Herron: [00:18:32] It’s a preternatural. It’s very strange. My wife just thinks I’m out of my mind, but, so that when I can lose time, when time loses that ticking in the back of my head up, that’s always there, it’s a beautiful feeling.

Nancy Richardson: [00:18:47] My god, it’s a gift. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:48] Yeah! It’s really cool. Now I want that keyboard tilt. That’s so cool.

Nancy Richardson: [00:18:51] And I want to know what time it is. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:53] I, if I open my eyes in the middle of the night, I always know within three minutes what time it is, and I always wake up before the alarm. It’s a, I have a clock brain. Yeah. Can you share a craft tip of any sort with us? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:19:08] Sometimes if I feel like a chapter is not coming together, I will take the first sentence of every single paragraph in that chapter and write one paragraph with them and see if it’s cohesive and if it makes no sense at all, I know somewhere I’ve lost my train of thought. Is that weird? 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:26] That is bizarre and so cool. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:19:29] I try it sometime with the chapter. It’s like. It’s kind of fun. And then you say, well, does this actually make sense or doesn’t it? And where did I lose my way? What sentence? And then I go back to that paragraph. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:41] Because sometimes you write a scene and you look back and you’re like, I don’t even know why did I go in a figure eight right there.

Nancy Richardson: [00:19:45] Exactly. Or I’ll take the last sentence from every chapter in an entire novel and you know, like 400 pages, and I’ll put that all together as a chapter. And I’ll read that and I’ll say, what sentence made me want to keep turning the pages and what didn’t? Like where did I lose my flow? 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:01] I absolutely love that and I am going to try that immediately.

Nancy Richardson: [00:20:08] Cool! I’d be really interested if you send me like a paragraph, what you come up with and where, where you see it in meeting you, 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:18] What do you do with dialogue? Is the dialogue all in there since it’s oftentimes like just one line? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:20:22] Yeah. If it’s, if the first sentence or the last sentence dialogue, then that’s, that’s what I’m stuck with, 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:27] Okay.

Nancy Richardson: [00:20:28] And it should still make sense. 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:36] Right, right, right, right, right. I have never heard anything like this and I love it. I’m going to try it. I’ll let, I’ll let you know how it go. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:20:42] Okay.

Rachael Herron: [00:20:43] All right. What thing in your life affects your writing in a surprising way?

Nancy Richardson: [00:20:53] I think, just being happy in my life affects it the most. I find that it’s not, it’s not surprising that moving into fiction and my writing career, where it is now, which is my happiest place in my writing career happened when I was married and settled down and felt safe and loved and comfortable. And that gave me the space to kind of dig into my own insecurities and fears and obstacles in my life because I use them in everything I write and I use them because I’ve just found that the more you share with people, the more you match with people and when you’re sharing on a really personal level, as much as you’re comfortable with, then your readers get that and understand that and you’re writing something that can affect them in a deeper way. So I would say the happier I am, the more vulnerable I am to be in my life. 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:52] I think that that is so true and I feel the same way. And I wonder what you would tell someone who was struggling in their personal life and trying to get writing done. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:22:04] I would say to share their struggles. Because people you care about you are willing to help you when you are really truthful about who you are and where you are in your life. And when you’re honest about those things I think you become a happier person just because, you’re unburdening yourself.

Rachael Herron: [00:22:25] Have you ever done the morning pages? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:22:27] No. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:28] It’s, Julia Cameron wrote a book in the 90s called the, The Artist’s Way, and her- one of the things she has everybody do is for 12 weeks you write three pages’ longhand in the morning, first thing, as soon as your eyes open kind of thing. And, and I’ve used them on and off as a tool throughout my life and sometimes on, sometimes off. Right now I’m off. But I realized that when, and you just write to remote stream of conscious, there’s no editing. It’s not actual writing, it’s just how you’re feeling, where you are and telling, you end up telling the truth to yourself and you end up seeing a lot of things that you wouldn’t have seen if you hadn’t been sharing it on the page. So I wonder if that, that could also be done on the page if somebody doesn’t have a person to talk to, or a place to share that. I always, I always noticed that in, when I do morning pages, I ended up changing, ‘cause I get so sick of listening to myself whine about whatever problem it is I’m trying to work through, you know? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:23:24] Right, right. I love that. I’m going to try that. 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:26] It’s, it’s beautiful. You haven’t done the Artist’s Way; you haven’t ever tried the 12 weeks’ program? It’s so cool. It’s kinda, it’s kind of mind blowing. Yeah. And then there’s other things, like a weekly artist date that you take with yourself and, yeah. It’s lovely. It’s lovely. It’s a little intense, but lovely. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:23:42] Yeah, I’ll definitely try it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:45] Cool. What’s the best book you’ve read recently and why did you love it? And maybe you wanna tell us about what we were talking about beforehand? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:23:53] Yeah, I’m reading the Institute. I’m a huge Stephen Payne fan. I think his ability to create characters that you really care about is, it blows my mind. You know, a lot of people just think, Oh, he’s a thriller write, no. He, he is a master at crafting characters that we care about late to empathize with. And this novel, the best one he’s done in so long. And not saying a lot because the stand and Salem’s lot and the gunslinger series and Shawshank redemption are, you know, some of my top books ever. So that same, a time for me. And then there are books I go back to like the Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.  

Rachael Herron: [00:24:43] I love that book so much. It’s one of my very favorites. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:24:48] Because everything you believe in the first book isn’t what’s true in the second book, right?

Rachael Herron: [00:24:53] It’s incredible. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:24:54] That’s so creative. I mean, a Jesuit mission to a foreign planet on an asteroid, and it’s so well written. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:03] And it’s about the characters. It’s about the characters. Yeah. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:25:06] Yeah. It’s the, And then I, you know, of course I read young adult novels as well. Like I go back to Jennifer Nevins’ All The Right Places, a lot of times because those two characters, Violet and Theo really made me realize how much you could care about these young adult characters that kind of inspired me Jim and Robin Rowe, who wrote a list of cages or two of my big inspirations for writing young adult novels.

Rachael Herron: [00:25:33] Oh, I love that you’re giving me to read. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:25:34] You know, I reread certain books too.

Rachael Herron: [00:25:37] You’re giving me so many books to read and I will read the Institute. It was a, I’m a friend of mine, Mariah, who told me like, I just never thought I liked Stephen King. I just didn’t like him and she told me to read, Dumas Key. And, oh my god. I know. And I’ve read three or four since then. And I basically ran around with that book telling people like, “Did you know? He’s a genius!” and he writes such simple pros. And it’s so deep and direct and, everybody’s like, “Yeah, Rachael, we knew we, we all knew.”

Nancy Richardson: [00:26:08] Yeah. Right. Try to stand the ‘Salem’s Lot. ‘Salem’s Lot is so, so, beautifully done.

Rachael Herron: [00:26:16] Really? Would you start there? or should I, should, I mean I’ve, I’ve read some, but would you do that first or the Institute? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:26:23] I’ll start with ‘Salem’s Lot,

Rachael Herron: [00:26:25] Okay. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:26:26] Then The Stand, then The Institute, and then I can’t remember how many enormous books it’ll take forever. It’s kind of like when you start and you try to gobble it out, 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:39] You’re committed. Yeah, absolutely.

Nancy Richardson: [00:26:40] It’s gonna be a year. And you want to keep going cause you don’t want to forget. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:46] Exactly. I read them when they came out, like, you know, every, every year or so. So, or no, she was slow. I think I remember three or four years, so I never knew what was going on.

Nancy Richardson: [00:26:55] Have you read all of them? Design or read the last three because I need to go back

Rachael Herron: [00:26:59] I haven’t read the last two or three. Yeah, I just kind of, I kinda gave up. Plenty aside about that. I, I was talking to my wife and she asked me what romance should I read? And I said, you should read Outlander. And so she chose to listen to it on audio and she had this long commute at the time, it was an hour and a half of each direction. And she said she stopped and about halfway in the book, she liked the book a lot, but, but three or four days into one single sex scene, she was like, I cannot do it anymore. Apparently, when you listen to the sex scenes in those books cause they’re so long too. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:27:34] They’re’s so long. But I have to say, of any writers, she writes the best sex scene I ever read in my life.

Rachael Herron: [00:27:39] Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Nancy Richardson: [00:27:41] Who would think you could back read for a probably 10,000 pages of total books?

Rachael Herron: [00:27:45] I know, I know. She’s awesome. Yeah. Okay. Now, speaking of books, tell us about your book that just came out because the premise is divine and I am, I’m a junkie for all things reality show. I just, I hate to admit that, but I am 

Nancy Richardson: [00:28:00] Okay, don’t be embarrassed. I’m with you.

Rachael Herron: [00:28:02] I am not embarrased.

Nancy Richardson: [00:28:03] I am a naked and afraid watcher. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:05] I’m a real housewives and Vanderpump rules watcher. I think you’ve got it over me.

Nancy Richardson: [00:28:09] I’m raising my hand. You know, I can’t stand it but I think that, I think those Housewives show on an extreme level. What clicky girls’ words you do to each other. And as a reminder to not be the type of friends that those women are to each other.

Rachael Herron: [00:28:29] I seriously watch them for that. And I watch them for story ideas and I watch them for character development, all of that. Also, I watch it cause I’m a looky loo and I want to watch, but it does something good for my brain. So tell us about your book.

Nancy Richardson: [00:28:42] Okay. So this theme of falling object is about danger, Danielle Warren, everyone calls her Danny. She’s 17 years old. She defines herself as defective and inferior based on a childhood accident. Her mom’s bitterness with parents’ divorce, her father’s abandonment, and then out of the blue, the dad, his name is Cougar and he’s a famous TV survivalist. Calls and asked her to join him for her 60th birthday on an episode of his show that’s going to be filmed in the Amazon and is going to beat your guess crisis, the teen movie idol of the moment, and Danny jumps the chance because she wants to prove that she’s worthy of his love. Unfortunately, there plane crashes leaving some people injured, other people dead, and Danny has to face everything that terrifies her, including learning the truth about the father she idolizes and the movie stars she’s fallen for, and she has to discover her unique strengths in order to find the way home.

Rachael Herron: [00:29:40] Dude. Seriously. That’s just, that’s like a one click for me, one that, that is going to be a Saturday afternoon read on the couch, next week as it comes out, because that sounds so great and it sounds so compelling and everything that I want to read. So where can we find you online? 

Nancy Richardson: [00:30:01] You can find me at https://nancyrichardsonfischer.com, which is my website. You can find me at www.instagram.com/nanfischerauthor on Instagram or www.twitter.com/nanfischerauthor on Twitter and it’s Fischer, F. I. S. C. H. E. R., and you can email me at, nancyrichardsonfischerauthor@gmail.com.  

Rachael Herron: [00:30:23] Perfect. Perfect. It has been such a treat and it’ll like to talk to you. I cannot get over that craft tip that you gave us about the first lines and the last lines. If anybody does that and wants to share that in the show notes, in the comments on the show notes that, at www.howdoyouwrite.net,  I would love to see that

Nancy Richardson: [00:30:43] Oh, I would love to see that too. 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:44] And if I get any, if we get any, I will direct you to them, Nancy. So listeners, we will be looking at those because that sounds fascinating. So,

Nancy Richardson: [00:30:52] Thank you so much for chatting with me.

Rachael Herron: [00:30:55] You’re so welcome and have a wonderful night!

Nancy Richardson: [00:30:57] You too! And I’m going to write you as soon as I finished your book, which would be probably next week. 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:02] Okay, well we’ll do that. We’ll exchange, rave reviews cause I know that’s what they’re going to be.

Nancy Richardson: [00:31:07] Awesome. 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:08] Hopefully. Hopefully. All right. Take care of you. Bye.

Nancy Richardson: [00:31:11] Bye. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends. 

The post Ep. 166: Nancy Richardson Fischer Share the BEST Tip for Ensuring Scene Flow appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 165: How Do You Start Your Own Writing Group? Bonus mini-episode!

Say you want out of a certain writer’s organization (cough cough). How would you go about starting one? What do you need to consider? This week’s mini-episode tells you how to start! (No Friday episode this week, as I’m on retreat.)

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 165 of “How do you Write?” This is a bonus mini episode. I’m Rachael Herron, and I am so glad you’re here today. As I record its January 21st of 2020 I almost said 2002, that’s where I am. And I am just about, I mean, I am minutes away from getting on the road to go to spirit rock. To be one of those people on a silent meditation retreat.

[00:00:43] I understand that this is, annoying. I find myself annoyed by myself. But it’s such a wonderful experience. I went last year and being silent for days on end, not talking to anyone, not communicating with anyone, just sitting next to them and meditating and walking and being in the body is exactly what I need. I was just thinking to myself that when I quit smoking when I was 29 yonks ago, my mother told me that she was pretty cheap, and mind you, she was, she was a thrifty person. She told me that for every year I stayed quit. She would buy me a crab dinner and crab has always been my one true love. So, that was a big deal. And, she’s no longer around. I’m comfortably quit from cigarettes now, but I think that this is kind of my crab dinner. But Buddhist, I’m not a Buddhist. I’m an, I’m British. But this is, this is my second hand, I’m doing it. I’m almost at my second year of sobriety, and I’d always wanted to do a silent retreat before and I couldn’t because one of the precepts you take when you get there is you won’t use mind altering substances, which includes alcohol, which includes weed, which includes all the things that I used as a crutch, not to feel my feelings for a very long time. So, I’m excited to go. I think I’ll go next year, if I’m still sober. I could still celebrate that. God willing, whatever you think God is, I don’t care. I don’t know what it is. Oh, and also this will be your only podcast for this week. I will not be doing the normal Friday podcast, so enjoy this right now while you got it. I’ll be back to regular schedule again next week. 



[00:02:28] So, very quick episode because I literally have to get on the road. But Amy, Hello Amy! Amy Tesekata asks, “Thinking of starting/helping to start a new local writing group organization. Any tips on how to start and where to start?” 



[00:02:45] Wow, Amy! You could not be doing this at a better time, could you? Just yesterday, Las Vegas RWA voted to disaffiliate. There are a lot of romance writers of America groups going down with the ship. Well, no, that’d be opposite. There are a lot that are sticking with that ship and are probably going to go down, in my opinion. And then there are those who are jumping out. We don’t know what we’re doing in our chapter yet. I know that I’ll probably be jumping out, but I don’t have to do that today. So it is a great time to start a writing group. So some tips on how to start: Just like in writing, when you’re pitching a book, figure out your demographic. Who do you want these writers to be? Do you want them to be writers of a certain genre? Do you want them to be of a certain gender? Do you want them to be of a certain age? Do you want it open to absolutely everyone? Do you have rules of conduct? Very important in this day and age. What are your rules around inclusion? I know you, Amy, so who you will be inclusive, all of that. You also kind of want to think about how, how codified you want it to be. Do you want this to be an actual non not for profit organization, which will require a president and a board? It sounds like perhaps, I’m guessing that you want to do a more basic one more informal one, which is probably what I would encourage.  And I, the main thing about starting that writing group is how you find your members. It is absolutely possible to find members for a writing group on Craigslist. However, you’re gonna get uncle How. And uncle How is a very nice man, and uncle How has a lot of experience, but not much in writing and not much in critiquing if that’s what you’re looking for. How are you going to handle the uncle How’s of the world? or aunt Sal’s? Aunt Sal could also show up. You are connected. I know already you are active and you have community. So I would start there in looking to recruit members, it is worthwhile in the very beginning, thinking about what the expectations of the members are. Is this a critique group? Is this an encouragement group? You know me, I always encourage writing groups to be of assistance in helping people get their words done and giving encouragement about those words. If you can combine those two things, that’s fantastic. The problem arises is when amateurs critique amateurs. And amateur is not a bad word here. I’m, I’m meaning it in the actual way that it is used. A beginner. Do you really want an amateur copy editor? Which is what a lot of critique turns out to be. Wow. Those, he’s making a lot of noise. Sorry. Probably not what you want. If within this group, you can find really good beta readers or critique partners that you trust fabulous. And you’ll want to know, of course, when you’ll meet, how you’ll meet. Will you do this online? If everyone can’t get together, one month? Are you going to meet every month, every two months, every other week? All of those things should be thought of. But remember, when it really comes down to it, you are the boss. You are creating this. You get to make the rules. You get to stick to the rules. You get to bend or break or change the rules when you want to. It is trial and error, where actually, there’s a few of us talking about this within our own local chapter. Could we do this? And I’m speaking specifically of RWA. Could we start something new? How would that be? What would that look like? And to me, it feels like an awful, gosh darn a lot of work. So I tend to put together informal writing groups myself. You know, we will meet at this person’s house and write for three hours, or we’ll meet at Panera and write for two hours. That feels really good to me. So, I’m sure that you’ve thought about all of these things and I would love to hear more about what kind of group you are thinking about starting. Come over on I think you can get there by https://rachaelherron.com/podcast now, I think that directs to the right URL. The URL has been wonky lately and not really working. So, that one should be a redirect. If you want to come, tell me about that. And I wish you the best of luck. And like Jay and I talked about last week on the writer’s well, community is everything. So I love that you are reaching out and that you’re looking for it. 



[00:07:32] Okay. My friends, I told you it would be a short one. That is all I’ve got right now. I wish you the most happy writing. Please wish me luck as I go into this place where we are not supposed to read or write. And I have to tell you that, I did not attend this, this kind of retreat for many years because I knew I would break the rule of not sneaking a substance in, but friends, last year I got permission from somebody from one of the teachers to jot down notes that I was realizing and learning because it was driving me crazy to try to hold everything in my head, and I was really stressing myself out. I was getting these revelations and finding, you know, learning. It’s picking up ideas that had never occurred to me and I wanted to catch them. So the teacher allowed me to do that. I’m also sneaking in a book on meditation just because I’m a rebel. I’m not going to read like a murder mystery or a thriller or something. But I am bringing a book on meditation so I can read at night because. Gosh, it’s hard to go to sleep without reading for me. Maybe I won’t break any rules, but I probably will. And I’m also gonna get a McDonald’s cheeseburger on the way there before I get fed vegetarian – really delicious vegetarian food for five days.



[00:08:41] So I hope that you’re getting your writing done. I hope that you’re breaking some rules, some small ones, even some big ones. I hope that you’re pushing back and setting boundaries and taking care of yourself, and most of all, doing what is important to you, the creation. Okay? We’ll talk soon. Bye friends.



[00:09:02] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 165: How Do You Start Your Own Writing Group? Bonus mini-episode! appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 163: How to Start Novel Revision & How to Avoid Shiny New Object Syndrome – Bonus Mini-episode!

Just how do you start to think about revising your book? And what if you’re being carried away with shiny new thoughts every time you turn around? Here’s what to do! 

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 163 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. This is a bonus mini episode answering your questions that you ask. 

[00:00:25] So, let’s jump right in. Let’s not, dwell on the fact that the dog of my heart died on Saturday. I am struggling with that, but I have managed to get the words done anyway, and I don’t know how so, yeah, that’s a good thing. And thanks for those of you who read the blog post and reached out, and it’s been very, very kind and nice of you.



[00:00:47] A couple of things also, before I get into the questions, I’ve had a tremendous response as I always do to the, what I made last year and how I made it. Talking about money, I did want to mention that, of course, you probably already know this and you thought about this, but that was gross. And I have a hell of a lot of write-offs. I have the retreat, I have conferences, I have part of the house because, I work here. We have the interest on the house. I take home a lot less than that. I will update you on what my net intake was for 2019, after I do taxs and after I know that. So just wanted to mention that.



[00:01:26] Okay. Let’s get to some questions. I’ve got two good ones today. Stacy says, I finished my first draft in NaNo and took the month of December off; I’m going to break in here. And just say, Stacy! You did it! You finish your first draft in November. Is that not amazing? In NaNoWriMo, Congratulations. I hope that you are truly celebrating still. I know we’re well into January, you should still be dancing and hooping that up.; I’m going on.; Now, I’m signed up to do your 90 days to revision course. Yay! So excited and nervous. I’m reading through my manuscript now and taking notes on the big issues I need to fix. Good God, there’s a lot all in caps. Any suggestions on what to do until the course starts? Am I on the right track? Thanks!



[00:02:12] Yes. And I want to address everyone who might be listening to this and not, not just you, Stacy. So we make it useful for everybody. But what you’re doing is exactly right. Taking a read through your manuscript, getting that overview of what the book kind of looks like to you. But this is what I want to say to you and to everybody else listening who has a revision that needs to be done and that is a lot of you because revision is a very scary beast. Don’t overthink it too much. And I know that sounds frustrating to hear, but until you have a plan of action and you write down on a piece of paper that you’re going to spend an hour a day, three times a week, working on this revision until you have your plan of action of what to start on and how to start on it. You don’t have to worry too much about the little picture stuff right now. Don’t spend any time at all. Copy editing any sentence, ‘cause who knows if those sentences will end up back in the manuscript. Really the best thing you can do, the best way to spend your time right now is kind of dreaming. Doing that awake dreaming, doing that, lying in bed, going to sleep dreaming, asking yourself the questions like, why don’t I feel comfortable with these particular scenes? Why do I feel like it drags here? I don’t I really understand that character the way that I want to understand them, and these are not questions you need to write down in your car. These are questions that will come up to you. Our brains are really incredible computers. They’re incredible machines. They understand story structure on a really deep level. When you’re doing a revision, basically you are bringing a story into a structure that resonates with the reader. It gives them the, the predictable story structure with tons of surprise. They don’t understand why they need something to shift at the midpoint, but they do, and you provide it to them. If you don’t understand story structure, if you’re listening to this, there are tons of story structure books out there. I really love “Larry Brooks’ “Story Engineering”. That’s the one I recommend the most. So that’s what you’re doing in revision. But your brain already knows these things, even if you can’t put words to them. So at this point, while you’re still kind of looking over the book and thinking about the revision that has to happen, let yourself play. I always bring it back to post it. So you know that have a pack of posts it in your purse, in your backpack, anywhere. Every time you get a tiny little idea, write it down. 100% you will not remember it. If you are out on the trail and you have a great idea that might work in this book, you need to write it down. Take a note in your phone. You won’t remember it. I would say 9 out of 10 times when I tried to remember something just in my old little brain pan, it falls right out. So, at this point when you’re planning on approaching revision, just kind of play with it in your brain, and that is all the work you need to do until you sit down on day one and start to revise using whatever plan you like. So that’s it. That’s just have fun, Stacy. That’s what I’m saying. Just have fun thinking, don’t work too hard. It’s all good. You could not work at all from this day forward until the class starts and you would be just fine. 



[00:05:40] Mariah, my friend Mariah asks, “Do you have tips for how to deal with shiny new object syndrome? Oh shiny new object syndrome is so real. Jessica Abel calls it the slutty new idea and slutty new idea – not to slut shame ‘cause sluts are awesome. Uh, I used to be one. Wow. I can’t believe I just said that out loud on radio. It’s not the radio, it’s the podcast. We are in the 2020s now. Anyway, back on track for the shiny, let’s just call it the shiny new object syndrome. They are so shiny, and for me, I get shiny new object syndrome. At two different times. I get it when I’m between projects and it seems like every single thing I hear could be a story. So everything is glimmering. Every news article I see, which is not very many to be a fit, to be honest. Every article I read in people magazine on the airplane. Every little story that someone tells, I think that could be a book. That could be a book, that could be a book. And for me, again, comes down to postage. I try to trap these on post-its or notes in my phone. I just use, Trello on my phone to capture those things. And I don’t really give any of those shiny new objects while I’m in between projects. I don’t really give them a lot of room in my head because I know that this is my process and this is a lot of people’s process, that you’re just kind of bouncing things around in your head and the shiniest one is going to stick. The shiniest one is going to hold up its hand and you know, wave at you from the waves making you come out to save it. That’s kind of the fun element of the shiny new object syndrome. The other time that I am probably you, Mariah, have it are when we are in the middle of the doldrums of writing a book. I just watched the documentary maiden on Netflix and it was a wonderful, it was about the first all women vote race around the world. The, what’s it called? The Whitbread, I think it was, and there’s this, these agonizing parts where they hit the doldrums where the wind goes out, if there’s no wind to catch your sails, you’ll drift for days and even weeks and in writing books sometimes a lot longer than that. But it really happens to us and when we’re in the doldrums or when we are kind of losing the passion that we had, because that is a natural part of writing books, then everything starts to look shiny. And I do have for myself, you can capture it any way you want. But I have an Evernote file called ideas, and after I’ve done my words for the day on the, dull, old objects as, which isn’t the shiny new object. But if after I’ve done my words on the dull, old object, I will let myself go in and poke at it and kind of play with it and think about the characters, think about what could be happening, think about what the conflict is. And the thing is, they’re always genius books compared to the one you’re writing. When we think about a book, when we are projecting into the future about a book, that book always looks wonderful because we haven’t gotten our hands in yet. We haven’t mucked it up and we are firmly in the process of mucking up a first draft or screwing up a revision, the first big revision or screwing up the third or fourth or fifth smaller revision that you’re doing and that doesn’t feel good. 



[00:09:12] Human beings are trying to avoid suffering. That’s what we’re, this is what we’re all doing on a minute to minute, day by day basis. Every human being, every, I think every living thing is trying to avoid suffering. And when you’re, when you’re in the doldrums of a book, when you’re anywhere from like 25% to 75% of a book, that whole middle section a for me is not comfortable. So I’m always trying to avoid it. A good way to avoid that is by being attracted to those shiny new objects, and we all face it. So give them a place where they are safe, where you can put them, and they know that they don’t have to come knocking on the back door of your brain at three in the morning. They’re safe in an Evernote or in a notebook or wherever you keep those kinds of ideas. Give them that honor. So that they don’t keep bothering you and just try to finish the work in front of you. I know I can say that at it as if it is easy. It is not easy. And the fact that we’re all trying, I think it’s really, really amazing. 



[00:10:13] So thank you for those two questions, ladies. I really appreciate it. Just a quick note about the classes. I do have 90 days to done, open right now. I think I only have one more spot on 90 days to done. So if you are interested in writing your book, either from first word to last word or from somewhere where you got stuck in the middle to the last word,  that is https://rachaelherron.com/90daystodone. And, I do have a few spots left in the revision class, that is http://rachaelherron.com/revision. I’m pretty sure that’s where it is, but sign up for those really quickly if you want them, we start on February 1st. And that’s obviously three-month course, 90 days, and people really finish their books in there. They really do their revisions and it is so fun. And Stacy, I’m really looking forward to working with you. So that is our mini podcast. I’m going to stop recording and maybe go lie on the couch and cry. 

I do have to say though, that Clara. Dog of my heart. You can see, you can see her rachaelherron.com/blog/ you’ll see the post I made about her. She was my heart and I’m so lonely and blue and sad. I’ve still got two dogs of course, but, but Clara was my girl. But I have to say, I just came home from like doing 1000 errands and I opened the door and my house – my house smelled as sweet as it did when I left. Clara was a big, stinky border collie. No matter how much I washed her, she, she, her glands just secreted that border collie undercoat sent. And I’m thinking, that’s one nice thing about losing her. Ooh, I’m going to cry. But we have to think of those things, right? So missing her, hope that you are doing well and we’ll talk soon my friends. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 163: How to Start Novel Revision & How to Avoid Shiny New Object Syndrome – Bonus Mini-episode! appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 162: Show Me The Money, 2019 Edition

Rachael talks about not only how much she made in 2019, but how authors need to be thinking about their finances, and gives recommendations on how to start today to fix your financial situation. 

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:15] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 162 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So pleased that you’re here today as I do my annual finances talk, finances for writers. It is January 9th, 2020 as I record this and I am always really excited to do this particular episode because I believe in transparency in writers’ income, that does not mean that you have to tell everyone what you make. But my commitment to transparency means that I need to tell you how much I make because I, that’s something I promised to do in the past, and I’ve done it in the earlier years of this show. The first episode is all about what I made the year before. So that’s what we’re talking about today. So I’m doing a little bit of a bait and switch on you this time.



[00:01:08] I’m going to give you a very quick and dirty rundown of the finances for authors workshop that Sophie Littlefield and I have presented in many different places, including this last week at Seton Hill. If you watch on the YouTube, you can see that I’m in a hotel room. I’m still in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. We’re leaving today. But I thought while all of this is still fresh in my mind, we just taught the class two days ago. I will do literally like a 20-minute rundown, hopefully no more than that. And then I’ll tell you what I made. You can absolutely scroll forward. I won’t be able to tell. But, this is kind of the things that I really, really believe about money.



[00:01:47] And I am by no means a financial expert. In fact, I am a financial failure in a lot of different ways, which is why Sophie and I teach this class. We kind of did everything the hard way before we figured out what money was and what it meant to us and how to handle it as, people who take care of ourselves and our loved ones in our lives financially. So just, I’m going to just going to jump right into it and this is going to be fun. I want to talk real quickly about, what we have control and what we don’t have control of as authors. I know a lot of you have the dream of moving from a day job to full time writing, and that’s why I want to share this with you because a lot of these things are the things that you have to think about before making that jump. If you are in the lucky and privileged position of being able to write and not worrying about the money that you bring in, you do not have to listen to a word of this. Skip on over. If you’ve got your retirement settled and taken care of, skip to the end or skip to the next episode. That might work too. But if you have any concerns about these things, keep on listening. So in writerlandia, there are some things that are true. Our income, unfortunately, is unpredictable. We cannot know from year to year what we will make, and if you got three huge traditional deals, six figure deals three years in a row, one book not earning out puts you back to the model where you get paid $2,500 for a book. If you can sell one, that is in the traditional side.



[00:03:32] Well on the self-publishing side, income is also unpredictable. Algorithms are always changing. We’ve seen a massive shift of income that authors are able to make now that it really is a pay to play landscape. It used to be that also bought on Amazons’ page that showed what people bought that liked your book. That was a really good way of organic reach of finding a new audience that is less and less available as sponsored products are pushed up in Amazon. So now you have to take out ads to be discoverable. If you’re starting, if you don’t have a mailing list, even if you do have a mailing list, these are things we have to consider. So we never know when Amazon or Kobo or Google, any of them are going to change their royalty scheme. None of us have signed contracts with them that say, we will always give you 70% of net if your book is between 2.99 and 9.99. We never made that bargain with them, like we do with a traditional deal. 



[00:04:31] Traditional deal, you signed something, they signed something, this is what you will get paid. Granted, it is a much lower percentage of what you will ever get self-publishing. Well, not ever what you will get now, self-publishing, but self-publishing rules can change. We have no control over that. Our income is inconsistent. It does not come on the first of the month and the 15th of the month. I can go months where I make not enough to get by, and then I’ll have some big five figure months, which for me are really big, but that has to tide me over for those lean months. So, it’s inconsistent. I never know when I’m going to get a $4,000 check or a $2 and 50 cent check.



[00:05:15] All money is welcome. I would like to say I love money. Money loves me. I bring it to me. All of those mantras that we say.  And this is really something I’ve been thinking about a lot this year in particular. Money is not evil. Money is just a symbol of energy. It, symbolizes the work that I put into something. The work that you put into something, the work that others put into actual things. If you want this widget, you must be able to pay money which you have earned with your energy to purchase something that someone else has made with their energy. And that’s all it is, is this, energy being transferred back and forth. And it, thinking of it like this has really helped me get over some of the guilty feelings that I have for wanting it or collecting it or feeling like I’m not worthy of it or feeling like I’m not collecting enough of it. So, knowing that income is inconsistent and we don’t know where it comes from. All of the time when our writers, it comes really inconsistent dribs and drabs helps us remember that we have to have knowledge of what is in our bank accounts and how that works. Other things about writing Monet’s, authors may often rely on day jobs or other income, and that includes your partner who’s helping you. That is a fantastic thing. I left from my day job and I am so glad that I did. That was almost four years ago, but having the day job for the 10 years that I was working both jobs was what allowed me to make the jump. So day jobs are fabulous in America. They’re really important to for your health insurance. If my wife lost her job, which is how I’m insured. And wasn’t able to find one quick enough, I’d jumped right back into the job market because, this particular body often needs things surgically examined. So I need health insurance. I’m one of those people. So, we may really rely on day jobs. We might have multiple writing income sources, which is what I’m going to talk about later when I talk about my income. I made more than six figures this year. But less than a quart- well, we’ll probably did or, let me do math. That’s what a quarter of it was actually from books. So hang on for that multiple writing income sources. We have to, this is another fact of being an author, we have to pay and track our own expenses. That’s our responsibility. We owe quarterly taxes and self-employment tax. So not only are you taxed at your tax rate, but you’re also taxed the additional 15% self-employment tax, which in the United States of America is what is true.



[00:07:59] So when I take home a check for $10,000, I don’t keep $10,000. I keep less of it than I would if I were working for a company. And the documentation of that is our responsibility. So, understanding your own situation is key. The thing about talking about money, if you’re driving in your car and your stomach is tight, that’s what I want to talk to you about. The things that keep us in place around money are fear, inertia, and shame. And for me, the mixture of fear about my finances and the shame that I’ve had in the past about my finances kept me in inertia. I didn’t really understand how money worked and we were in a hell of a lot of debt, which is something that was very, very shameful to me. And it is something that in the U S and other places is incredibly filled with shame. And that’s what I want to encourage you right now is that this is a no shame zone. You can email me privately. And tell me what you’re ashamed of in your, in your finances. You can tell anyone that you want, but you know, in this world of Brene Brown that we live in now, we know that shame when spoken aloud, and met with empathy cannot continue to exist. That is how we get rid of shame. We speak it. And so that’s what I like to do when I’m talking about money. But you do have to understand your current situation, and that is one of the most difficult things to do. I believe it takes bravery, it takes courage. And when we are talking about money, that is something that is very hard to find. When I finally sat down to really address our debt, I cried and cried and cried and cried. I don’t remember how I got the courage to do it honestly, because I thought we were in a place of such shame that we would never recover. We were losing, this was back in 2008 or so when the financial world had collapsed. I had had a condo. We had leveraged the condo to buy house. I had fallen prey to all of the funny money that was out there. I had balloon mortgages; I didn’t know what that meant. It was the time when banks were doing really shady things. I should never, on my salary have been able to do that. Ever. It should never happen. But because there were businesses that were willing to give me that money, I got that money. We ended up losing the condo after a year of trying to short sell it. And this was back in the day when no one short sold or the people were just starting to, and no one foreclosed. This was right in the days of the beginning of the crisis. So no one was talking about it. And I was so deeply mired in shame. We tried to short sell that condo. Unsuccessfully, no one would buy it for that loss. For a year. And that whole year I was putting everything on a credit card, like the mortgage that we couldn’t afford because we’re paying the mortgage on our house. So we got deeply mired in a lot more debt. And the day that I had to sit down and look at all of this, and ask for help was one of the darkest days of my life, and one of the scariest days. And I just like to put that out there that. It is very, very, very, very hard. But you must understand your current situation. And if that means that your partner has been taking care of these kind of bills and knows where all the money is, it is incumbent upon you to talk to your partner and sit down and say, where are we healthy? If we are completely unhealthy, where are we unhealthy? What do we lack? What is our debt and how can we start to dig out of it?



[00:11:46] That only comes from conversation. It can’t come from hope. I had lived in hope with my head buried under the sand for many years as an adult. So, you need to understand your assets, what you have in the bank, your debts, all of them, including your mortgage, your student debt, all those things that we think of as good debt, there’s still debt. And student loans, I would argue are not good debt, but we can come back to that. You need to understand your retirement savings. Something which is very difficult to understand sometimes. You need to understand as a writer, your income trend and projection. Look at the last few years, what have you made? What can you hope to make in the upcoming years, knowing that it is unstable? You need to understand your upcoming and potential expenses, something that I never understood at all. I am a Pollyanna. I always hoped that the money would be there and it normally wasn’t because I didn’t know how to save for it. And that sounds super boring, and changing that has been one of the most exciting things in my life. You need to understand if you have a rainy day fund, and if you don’t, how to make one. Also, are you adequately insured? Are your dependents provided for? You have to understand your personal advantages and your personal limitations. I know that I like looking at money and my wife does not like looking at money, so I keep her informed of where it all is and what we’re doing with it. But her, one of her limitations is she just can’t, it stresses her out too much. So I get to do that, but I do that, making sure that she knows what I’m doing. Does that make sense? I’m just flipping through the slides here. So debts, it is time to be honest with yourself about debts and call a friend if you need to. Get someone over to your house to do it with you. Things like, like I said, mortgage and car loans, all of those things count. What I did was I had decided to call MMI. Can’t remember what stands for M M I, and it is a nonprofit consumer credit consolidation service. It does not make money. There are a bunch of them that do make money and those are predatory. This one, I think charged me $35 a month. They got a bunch of my credit card bills down. When I called them to ask for help, I thought I owed $20,000 on our credit cards. It turns out that we owed more than 40,000. That is what my brain had said. Even though every month I wrote up the minimum payment for these things, my brain would not allow me to add them up correctly. And I just remember sobbing through that phone call and the woman on the other end of the line was able to consolidate our credit cards. We went from paying $1,800 a month in credit card, minimum payment to $800 a month. Instead of taking the 26 years, it would’ve paid, it would’ve taken to pay them all off, it took four- it took four years of that work. They were done and gone, and that was one of the happiest days of my life when that was paid off. For me, a consumer credit consolidation nonprofit firm helped me so much. It’s helped a bunch of people that I know and love in my life. I recommend MMI, but do your own due diligence research, obviously. Look at your student loans. Mine. Were you serious? I had deferred like a dummy for many years, not being able to pay rent in the Bay area and pay my student loans, so I defer, defer, deferred. For many years, I had borrowed 40,000. I got a good job. I started paying them $350 a month. Every month, I paid them for seven years, $350 a month. It might be the right math. It might not be the right math. But I know that when I finally looked to see how much I’d paid them, I had paid them $27,000, you know, including much of, most of that was interest. I had paid them $27,000 of a $40,000 loan, and I owed them $50,000. I owed them more than I had started out because of all those years of deferment deferral, which made me so mad. All of our money went to paying that off next. This was after we had worked on paying down and off a tax bill that my wife had had from a previous life of hers where she owed $25,000 so if you’re doing the math, 25,000 plus 40,000 plus 50,000 of student debt equals $115,000 that we were in debt. The time that I was doing all of this, my mother had just died. We had just lost the condo and Lala lost her job. We had no money. We had no money to deal with these things. So I had to, and it was one of the most painful times in my life. But it took this direct look to start working on it. And on the positive side, while Lala was very unemployed for – under-employed for three years, she would attempt sometimes, but this was during the tech meltdown. I’m in the Bay area, so she was not able to get jobs. We actually ended up saving more than we did when we had two jobs because we went so frugal and we were so careful with our money. So it absolutely can be done. It’s something to think about is retirement savings. This is something that, I’m only starting to think about at 47 years old. Oh, this was another mistake in buying my first condo. I cashed out my only big 401k, although it’s, you know, through the government, so it’s called something else. But, for – So that was smart. So I really didn’t have retirement savings and I really honestly, barely do. I am in the, in the constant process of building those up now. Now that I know that in 20 years I don’t really want to retire. I never want to retire from writing, but I want Lala to be able to stop working. I want myself to take a year off if I want to from writing a book or I can’t imagine that, but I want to be in a place of financial independence. You’ve heard me talk about this over on the Writers with Jay, where I have money in a bank that is working for me rather than me working so hard for my money. And so I’m really interested in the fire movement, financial independence movement. I have no idea how to do that because we just don’t make enough in the Bay area to put away enough to get there quickly. But I’m always thinking creatively about these things. Should we move? Should we, should I get a job? Should we do any of these things? So I’m, I’m always thinking about retirement savings. Lala is maxed out in her 401k so she brings home not that much money because all of it is going as much of it as we can put is going into retirement. So that is something I’m proud of. I fully fund my own SEP IRA, my self-employment IRA, every year. 



[00:18:23] So we had to learn about these things and think about them. If these words don’t make any sense to you, don’t worry about them right now. What I recommend is you buy, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” It’s a terrible title, and he admits it to, by Ramit Sethi. It is an amazing book. I had kind of learned all the principles in his book over my last eight or so years of learning about finances and learning what money is. But he puts them all into one place, and I got so much out of it reading it this year, so that is highly recommended. Okay. What next do I want to talk about? I want to recommend; You Need a Budget. It’s called YNAB.com, https://www.youneedabudget.com and it is life changing. If you’ve never heard me talk about it before, it is the app. It’s a pay per month app, which you know I dislike, but it is absolutely worth it. It is like mentor or quicken or any of the budgeting apps, although it doesn’t work like a budget. Budgets have never worked for me because it didn’t matter what was in my budget. I spent what I spent, and so YNAB has this unique way of you look at your money. You give every dollar that you have today, a job. If, later this afternoon you spent something that changes those dollars’ jobs, then you move them around on their spreadsheet. Where would, where will this next $5 go? What? Where does it belong? It is what finally taught me at about 39 or 40 years old, what money was, I was so clueless. I understood where money was. I understood it intellectually. That I needed to spend less than I took in, but I didn’t know what that looked like amortized over a year. And I also didn’t want to know, I was very much the ostrich head in the sand, which apparently I don’t think they actually do. I read somewhere or they- anyway. YNAB changed my life. It changed – it has changed the life of so many people that I have told about it, that I still hear regularly back from people who tell me, I heard about it from you eight years ago. We are now out of debt. We are now building for this. It is how we got out of debt. When people ask me how we got out of debt, number one, I was writing on top of working full time and I was working like a hundred hours a week. But, that was hard. But, that aside, every bit of writing money, if I didn’t buy myself a pair of blue shoes, which is my fancy luxury, it was going towards debt. So I had that. And that’s the wonderful thing about writing as a side hustle. You can put that toward a debt. You can move that money there. So, but though the number one thing that got us out of debt was YNAB, was me finally understanding, how it worked and how much we needed to have around for everyday expenses. I always thought that if we had a couple thousand dollars in the bank, we’d be okay. And suddenly there was no money in the bank because that’s not enough. When you’re looking at car repairs, a vet bills, roof repair, the money is just gone so quickly and it just, it is amazing. I can’t, if I can tell you one thing to do, get YNAB. And the second thing is read Ramit Sethi’s book, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich”. The only other thing I want to share with you is, if you want to make more money or save more money, there are only two ways to do it. You can cut your spending or increase what you make. Those are the only two ways. Luckily, as writers, we have that ability to learn our craft and hone our skills so that eventually you can sell what is in your brain to other people and they will pay you for it and you can create money from the inside of your brain, and I just didn’t think that that is the most exciting thing. 



[00:22:15] Also, I would like to say a couple more things. Number one, you need an emergency fund. I wanted to have six months’ worth of emergency savings in the bank before I quit. I didn’t, I only had four months. I jumped a little bit early because of a family illness. But knowing that we have an emergency fund to me is key to sleeping at night. And the other thing is, and bear with me here. Your debt is an emergency, it is not unacceptable thing, and you might get mad at me for that and you might unsubscribe to this podcast. And God knows I held that for decades, decades, because I bought into this society that we have that says debt is okay. I do believe debt is okay in terms of a home mortgage, although that could even be argued a little bit. But we will not. But debt is an emergency and it should be the number one thing you are working toward to get rid of. If you ever want to be a writer, who supports herself on her own writing. If you want to be able to be flexible and nimble and move, if you want to or go to Jamaica if you want to, you have to get rid of the debt and that does mean cutting expenses. It means lifestyle modifications, canceling those subscriptions. Why do you need Hulu if you should be writing? I’m going to argue for Netflix because Netflix is Madame. But it also can be long-term radical changes. It can be moving, selling your house, taking in a roommate, selling your car, and going down to one car in your family, consolidating your debt, negotiating with the IRS. These are big things that will give you more income, more money left over to throw at your debt. And I want to just say I, you know, don’t believe in the whole latte idea where you should cut out all that lattes. You should have a couple of luxuries that make you happy. Those are the small things in life, but I don’t think you should buy a latte today if you are still paying off a latte from three years ago on your credit card, that is now costs you $32. Right? So really think of debt as an emergency. As a person who wants to be a writer, I think that is necessary. If you are in a different position and you don’t want to be a writer and debt is comfortable to you, absolutely you do you. But try to hear mama Rachael’s voice in you, in your head at some point saying, debt is an emergency. How can I get out of this? How can I use my brain to make a little bit of extra money on the side to throw towards that debt? Okay, so you listen through my lecture, you came out of it, you are not dead of shame. I guarantee you that if you email me about your shame around money or about your debt, I have heard higher numbers than yours. Someday I’m going to have to give a prize to somebody who breaks the number. That I’ve already heard that someone is in debt. And I will do that at some point. And I want to say that I absolutely know that I am sitting in a place of extreme privilege. I am published. I’m multi-published, I get to talk to you from the place of a person who has paid off her family’s debt.

 [00:25:28] And I am so grateful and I am so happy. And I understand that that might be hard to hear, or you might be angry at me and saying things like, I can’t do that because of this, and you are right. You know your situation much better than the only situation I know is my own. But if you can sit down, and look honestly at your income versus expenses, that’s where it starts. And again, there’s no shame. You haven’t been doing this wrong. You’re not a bad person. We are not taught this stuff. We learn calculus in high school and in college, which has never done me any good. Honest to freaking God. I have never used calculus in my life, but if they had given me a semester’s worth of how money works instead of econ, which I absolutely could not handle, my life would be different. Your life would be different. What if we had known about compounding interest and really known about it? Like put in $100, and we’ve been watching it grow since we were 19 years old. We would be different people. So no shame. You’re not bad. Your money is not you. It has nothing to do with who you are as a human being. It is simply a marker of energy that we get to manipulate. And I would love to hear about your story. Come over to www.howdoyouwrite.net has been having problems, so just shoot me an email at www.rachaelherron.com, but you have to spell it right and I would love to hear about that. 

[00:27:08] So now you made it all the way through the radically synopsized class of finances for authors. Now I’m going to tell you what I made and how I made it in 2019 the last year of the teens. So I’m going to start from the lowest and then go to the highest of all the things that I made. From magazines, I think I only want wrote one article last year, which is weird, but I made $300. From speaking to people, I made $675. From my online class, which is How to Stop Stalling and Write Your Novel, maybe I think it’s called, I made $975 I’ve completely passive income because I’d basically forget that is out there. You can always get to it on my website, www.rachaelherron.com, I think it’s only like $19. I should probably raise that price. From query fixing, I charge it $100 to fix queries. I did 10 of them for $1,000. On audio books, painful, painful. I made $1,475, and considering that I have spent more than $10,000 on narrators over the years. Going to take me a lot of time to earn that back. Those one, two, three, four, five things, they are the lowest things that I made last year. Add up only to $4,425 just $4,425. So I have to think about whether these things are worth it. Do I want to put more time into recording audio books? I don’t know. Do I want to continue to do query fixes? Honestly, yes. Because those are quick and easy and fun for me. Do I want to continue speaking? Maybe not, unless I make more money. Do I want to spend more time on magazine writing? I don’t know. There was only out up to $4,000 total, but you know it’s worth $4,000 that I got to put in the bank and use. So, the bigger things are coaching. I made $9,500. Patreon, I made $26,500. And let’s just talk about Patreon for a moment. I write essays about creativity and living my life over on Patreon. Basically, I am paying myself an advance to write a collection of essays. I have two collections of essays, which I desperately need to revise and either get my agent to sell or put out there, but I’ve already paid myself these advances for these books. Any other money that comes in is just extra, so that’s fantastic. For the retreat, the Venice retreat. This one requires explanation. I made $27,000 but $20,000 of that is expense. It goes to the hotel, to all of the excursions that we took, all of that. So I brought in people’s money at $27,000, but I only made $7,000 from it, but that’s still net so that needs to be remembered. That is something I have forgotten in past years, in fact, I forgot it for the last two years. I thought 2019, thought 2018 was the first time I wrote six figures. I actually broke it in 2017 also because I forgot to add that money in. So this is my third year as a six figure author, which is shocking to me because I, it’s just shocking and amazing, and I don’t even do money well enough to know that right off the top of my head. So now I know that. So I made $7,000 net from the retreat. And books, I know this is what you’re listening for. I made only $42,500 that I’m saying only in quotation marks because that’s a hell of a lot of money, especially that I didn’t do really any marketing whatsoever. That was $19,500 from traditional, and those were mostly new contract, new contracts because I think I only made… I probably made, let me, I can just add it up right here in my head, I made less than $500 on royalties. So let’s say $500 on royalties from books that have earned out traditionally, $19,000 in new contracts, traditional, and I made $23,000 in self-publishing. Organic reach, no advertising. I could do better with that if I did more ads, which is what I’m going to be working on this year, hopefully. So a total of $42,500 for books, which is fantastic! Teaching, I made $49,000. So that is where the majority of my money came from this year. Mostly from schools, Stanford, Berkeley, and from my online stuff to total, total get ready for it; I- it’s freaking me out, is $158,925 let’s round that up to $159,000. That’s incredible. Like I could not believe that number when I said, if you’re watching on the YouTube, you know that my face is crazy lit up and, and honestly, you guys, I want to make more, I want to make more and put it towards my retirement. I want to make more and put it towards Lala’s retirement particularly. That’s what makes me excited is, the thought that someday she might not have to go to the day job, which she likes, but she doesn’t love and she spends two hours or three hours a day commuting. What if she didn’t have to do that? So, in order of making money, I made my most money from teaching. Teaching-writing. And second, I made it from books and third, I made it from Patreon. 



[00:32:40] Those are my three greatest chunks, and they’re pretty, pretty close to each other, so that’s fantastic. This is something I wanted to point out though when we’re talking about multiple streams of income, I track all my income. On a, a completely unremarkable Excel spreadsheet that I just list who paid me, what they paid me on, what it was for, with the little code so I can sort it at the end of the year and tell you this story. I made 324 – I got 324 different payments last year, and these ranged from literally a dollar 50 for two payments of some book, to 10 and $15,000 paychecks, right? 324 of those different payments that averages out to 27 payments a month. Somebody was paying me about 27 times a month, and the average of each payment was $490. So I really like knowing that there are so many different little dribs and drabs of money coming in, and it adds up to 159 freaking thousand dollars a year for which I am so grateful and I hope that me talking about this gives you hope. 



[00:33:55] I hope that me talking about this doesn’t make you feel like you can’t do this, but rather makes you feel like you can do something like this. You can’t do this. You cannot do what I’m doing. No one can do what I’m doing. I cannot do what Jay Thorne is doing. Jay cannot do what I am doing. You get to do what you can do, and I’m really concentrating in 2020 on doing the things that I love. Doing the things that are fun for me. Doing this podcast is fun for me. Doing my writing most of the time is fun for me. I want to do things that make me happy and bring me money. There’s that. There’s that, place where they co-habit and that’s where I want to live my life. I’ve, I’ve talked about it with Jay on the other show, but I really love Denise Duffield-Thomas’ book, Chillpreneur, it’s really about being an entrepreneur and doing what you love. A little bit of woo-woo, but just enough for me and a lot of common sense about in entrepreneurship. I’m not talking about your day job. Your day job is what it is. You might hate it. You might love it. You might hate parts of it. You can’t some parts of your day job, unfortunately. Usually, if you can do it, but in your side hustle, if you are not full time author yet and you want to be one; In your side hustle, just do what you’ve love. Also, experiment with things that you think you might not love because teaching honestly was never something I really, really wanted to do, and it has turned out to be the thing I love doing almost the most. So think about that. Be creative. Be willing to try things. And if you don’t ever want to be a full time author, this podcast is just as applicable to you. Still think about your finances though. Think about your retirement. The chances are very likely that you know a lot more about money than I do, and that you are financially comfortable and that you understand where your retirement slash pension are coming from.



[00:35:52] And I applaud you, and I hope you don’t mind me laying all of my dirt out on the line, but this is the podcast I would’ve wanted to hear when I was starting out, or, you know, I’d want to hear it this year too. So this is why I make it. I hope that it was in some way helpful to you. I hope that you can hear in my voice how grateful I am that I live this life, that I get to do this, that people pay me for the things that are in my brain and for sharing that that with them either was my words in a book or with teaching where I’m doing the same thing. I’m pulling stuff out of my head and sharing it. So, and you are part of that community. If you’re listening to me right now and you’ve gotten this far, I thank you for being here and for being part of my world. And I hope that you, if you do want to share any of your financial stuff with me, come over to; try to find the website at www.howdoyouwrite.net maybe you just fix yourself the URL, something I got to work on. Or just email me @Rachael at www.rachaelherron.com or tweet me at twitter.com/RachaelHerron. I would love to hear from you. And, yeah, that’s all. I wish you a very happy new year and may all your money dreams, you know, screw money dreams. May all your dreams come true this year. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 162: Show Me The Money, 2019 Edition appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Recent Podcasts I’ve Enjoyed

Hello!

I just did a podcast (How Do You Write #167) on recent podcasts that have lit me up, inside and out, and I wanted to list them here (placeholder only – usually all podcasts and notes will be available here, but that’s not working right now).

I promised the list: here it is!

Food, We Need to Talk, all episodes

Ten Percent Happier, episode #221

The Happiness Lab, Mistakenly Seeking Solitude

Whare are you loving?

The post Recent Podcasts I’ve Enjoyed appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 161: Rachael on the RWA Debacle

Rachael shares her personal opinions on what happened with the RWA implosion, and what has to happen next. 

Mentioned: https://twitter.com/RomancingNope/status/1211025913128902657

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael 

Well, hello writers. Welcome to episode number 161 of, “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. This is a bonus mini episode, and this is being recorded on the last day of the decade, December 31st, 2020 and I am coming to you on this day because, the first episode of the year, I always do my yearly Roundup of what I made, and I just do not have the time to do that. So I want to get this, um, podcast out.

I will not get the yearly Roundup out until next week because tomorrow on the first, I am going away for eight days to Seton Hill, which is a fantastic master’s program in commercial fiction, and I’m going to be teaching there. So that’s going to be wonderful. But I won’t have time to do that podcast for a little while.

So I wanted to hold you over with this mini podcast in which I normally answer patreons’ questions. I’ve got some patreons questions, they’re all queued up, but much more important for me today is to talk about the romance writers of America implosion. And I wanted to tell you how I feel about it if you were involved at all, um, and you listened to me, there are, there’s a great chance that you already feel like me. If you have seen reference to this RWA debacle online, uh, you might be aware of it also. But what it means to me, is this: romance writers of America is the organization to whom I credit my success in many, many ways. I learned more from being with them for the first two years of my writing career, then I did get my master’s degree about the business and the craft of writing. Um, it’s mostly women, there are some men, but the people in that community know absolutely everything about writing. They really do. They’re 95% of them, I swear to God, are lawyers. They, uh, know from the top to the bottom what the publishing industry looked like.

When I came in to RWA, it was, we were still mostly in the traditional world. In fact, there were no people self-publishing at that point, except, you know. You know, your uncle, um, that guy was still self-publishing, but back then it was not a viable time to do that this – I came in in 2008. It was just starting, I believe the, uh, Kindle came out that year, so yeah. This was just on the horizon. And in that, in the last 11 years that I’ve been with the organization, um, RWA was pretty standoffish towards self-publishing for a while, and then it realized, oh, yes, of course, this is the way of the future. So now it balances both, um, my best friends in the world, literally have come from RWA. I don’t even write romance anymore, and you know me. I talk really passionately about this organization and how it can help people. I’m active in the organization. I’m on our local board of the San Francisco, uh, area, RWA. Everything I’m going to say on this show is not said from a position of me being on the board. It is me speaking as a writer independently of what our board says or thinks, uh, what happened was, I’m going to try to nutshell it as much as I can. Um, there is a, an awesome writer named Courtney Milan who, um, said something disparaging about another writer’s older book, I think came out sometime in the 90s. She called it a big racist mess. Um, a fucking racist mess.

I think that was what it was. The writer in question, and an editor sent a letter of complaint to the ethics committee at RWA. RWA at that point, I believe, should have looked at the complaint and said, well, what the, Courtney didn’t violate any of these things that they’re saying she violated, except perhaps the one that says, we should be friendly and get along with everybody. And, uh, my belief is it shouldn’t have been read that way. One is allowed in one social media, always to say what one wants. RWA doesn’t police that, or at least they never have up until now. Um, so they, Courtney Milan as an anti-racist activist has done amazing things for RWA. She has worked at the national level, uh, she was the head of the ethics committee. Instead of asking her to recuse herself, they called her and asked her to resign. Uh, which she did so that they could have a conversation over this ethics complaint. They then did not use anybody on the standing ethics committee. They did not tell them there was going to be a new ethics inquiry. They appointed a secret ethics committee, uh, and heard this complaint, that ethics committee recommended to the RWA national board that Courtney, uh, be suspended from RWA for a year, uh, be censured and, um, not issue that she not be able to hold any position of leadership, uh, for the rest of her life in RWA.

This was a terrible thing to do. Uh, but it was voted in by the board. It was 10 to 5 with one abstention, and Courtney was alerted to the fact that she was no longer, she was suspended. She could not act in a supervisor committee, um, position of any kind. And this was spilled on Twitter. Uh, there was no secrecy around it. Courtney had already asked if she could talk about it. Um. And it was, uh, brought to light on December 23rd, and the entire internet basically blew up. It erupted. Everyone has talked about it, the New York times, Nora. Um, it’s literally everywhere. People have been telling me about it. I am actually, I’ve been off of all social media except the Instagram for probably six or eight months, much happier for it. Um, but my wife told me that morning, she says, I think there’s something really bad happening in RWA. And I said, poopoo, whatever, or something, I’m sure there’s something that it can’t be that bad. And I looked and I was like, oh, this is that bad. I do not think that anything they did was right about this. Basically what they did was they said with this decision that they are protecting the feelings of nice white women, and if you speak out against racism in any way, you are then ejected from RWA. So the marginalized writer is not safe, the nice white lady is safe. That has been a problem with RWA forever.

Um, and apparently it, they’re doubling down on it. They’re not doubling down on it. They are quadrupling. They are hundred times-ing down on it. Uh, I am a member of San Francisco area, RWA, we were one of 30 of the 115, I believe, RWA groups that called immediately for the, um, resignation of the president, the president-elect, and the executive director. The president who’s actually in our chapter and is an active anti-racist. Um, she does a great job with diversity, equity and inclusion. However, she was the figurehead at the helm, and she stepped down immediately because that’s what anybody in their sane right mind would do in this position. Um, basically when this level of racism has risen to the top, it’s time to kind of start over. You have to get rid of those people. Uh. What I didn’t say was that that decision was immediate, that the decision that they made about Courtney was immediately rescinded later that day, as RWA said at first, that there was a gap between practice and policy. Later, days later, they officially said that actually what they did was they rescinded the decision about Courtney and reinstated all her rights, uh, as a response to the, as they called it, the backlash, not the reaction, but they call it the backlash.

Um. It just makes me so angry. It makes me so angry that my little fist clench. So anyway, uh, president-elect became president. It is Damon Suede. Um, I personally have never met Damon Suede, I’ve heard him on lots of podcasts. I actually voted for him for president elect. Uh, I thought having a gay man on the roaster would be awesome. Uh, it turns out he’s a cretin and a creep and lies a lot. There are so many things you can read, but what I’ll do is hover at www.howdoyouwrite.net. I’ll put the link of a blogger who’s been keeping track of everything as it goes. So if you really want to get deep in the tea on this, you can go to that link and look at everything. Um, read all the things that Damon Suede has or hasn’t done, has or hasn’t said, um, with, with proof over there. So that, that is something interesting to read. He’s not a nice guy and he’s refusing to step down. So the organization, is imploding even more on the day that this happened, uh, the eight authors of color who were on the board, we had finally gotten an incredibly wonderful, diverse, inclusive national board.

Those women stepped down. They said, we do not feel safe in this organization anymore. They stepped down. And so we are left with, yesterday we had, um, three people. We had the president elect the treasurer, I believe and the executive director, and three remaining board members. That is six leading this national organization. They all need to go. In my opinion, all of them need to go. We need to, the only way that I think RWA could rise from the dead, um, is it, it became an organization that is actively hostile to people who create an unsafe environment for their marginalized members. We cannot be a place that provides a safe and respectful environment to racists period. Uh, so I am to the point where if I’m, I have said to my board president and to people around me that if Damon Suede doesn’t go, if we do not start from the ground up, um, I’m out of the organization, which absolutely breaks my heart. RWA has been everything. I have loved it so much. I am so heartbroken and I’m so angry that this has happened, that this has gone this far. So I know I’m, I’m barely marginalized. I’m a sis white woman who happens to be gay. Um, my troubles ain’t nothing like the authors of color and what they face and the fact that we have now made them feel even more unsafe in a place that already felt unsafe to them for historical reasons, uh, is absolute bullshit. So I am furious. I will not be a part of an organization like that. Um, today, instead of hearing that Damon and Carol Ritter, the executive director stepped down. Instead, we heard that they, um, put in board members. These of course, are not elected at this point, and our by-laws say that the president elect can appoint them in case of this kind of emergency. So he is now appointed people who other people are speculating are his people. He is known to do that. Uh, so there, uh, those, there are four new members that way I cannot imagine it would say yes to him who would want to step in in this time. Um, I said something really crappy yesterday that, you know, in the, in these ashes, we will rise a truly inclusive board and the entire internet said you had one.

They all quit because of what happened. So, I do encourage you to do your own reading, your own digging. This is not, and what I don’t want you to do is saying, oh, the romance writers, those ladies, they’re up to some catty stuff. No, this is absolutely the biggest trade organization in publishing. These are the women who run publishing. They sell the most books out of any other genre in the world. Uh, RWA is a $3 million organization who has a lot of money to do a lot of things with. And as chapters, if they decide to disaffiliate, um, they’re one we’re all wondering if we disaffiliate do we have to send you all our money, our prudent reserve, um, of our members’ money.

So there’s all this, there’s so much talk. So much speculation, so much panic and so much anger. And I just really wanted to be very clear on where I stand. I stand for Courtney. Um, it was a racist cluster fuck, that should never have happened. The ethics committee has been passed many racially charged complaints, most of which have never, well, I am exaggerating, some of which have never risen past the, the office staff. Uh, this one about Courtney seems to have been a malicious attempt at a coup. I know it sounds like a lot, but the more you read, oh, um, and it’s not acceptable. And I’m devastated. And that is my position. That is my personal position. So that’s where I am. 

That is not the most cheerful update on the last day of the year, but for, for a really cheerful update, I will tell you that I ran my numbers yesterday and this year I made $158,000 hot damn, almost $159,000 hot damn. So I will be on the next episode, breaking down what I made, how I made it, what it feels like, how much of that is write offs, if I can, if I can guess toward that. Um, I always really enjoy doing that show. So that will be coming up next. But honestly it might be nine or 10 days. I just don’t think I’m going to have time with all my travel to get that episode out by next week. So, I will keep you posted. It will be the very first episode of the new decade though. So I just wanted to say a big thanks to you for being here with me at “How do you Write?” for this past year or years, if you’ve been around a while, it means the world to me, and thanks for listening to me talk about RWA. I think it is really important and relevant to anyone who is in the writing industry at this time. To know that not only the bad actors are still there, they’re still trying to do it the way they’ve always done it, and there’s a lot of people fighting for that not to be allowed. And I am on the side of not allowing systemic racism to stand inside our industry.

So I hope you feel the same way and I wish you a very Happy New Year. I hope that wherever you are, if you’re celebrating tonight, um, you’re fine, and you’re safe and I look forward to writing with you in the new decade to come, which for me, as I record this is in like three and a half hours, I think. I don’t know what time it is. Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you and thank you again so much. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 161: Rachael on the RWA Debacle appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 160: How Do You Use Tarot as Tool for Writing Even if You’re Non-Woo-woo? Bonus episode!

Rachael talks about how she uses her tarot decks to uncover her own subconscious knowledge, and how you can, too

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael 

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode number 160 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. This is a bonus mini podcasts, and I’m recording this on December 26th it is the only episode of the podcast that will come out this week because I’m trying to take a little bit of downtime during this holiday week because everybody else around me is too, so I’ve still got work to do that I’ve been doing, but I’m trying to spend a little bit more time lying down, reading books. 

But I didn’t want to miss sending out an episode of a podcast, so I decided to answer this question from Mary, and her question is a fascinating one. At the risk of potentially losing listeners. Um, try and keep an open mind on this one. Uh, it’s going to be a little, woo-woo friends, strap in, hold on. Here we go. Mary asks, “You’ve mentioned working with the Tarot in your writing. Can you spend a couple of minutes on what that process looks like? I know not everyone’s process will be the same, but I’m looking for suggestions on how to start working with a tarot in my own writing.” Okay. So Tarot, some people have already clicked off their radio. Uh, I am not a witch, nor do I play one on TV. I think of witches and Wiccans and exactly the same way that I think of priests and pastors and Buddhist nuns, and, um, any kind of authority figure in a spiritual practice. I am not an authority figure in any spiritual practice, but I will confess to you that I do believe that there is some, um, unifying spirit or force in this universe in which we live that sometimes gives us, pushes in the right direction. I kind of, don’t laugh, think about it like the force in the Star Wars movies. Um, don’t know what it is, but sometimes you can feel it.

You know that you should do X and when you are trying to live as well and as, um, ethically and morally sound helping others as well as yourself, then, uh, we can drop into that intuition and listen to what our own guts say. Basically the force is, the force for me is located in my gut. If I am doing right, I know it. If I am doing wrong, it just feels sick and think this green feeling in my body and not a good green, like a sick green. Uh, I know it’s wrong. And that’s, um, my definition of spirituality. You probably have a much better and more clear definition of that. I’m kind of an agnostic with a, a spiritual bent basically. But I really like tarot cards. I believe that they are, I’ve, I’ve been working with them for probably a year and a half. I believe there a really direct way to get to our subconscious in a very union way. Uh, when you look at the archetypes that are in every civilization and every community, um that have been projected throughout the ages, the tarot cards are just another depiction of that. And when we ask a question, and we are presented with a picture, our brains make a connection between the question and the picture. And it’s a way to hear our intuition talking. In a way that sometimes we can’t quite get to just by sitting at a desk and thinking.

So Mary, I thought that the best way for me to do this would be actually to do a little drawing here and tell you how I’m doing it. So, um, this week as so many weeks, I’m shuffling the cards right now. Um, I have been struggling with getting to the page, which is 100% normal for me. And this week is fine, it’s holiday week. Next week will not be fine. Um, but I’d like to ask them, I’d like to ask this, this particular taro deck, which is the everyday, which, which is really kind of just, uh, adorable. It’s an adorable deck. Um, uh, why am I having trouble getting to the page and I’m just going to for, pick a card? Um. Okay. It is the two of wands, which is, um, wands are about creativity and fire kind of like the fire element. Um, twos are about decisions. It, this is displaying to me that it is possible that I’m having a problem deciding between options, and I absolutely am. I have two options in front of me right now that I am being pushed and pulled to work on both of them. And I don’t know what to do. So what I do when I don’t know what to do is I kind of freeze. I don’t do anything. I just read books and, and do all of my other work and not writing.

Um, you heard me talk about this. So this is a very literal card for me to draw. Um, uh, and the two of wands is also to me, and it’s all about how you interpret the cards. You can get all these books to help you and stuff, but you can also just look at the card and say, how does this make you feel? Um, this card makes me feel potentiality. It makes me feel excitement that something is beginning. Um, it’s still early on in a process. It makes me feel confident that I will make the right choice and that the choices ahead of me are good. And that is what I feel. And I didn’t know if I could have articulated that as well before I drew this card. Um, I’m having a problem getting to the page because I am overwhelmed by the excellent choices that I have. And if you had drawn the same card with the same question, your brain and your intuition might’ve given you a very different story. I’m using the symbolism on the card and what the card is, um, referring to in terms of its number and it’s a suit basically. Um, that would have been exactly right for you because your intuition, your, at the back of your brain is putting together those answers. Um, but if you’re using it in terms of fiction, um, let’s see, I’m going to ask a question about my character, Jillian, and this is something I’ve been struggling to answer. I’ve been working, I’ve been struggling with her character arc and the reason why she doesn’t connect with other women well, why doesn’t she connect with other women well? This book is kind of about connection between a woman and their friendships. So, I kind of have her backstory, I kind of know what it’s about and I haven’t, I haven’t tried this, so let’s, um, draw a random card. Why doesn’t Jillian connect well with other women? I got the Hierophant, which I do not know if I’m pronouncing correctly. It might be Hereford. The Hierophant in this particular deck is symbolized by a beautiful yoga teacher in a class. I just lost six more listeners by saying that, um. So why she’s not connecting, and this is, this could be very, very true for Jillian. Jillian is a doctor, the Hierophant is all about, um, systems of power and learning and teaching. And Jillian has kind of felt like she is high in her own estimation and does have a hard time, um, connecting people to people who are not within the rigid system of the, of medicine that she is in. So I can read it as either she, it might be good for Jillian to realize that, to let down some or regard. Um, I can also read this card as she needs more – she needs more teaching, she needs to learn more about how to be a friend, and perhaps she needs to be looking for a mentor in friendship. Um, which this yoga teacher on this particular card would symbolize. A lot of times this is the Pope card. Um, but this really, uh, patriarchal and this deck dispensed with that patriarchal. Nonsense. Um. So perhaps she needs to look for a teacher and that is really resonating with me as I say it, because the woman in the book that she connects with the most that she wants to be taught by how to be a good friend is spoiler alert, of course, the bad guy. Um, so just playing with those ideas, playing with that card. It didn’t, it didn’t tell me how to write the next scene. Um, but it could, it could do that. Let’s try that. Um, I actually don’t know what my next scene is going to be, but it probably has to be something about Jillian soon to be ex-husband. How should I write the scene? This card, you guys, I’m doing this off the tab and this may not work at all, but I believe it will. Um, how should this next scene go? I hold 10 of ones. Um, which is about burdens, which is about carrying heavy objects and feeling overwhelmed. Uh, at this point, I, you basically with Taro, you’re, you’re examining, it’s aligning to your subconscious, your unconscious, and you get to decide how you feel about this. Um, Jillian is going to be feeling very burdened. Very overwhelmed by everything that is happening around her. But I also kind of read myself in this. I’m, I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed and burdened by everything that I need to, you know, do in this book in order to make it a really good one, because somebody already bought it and I need to make it good. So I’m kind of feeling both of those things and I’m feeling relief at saying those words out loud and having it be okay. Um, so I hope that helps a little bit about how I use the tarot cards. They don’t, um, they don’t always direct me in exactly what’s going to happen next. Uh, but if I was to be literal about this particular draw, yes, I would have Jillian try to manage a lot of things and fail at doing so um, or feel like she is going to fail at doing so. So it actually could feed into a scene, but perhaps it’s really talking to me about my emotions and about how I need to maybe manage some of the other burdens that I’m carrying around.

So it’s super fun. What I’m saying is, it’s super fun to play with. And you heard me answering, um, or explaining what the cards meant. And that is only because I’ve spent some time working with them. I, there’s so many books out there to help you learn how to do it. But I think, um, the ultimate guide to tarot card meanings is probably the best that I know, um, by Bridget Esslemont. Um, she’s really, really wonderful. She’s an Australian. She has a great podcast. If you’re interested in, um, just kind of learning about tarot and what the cards mean and how to do things, um, you get to create your meaning from this, I’d recommend her podcast, I’d recommend her book. Bridgette Esslemont, E.S.S. E.L.M.O.N.T. 

And thank you so much for the question, Mary. That was super fun and I hope that you all are having a wonderful move out of 2019 and into 2020 next week I will be doing my annual tradition of talking about how much I made and the year before and how I made it, where those streams of income came from. So I will be doing that next week, I’ll look forward to talking to you then. I hope that you are getting some writing done and we’ll talk soon my friends. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process. Get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 160: How Do You Use Tarot as Tool for Writing Even if You’re Non-Woo-woo? Bonus episode! appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 159: Steff Green on Writing Prolifically and Joyfully

Steff Green is a USA Today bestselling author of the paranormal, gothic, dark, and fantastical. Steff received the 2017 Attitude Award for Artistic Achievement, and was a finalist for a 2018 Women of Influence award. Her books are enjoyed by thousands of readers all over the world. When she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out with her husband and cat horde, or tearing up the mosh pit at a heavy metal show. Steff is the author of How to Rock Self Publishing, and the founder of the Rage Against the Manuscript community for writers looking to level up their career.

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing.

Transcript 

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you, Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

Well, hello writers! Welcome to episode number 159 of “How do you, Write?” I’m Rachael Herron, totally thrilled that you’re here today. Talking to fellow new Zealander, I like to brag, Steff Green. She’s a real new Zealander. I’m a new Zealander by maternal matrilineal heritage. She is absolutely phenomenal. You may recognize her name, from being covered in the media. She’s one of those people that the media writes about.

And they say, writing is not dead. Being a writer, you can make money. Look at this woman and what she’s doing. She is also fantastically lovely and so joyful about writing that she truly left me with a yearning to get to the page as soon as possible. So I know that you will enjoy her. And what’s going on around here? I’m just writing. I’m struggling a little bit to write. I am- there are two days this week that I just did not get as many words done as I wanted. For different reasons, migraine/excuse, excuse, excuse, insert, excuse here. So I’m fighting a little bit of that. Not a lot of it. Uh, but this time of year is just so frantically packed with things that have to happen. Plus, my car broke down, plus the dog is really, really sick and we’ve spent almost $2,000 at the vet this week. So that’s been taking up some time. But again, like I said, that is merely an excuse. And we all have excuses. So I like to say that here and proclaim to you my intention to get back to the page. Better and bigger and with an intent heart. There’s also the problem that I know that I’m not in the right place in my book. I’m going too slow and I need to pick up the pacing. Not necessarily the pace, but the pacing. And if it helps it all to know. The way I deal with that is I stop doing what I’m doing. In whatever scenes I’m doing it. Our guts are often right. And if they say you’re not doing X right, sometimes that’s just you panicking. Well, sometimes your gut is really telling you, “Ooh, no, you’ve got to, you got to move on here. You’re spending too much time in this particular scene or in this cluster of scenes.

So what I do in that case is I skip ahead just a little bit. I’m a very linear writer, um, but I do allow myself to skip forward to the next place that is of high interest to me. And I know where that is and I, I am going to start there. Today, with the full intention of writing scenes, to connect the last scene that I wrote with this scene that I’m writing today. And with the full knowledge that oftentimes I don’t have to do that. Later on when I come back and revision, I’ll go, I’ll be able to see the way to connect that last spot to this spot. Oftentimes it means deleting the last thing that I was writing, getting rid of that scene, it wasn’t useful to me. And for that reason, it was a good idea not to go on writing it, not to go on swimming in that nebulous sea of non-motion and get back into the action. Um, my biggest challenge when it comes to writing is inserting plot because I can write characters and emotions all day long and plot takes a back seat, and when you’re writing a thriller, the plot really needs to be there. So, today I’m kicking the plot in the caboose. Um, but my Goddaughter is also coming into town for the holidays, and so I’m going to go pick her up from the airport soon. So there’s all sorts of, commotion and I really want to be very dedicated to how I look at my work and how I get it done. 

A quick thanks to new patrons, Candice Floyd. Thank you very much, Candice, and thank you to the amazingly named Dahlia Vandahlenberg. I think it’s Dahlia Vandahlenberg. She edited her edited her pledge up to the point at which she gets to ask the questions for those mini episodes that I’ve been recording, that I’ve been loving recording. In another business note, very soon I will be announcing a not only 90 days to done, which is the online class that I teach in which you go through writing a book from beginning to end, either a novel or a memoir. But I think I’m also going to offer a 90-day revision at the same time. Because there are often groups of people that want totally different things. They want to do their revision of a novel or a memoir in 90 days or they want to write and then that makes them wait. This is going to be an experiment in managing my time.

This will be the first and possibly only time that I offer both of the classes at the same time. Um, the potential I see here happening is kind of doubling my work. And getting the same amount of students in it so that it might be a good time for you to try it, because it might be smaller class. Although, boy, these classes turn out to be wonderful. They’re not, usually over 12 people. So if you’re interested in that, just make sure you’re signed up for my email newsletter list. I will announce it there and in my Slack channels first. Um, the reason why I’m not announcing it right now is I don’t quite know exactly when I’m going to be offering it. Um, January is completely off the table, um, as I’m traveling for most of January, so I think I’m going to start the first week of February, and it’s a 3month course, and people write their books in the 90 days to done class, and they revise their books in 90day revision. They do the first major revision. Uh, one revision of course, is not enough to make your book into the best shape to send out to an agent or to hire an editor if you’re self-publishing. Um, but it, the, the big first revision is the hardest mountain to tackle. Everything else after that is much, much easier. So we do that together. So if you’re interested in that, um, just make sure you’re on my mailing list, http://rachaelherron.com/write, or in my Slack channel, which I will provide a link in the show notes at www.howdoyouwrite.net so you can always go check that out and join so you will be notified. That is all the business I have. Let’s get into Steff Green’s interview. I’m just so pleased to share it with you. You’re going to have so much fun listening to this, and I know you’re going to come away inspired and ready to take action in your own writing. So happy writing team, my friends, and we’ll talk soon. 

Rachael Herron: [00:06:56] Hey writers, I’ve opened up some coaching slots. I’m not taking clients on a weekly basis right now as I’m working on my own books, but I am doing one offs. I call them tune-ups. Tell me your plot problems and ask your character queries. Let me know what stumbling blocks you’re up against. Get tips and tricks to get you back on the right track. Ask me questions about all things publishing. Together, we’ll brainstorm your specific plan of action, making sure you’re in the driver’s seat of your book again, you’ll receive a 30minute call over Skype or FaceTime, giving you the honest encouragement you need to keep getting better. Or a polite ass kicking if that’s what you need and ask for. Plus, you’ll get an MP3 audio recording or MP4 video, your choice of our chat so you can re-listen at your leisure. And if you want a little more help, I can also critique either 10 pages or your book’s outline and talk you through my findings. Just check out http://rachaelherron.com/coach for more info. I’d love to work with you now on to the interview.

Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show today, Steff Green. Chiora!

 Steff Green: [00:08:07] Chiora!

Rachael Herron: [00:08:08] How are you?

Steff Green: [00:08:09] I am very good. How are you, Rachael?

Rachael Herron: [00:08:11] Excellent this afternoon to talk to a fellow new Zealander, uh, I, let me give you a little bit of an intro here. Steff Green is a USA Today bestselling author of the paranormal, gothic, dark, and fantastical. Steff received the 2017 Attitude Award for Artistic Achievement, and was a finalist for a 2018 Women of Influence award. Her books are enjoyed by thousands of readers all over the world. When she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out with her husband and cat horde, or tearing up the mosh pit at a heavy metal show. Steff is the author of How to Rock Self-Publishing, and the founder of the Rage Against the Manuscript community for writers looking to level up their career.

Oh my goodness. I have not been in a mosh pit for maybe 20 years, and I believe I fell that time. That’s excellent. I love that. That’s, that might be how you get some of your emotion out. Um, yeah, So fabulous. I would love to talk to you about your writing process and how you get all this done. Can you tell me a little bit about when and where and how much and all of that?

Steff Green: [00:09:23] Sure we can. Um, so I guess, so when I started, um, rushing and publishing, I was one of those people who, you know, I worked on my first book for kind of like five years tinkering with it, changing little things, you know, figuring out how to actually do the thing. Um, I sort of got that you know, I finished that book and I’m like, yes, I’ve finished something that’s amazing. And then I immediately started the next book and, and because I was, I think I was running on the high of finishing that first book. So the next book I finished in like eight months or something. And you know what I mean, by the third book, I’d sort of die down to six months. Um, when I first started writing, I was writing kind of this quite dark, um, science fiction, kind of, sort of steam punk, but on the science fiction side of steam punk rock thing, the fantasy side. And so I was doing all this kind of indexed historical research and I decided to, ah, you know, I’ve got to write about steam trains, I have to learn how a stream train works. So we meet in Poland, husband and I volunteered volunteer up. Like a steam locomotive depo and, you know, they let me drive the train and that was awesome. 

Rachael Herron: [00:10:42] That’s very cool. 

Steff Green: [00:10:43] Yeah, it was. It was really cool. Um, and yeah, and so I did all that kind of stuff. And, um. What’s, what sort of happened was I self-published those books. Um, because I had a, uh, um, I had a publishing deal which fell through and I was absolutely guttered. Um, and so I had to, um, find a way to, um, get over that. And it was sort of around the time when lots of the big kind of soft pop names and self-publishing were talking about how awesome they were doing. And I was like, this sounds great. Oh, I would like a piece of that pie, please. Um, yeah. And so, um, so I stopped published this, this, um, sort of, uh, steam punk series and it didn’t do very well.

But I was like completely addicted to this idea of holding my book in my hands and actually getting kind of feedback from actual readers and students just kind of constantly beating my head against the wall with all these agent’s, um, and, and just being able to take, to take an idea and make it happen and then bring it to the market. Um. It was just awesome. Um, and, uh, around that time I’ve started to think, Oh, you know, I wonder if maybe I would be interested in writing romance. Um, and I didn’t want to put it under my sub serious science fiction names, so I invented a pin name, um, which I kept completely secret from everyone, including my husband.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:13] Oh my goodness

Steff Green: [00:12:14] Then so, and I publish my, I wrote this, um, cute little 60 Fox shapeshift story was about a, uh, and, uh, Fox was an artist and he charmed up this gallery curator, and there was a big shift of war and it was like a 32,000 word Vela and I wrote it in about three weeks, um, and it just hold out of me. It was just, you know. Well, a thousand words a day, I just, you know, just, just having so much fun. Um, and I thought, well, you know, I’ll put it up, you know, it’ll sell two copies and I’ll, um, you know, laugh about it later and I put it up and it sold a thousand copies in a week. 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:57] Oh my goodness. 

Steff Green: [00:12:59] And it was amazing. And I sort of had to kind of sheepishly tell my husband that I sold these books, but it wasn’t like my super serious, so it was this, um, this Fox shapeshifter book and he sort of, when he stopped laughing, “Are you gonna write some more?” And I was like, “Yes, I am going to write some more”. And that was 2000 April, May, 2015 and it’s now 2019 nearly 2020. And I have 35 books, and yeah, most of them a paranormal romance. Um, and I quit my day job in February 2018 so two years’ full time, and as the most fun I could ever imagine hit heaven. Um, and I never want to quit. I never wanted to go back. Um, so… 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:53] Isn’t it the best? I quit my day job almost, I get three and a half years ago, and it is every single day I get up and I cannot believe that I get to do this. This is a job. 

Steff Green: [00:14:04] I know

Rachael Herron: [00:14:06] I just get to make stuff up and it’s the best. And you know, and, and, and with what the other stuff that you do, we get to help writers too, which I think is a really big part of this process, so that’s fantastic. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing?

Steff Green: [00:14:21] Um, so, so I have, I guess, some interesting challenges. Um, so I’m actually legally blind. Which is why my eyes, do this while peeking, but I do realize, sort of walk off to the side, um, but so, um, so I’m actually, yeah, so I’m actually legally blind and, um, it was quite interesting because the reason why I sort of, one of the reasons I sort of fell into Brighton was because I was kind of get keeped out of my previous career that I wanted to have, which was archeology.

Basically, because, you know, people don’t think, you can’t have a blind archeologist and I’m fairly certain you can, it’s trying to convince people that, um, that I was good at what I did, even though when you’re, so I’ve got kind of got get keeped out of that. And, um, a lot of the reason I pursued writing, which was always a thing I loved, was because it was, I felt as though it was an industry where people couldn’t tell me that I couldn’t do it, and I found that has been, has been the case. Um, you know, obviously doing it, so it’s obviously fine. Um, but there, there are some challenges with, um, having an eye condition like me and, you know, writing books that we are trying to make things kind of appeal to universally to readers. So I was having a conversation with a friend the other day who just finished reading one of my books and he said, you know, it’s really interesting that you don’t actually describe characters very much the way they look. And I was kind of looking at it and actually, that’s true, I don’t really do it. Um, and part of that is because, you know, when I meet people, um, and you know, because I wrote romance, when I find people attractable, when I fall, fall in love with them, it’s not really what they look like. Um, and kind of, I don’t articulate. The white people look is kind of, you know, yeah, as a thing that is particularly interesting. Um, but I do describe smells a lot and things like that. Um, and so it’s quite interesting I have to kind of go back and I have to stop and go just to go know if he’s a six event. Spend some time talking with fantasy.

Rachael Herron: [00:16:49] That’s fascinating. I also leave that out just because I forget. I’m not that interested in it either, and I prefer to fall in love with my characters, who they are and – and one, one of the wonderful things about romance is that we get to fall in love with these people all over again all the time. We’re constantly falling in love, and yet we remain with our partners, our primary partners, and we get to have all these affairs on the page. I love that. Exactly. What is your biggest joy when it comes to writing?

Steff Green: [00:17:19] Yeah. It’s kind of joyful, um, I mean, I love the actual ocs are, you know, taking a story that’s in my theaters and messing the keens and putting it on the page like that it’s just, is just wonderful and freeing and joyful and amazing. But I think particularly recently, as I’ve been getting a bit more popular, um, the, the response I get from readers, it’s just been that, you know, when I get fan mail and things that just like, I just cry. It’s just amazing. Um, uh, particularly, um, I’ve got one series, um, which is kind of a fan favorite, and the main character is, um, is going blind through the series and I have a lot of readers who contact me and say, you know, I was, obviously, it’s kind of goes a little bit on my experience. Um, and I have a lot of readers who contact me, say, you know, I’ve never read a character who is blind before, you know, I’m, I’m going blind, or, you know, I’ve been blind my whole life, or being vision impaired and it’s just so cool to read a book about a hero and who’s like me, who gets her happily ever after and she doesn’t get healed halfway through the book. You know, she doesn’t miraculously become sighted again. She, um, she gets to be in, she’s awesome chick. She gets to be an awesome chick. And be blind and not just one guy, but three guys. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:52] You’re literally changing the world, 

Steff Green: [00:18:54] I’m trying, i’m trying to. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:56] Legit. Legit. Do you have any plans for a blind archeologist book? to stick it, stick it to the gatekeepers? 

Steff Green: [00:19:08] I don’t know, actually. Um, I’ve done the, I’ve done a couple of books with, um, archeology, um, kind of archeologists. Um, I definitely have a lot more plans for a lot more blind and vision and pin characters. Um, I just, it’s really neat to kind of explore sort of what it means for me in my life and how I can take that to characters and, um, how, just knowing that there’s a desire from – from readers. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:37] That’s lovely. Can you share a craft tip of any sort with us?

Steff Green: [00:19:41] I can try. So for me, one of the things I’ve been learning a lot as I’ve been running more and more books as the importance of the main character. And you know, in romance we usually talking about, um, the female main character. Well, so you, we’ve got that jewel, um, as two main characters or more main characters. Um, so you’ve, you’ve got this main character, and they have, you know, they have a desire and the book that they will achieve. Um, and there’s all these obstacles that are standing in their way. And then at the end of the book, they achieved the thing that they don’t achieve the same. And that’s, that’s plot, in the nutshell. But the really important thing, which sometimes is missed a bit and plotting is that that character has to be a completely different, it has to be a different person getting another book, and at the end of the book, um, and it’s the process of striving for that goal. And usually, realizing halfway through or three quarters of the way through that that thing is actually not the thing that they want. It’s that it’s that process and it’s bashing up against the other characters who all have their own goals and their own internal challenges, and that’s what changes the person in a step process of changing and growing. That is actually the thing that readers really love. Like you could almost, you could almost take out the excellent stuff and you’d still have an exciting book because of the internal battle. Um, yes.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:24] I absolutely love that, and it took me so long to figure that out as a writer. 

Steff Green: [00:21:29] Yeah, me too. I was always like, all this, twist, all that twist. And I’m kind of hinted, I kind of kid back over the years and I still, still pretty unknown. Crazy twist and evil caught hands and things like that, but yes, it’s the internal growth, um, that role that excites the readers. You know, they’re the ones I’m writing for, so gotta give them what they want.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:57] I love that I’m reading, um, have you read Holly Black’s, uh, the Crow prints? 

Steff Green: [00:22:03] Yes 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:04] Oh my goodness. I’m reading that right now. And watching Jude change in the first book is just riveting. Riveting.

Steff Green: [00:22:13] It’s just stunning watching it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:15] Yeah. Awesome. What, uh, what thing in your life affect your writing in a surprising way? 

Steff Green: [00:22:21] Um, kind of talk to a little bit about eyesight. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:26] Yeah 

Steff Green: [00:22:27] That’s one thing. Um, I do, I do a lot of travelling. Um, I’m by myself and with my husband, and that’s a very big influence on my writing. And often it’s the things that I don’t, you know, I often goes to a place because I had, uh, you know, this thing I want to see because I think I’m going to put that in a book and often I’ll write it all, but it’s something completely different that’s gonna end up in a book. Good example, I guess is, um, um, we recently went to Romania, um, for a couple of weeks, um, because I am writing a series with character, um, Ben pies series, because of course, um, which is probably sitting in Romania with, you know, with one of the main characters is Romanian. Um, and so I kind of want us to learn a bit more about the country, and kind of a bit more about the norms, you know, the, um, red tipis came from kind of thing. Um, and one of the, one of the goals, one of the things we want them to do more than anything was go to the specific castle in the middle of Romania because it’s the one we are vibing paler, um, kind of did a bit of his last stand and it’s not the super famous castle. It’s kind of a ruin, but hard to get pictures, not that many people go and we weren’t, you know, this was, I was like, this is my main research thing. I’ve got to get to this castle and then we get to Romania and we discover that you can’t, they’ve closed the castle. You can’t go to this castle!

Rachael Herron: [00:24:02] Oh no

Steff Green: [00:24:04] because, because the reason is awesome. A bear, a mother and her cubs have taken up residence in the castle. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:15] That’s gorgeous. 

Steff Green: [00:24:18] It’s beautiful. And so they have got this epic castle for themselves. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:25] I tell you what, if that had happened in America, they would’ve shot the bear, you know? Oh, I love that they did that 

Steff Green: [00:24:32] Yeah, and they’re like, there’s no fuss at the castle. Um, and so, um, yeah, and so instead of the castle being in the book, this bear is gonna be at the book and it’s completely changed and a major plot was going on and its for the better

Rachael Herron: [00:24:51] And you never could have landed on that had you not gone. It never crossed your mind. Did you, did you know that they have a, um, a Dracula con in Transylvania? Have you seen that? 

Steff Green: [00:25:05] I do.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:58] Yes. One of my, one of my academic friends went recently to present a paper, and I just think that’s so very, very cool. Oh, that’s wonderful. What is the best book that you’ve read recently? and why did you like it

Steff Green: [00:25:17] Actually, I got it here.

Rachael Herron: [00:25:20] Oh, gorgeous cover. 

Steff Green: [00:25:22] Yeah, it’s stunning. So, I read from a romance writer, I read quite a lot outside of romance, kind of similar reasons why I travel a lot. So this book is called, Winding the Clock, 100 Graves to Visit Before You Die? And my husband bought it for me, and um, a hybrid cementery in London and usual old victorian cementery. This wasn’t in the gift shop. And I love, a bit of a golf. Um, and I love cementeries, and I love stories about interesting graves and what’s so cool about this book is that they’re all graves in England. Um, and the really fascinating stories, and it kind of gives you not just, not just the stories about the people, but also kind of about funerary culture and you know, how cementeries work and kind of Victorian funerary customs, and it’s just, it’s just super fascinating. And I’ve got, I’ve already got like a half a page of notes that I’m going to, you know, are going to be in my books. It might be in my books

Rachael Herron: [00:26:35] Absolutely what a place to leap from. And I just, I have a list of like three people that I need to get that book for now, including myself. That’s wonderful. Thank you. I’ve never heard of that. Would you now tell us a little bit about yourself, where we can find you and I would love it if you told us about your most recent book or series. 

Steff Green: [00:26:56] So, okay. So, um, I have a website called https://www.steffmetal.com And I’m on all of the, I’m on mostly on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/steffmetal, uh, in my, my private readers group and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/steffmetal again. So, so I publish about once a month, so I have a lot

Rachael Herron: [00:27:26] Oh my goodness

Steff Green: [00:27:29] But one series that, this is the one that’s kind of a reader favorite of mine, and it’s called the Nevermore Bookshop series, the Nevermore Bookshop Mystery Series. It’s basically like, it’s like Agatha Christie crossed with Black Books um, with lots of sexy times.

Rachael Herron: [00:27:48] Nice. Are they set in New Zealand? 

Steff Green: [00:27:50] Uh, no, they sit in a bookshop in England, and the bookshop is a little bit of magical. And it makes, um, fictional characters come to life. And so the main characters’ love interests uh, he’s caught from weathering heights. 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:05] Oh my goodness. 

Steff Green: [00:28:06] James Moriarty from a short poems and a course, the Raven from and Poe, and he’s actually a shapeshifter.

Rachael Herron: [00:28:15] What a brilliant concept.

Steff Green: [00:28:15] And yeah, and so every, every book they solve a mystery. Um, and all the book titles are like book worthy puns, and this is four books out and it’s yours at the moment. Plus, I’ve just released I don’t have the paperback but just released a Christmas novella called How He Stole Christmas. Which is making people really happy, so…

Rachael Herron: [00:28:37] That’s a great title. Well, I think I have to backtrack for a moment and ask, how do you get a book done a month? What is, what does the process look like for you? 

Steff Green: [00:28:46] So what I do, my goal is 4,000 words a day, 2000 in the morning, 2000 words after that. Um, and I, sometimes I don’t need it, sometimes I will set a timer, um, and I’ll, I’ll set time for 20 minutes and I’ll do some about 500, 700 words in 20 minutes. So theoretically I can get my 2000 words done in about an hour and a half, but that never actually happens. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:16] Um, and are you dictating or typing? 

Steff Green: [00:29:19] I type, I type and I learned to type when I was quite young, so I’m relatively faster. Um, and I don’t really, I’m a bit of a pencil, I, what I used to say, I don’t really outline, but what I’ve come to realize is that actually my, the first draft of my book, which is a super rough kind of 20,000-word draft, um, is actually an outline. It’s basically a rough, you know, it’s a challenge, it’s a lot of dialogue, a lot of description, absolutely no character descriptions. Um, and you know, I go, so I race off that draft in about a week, um, and it gets all my ideas down and then I go back and I finish it a bit, and then it ends up being about 50,000 words. And then I go back and I, I make it pretty. Um, and it’s another, most of my books are between 75,000 and a 100,000 words. 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:12] Oh my goodness. 

Steff Green: [00:30:15] Yeah. And I, yeah, I published eleven books this year, but I did go to Europe to travel for six weeks. I probably will hit something 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:28] I’m happy when I hit two a year, or three a year.

Steff Green: [00:30:34] You know, I, we don’t have any kids. Um, it’s sort of just me and my husband. Um. It’s just so much fun. So, I kind of, you know, I used to write, I used to try and write a thousand words a day, and you know, it’s 2000 words, you know, I got more stories to write.

 Rachael Herron: [00:30:56] I find that so inspiring because I find 4,000 hard to hit every day on a regular basis, and I’ve just gone back to 2000 words a day. But when you say it like that, I think yes, that is the point. That’s why I want to write 4,000 words a day when I do, because there’s so much story that I want to tell and I want to get it done. So like I can tell the next book so

Steff Green: [00:31:15] Yeah, so

Rachael Herron: [00:31:16] Well, I find you an absolute delight and very inspirational. Um, where else can readers find you? Would you want to tell us a little bit about, um, Rage Against the Manuscripts?  

Steff Green: [00:31:26] Yes, I do. So Rage Against the Manuscripts is a new project that I have posted a description, and it is a, so we’ve got a Facebook group called, um, Rage Against the Manuscript, we’re the only Facebook group called that, so pretty easy to find. Um, and it’s just a group, it’s just a group of writers, you can go on air. Most people are self-published or thinking about self-publishing, but not, not everybody. Um, and we just were talking about writing. We kind of do like strengths and goals together. We talk a lot about marketing and people share, you know, this is what’s working for me or advertising, what’s not working. Um, I put a lot of kind of case studies of about things that I’ve done. So for instance, I recently held a Book Club and I put up a bunch of posts about, you know, here’s how that did over the days and kind of see in real time. So, so that’s part of it. And I’m just about to launch the website, um, which is www.rageagainstthemanuscript.com. Um, and that’s got a whole bunch of free articles about writing and self-publishing and kind of what I’ve done and, um, and it’s also got, um, a couple of short guides for writers, there’s a free one. Um, this one about writing romance, and it’s got my new book coming out called How to Rock Self-publishing, which is a full, complete nuts and bolts here, you’ve got a manuscript, here’s how to publish it, here’s how to do research, and then here’s how to market it and grow an audience with the idea of, you know, eventually maybe quitting your job and being a writer full time and so, yeah. And so that book’s coming out soon and if you want to get on the list to get a copy of that. Um, it’s kind of a, you know, it’s, it’s like taking all the self-publishing information that’s out there and kind of coalescing that into one and then kind of giving it a bit of a punk rock twist, so. 

Rachael Herron: [00:33:39] I love this. I cannot wait to get my hands on this.

Steff Green: [00:33:42] So if you weren’t interested, um, if you’re interested in getting a copy when it comes out, just go to www.rageagainstthemanuscript.com/howtorock and then you can sign up via, um, and I will send you an email. 

Rachael Herron: [00:34:02] Perfect. Oh my goodness. I cannot wait to read that. I am always interested in leveling up my own game as well. So, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. This has been fabulous and I wish you very, very, very happy, writing going forward. And I will be keeping my eye on your work. 

Steff Green: [00:34:22] Thank you!

Rachael Herron: [00:34:23 Thank you Steff, so much. Have a wonderful day. Okay. Bye. 

Rachael Herron: [00:34:28] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, https://twitter.com/RachaelHerron or at my website, http://rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at https://www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers http://rachaelherron.com/write. Now, go to your desk and create your own process. Get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 159: Steff Green on Writing Prolifically and Joyfully appeared first on R. H. HERRON.

Ep. 158: Should You Plan to Self-Publish AND Seek Agent Representation? And Are Retreats for Introverts? Bonus Episode

Ep. 158: Should You Plan to Self-Publish AND Seek Agent Representation? And Are Retreats for Introverts? Bonus Episode

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you, Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 patrons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at https://www.patreon.com/rachael

Well, hello writers! Welcome to a bonus mini podcast episode of “How do you, Write?” episode number 158. I am coming at you with two questions here.

[00:00:26] The first one is from Ellen McCoy Beatty. Hello, Ellen! I think this is a really great question. What are the most important components of a writing retreat? I went to one recently that was lovely. But as a very shy introvert, I had trouble with the lack of privacy. Shared room, shared bathroom, et cetera. I know some writers just plan their own, either alone or with a few writer friends.



[00:00:49] Have you ever done that kind of retreat? Small and short, as opposed to a group going to Europe? If so, any tips? Yes, this is a problem and it is a problem for me. I have felt this exact way. So many of us writers are introverts, and I actually led a retreat last year, and it was at a lighthouse hostel environment.



[00:01:14] Um, it wasn’t hostile. It was a hostel, and it was beautiful, but the rooms were shared, and I kind of vowed that I would never do that again. We had a great time. But I, as an introvert really, really need to be able to shut my door and be completely alone. Um, it’s really very important to me. And when I lead the retreats to Europe, I make sure that everybody can have their own hotel room if they want one.



[00:01:41] They can always, you know, share a room with a friend if they want to, but everyone gets their own room. And I think that as introverts, that’s the way to do any kind of writing retreat. Um, I also think that’s the way to do writing conferences. Conferences are expensive and people tend to bunk up, you know, two or four to a room.



[00:01:59] And I used to find those experiences really miserable because I need the time to recharge. Something I really do love to do that is smaller and cheaper than a conference or a retreat. That is, you know, like one of my arranged ones is to do the group of friends. Um, and I’ve done that a lot. And the way I like to do it now is to find a house that has enough bedrooms so everybody gets a bedroom.



[00:02:25] As long as I have a door that can close, I don’t mind sharing a- sorry about that. A bathroom, that’s fine. But I need a door that shuts and a place to put in my earplugs and be really, really alone. And I think that the retreat experience is like no other. If you’re with a group of friends and you agree that you’re gonna write every morning from 8 until 12 and then you’re going to have free time until 3, and then you’re going to write from 3 till 5 and then have the evenings off, whatever it is, whatever you and your friends come up with to have as kind of the parameter, the loose shape of the retreat is wonderful.



[00:03:03] I think that if you’re planning a retreat, with friends, it is really important to set those parameters. Otherwise, you will end up just talking and drinking coffee and, or wine all day with the best of intentions. But you’ll probably only get 45 minutes of work done. So if it is with friends, set the attention. Set the goals, the guidelines. When are we going to talk? When are we not going to talk? I’ve done a lot of one day retreats. Um, you know, we’ll just pick a Saturday at somebody’s house and everybody goes there and whoever hosts it usually comes up with the guidelines. 



[00:03:36] Okay, we’re going to talk at these times. Please don’t talk otherwise, you know, go nestle yourself into that couch or over there- that table, um, really only works if somebody has a big house. And I also want to mention the solo retreat. I love a solo retreat, and I love looking at hostels as a great place to do this. They’re everywhere, they’re cheap, and you can often get your own private room for very, very inexpensive rate and are set in incredible locations.



[00:04:05] So again, you have to set up the box that goes around it, that kind of holds the space for you and do your work and have your downtime. You can’t go on a retreat and expect to write all day or revise all day. It’s just not possible. Brain-wise, you can do that maybe for one day, but you’ll be exhausted.



[00:04:24] So you need to build on the breaks and you need to breathe, build in the snacks and the walks and the exploration so they can be really wonderful. They do not have to cost a lot. You can bring all your own food in kind of thing. I, um, I very much recommend them. But if you know that about yourself, Ellen, and it sounds like you do.



[00:04:45] Absolutely go to those or put those on yourself as long as you have a bolt hole and a place to escape to. That’s what I would like to recommend for you because they can be super, super wonderful too, and a place where you can get a lot of work done. 



[00:05:00] Okay. Second and last question for this mini episode. Nice little quick one here, is from Katrina, who actually has been on several of my retreats. Hello, Katrina. I’m setting a goal for a self-publication date while simultaneously shopping for an agent. Wise or fickle? 



[00:05:18] Oh, girl, you go, that’s all I’m gonna say. I think it’s a little bit wise, and it’s a little bit fickle. I think it’s great. There is, the thing that I like to remember in this whole question between self-publishing or attempting to go the traditional route and snag an agent. Is that neither answer, neither direction is right all the way, and neither direction is wrong all the way. There are pros and cons to both and Katrina, I know that you are well-schooled then you are wise in the ways of what self-publishing looks like in today’s landscape.



[00:05:56] It’s a completely viable, awesome way to publish. And I think it’s kind of a, I think it attracts me as an idea. And if I think that if I were breaking into writing right now, that is probably what I would do. I would set a date, that I would self-publish and I would go hard on trying to get agents until then.



[00:06:18] Katrina, I kind of know what you’re working on. So, we will talk to everybody else who might be listening. If you are not quite sure, and Katrina, I know this doesn’t apply to you, but if listeners are not quite sure of the quality of their book, that is the danger point. I think it is hard to tell the quality of your own writing, and that’s something that you can gain or look at. You can gain voices on by getting beta readers, getting friends to read, although that can be dangerous. There are always going to tell you it’s great. How do you know if you can trust them? It might be something that you might want to hire an editor to tell you.



[00:06:55] Honestly, if this is in publishable shape, it’s very hard for us to know that, especially on a first book. So, I guess what I’m saying is if you’re going for agents and nobody’s picking up your book because it’s not right for them and they don’t think they can sell it in today’s market, that is one thing, then go ahead and self-publish your bad self.



[00:07:19] That’s completely awesome. If the agents are not picking up the book because they don’t think it’s a good, it’s good enough quality yet, and maybe you need to write a couple more books before you’re good enough. Then self-publishing might be a scarier thing because now you’re putting out a book that might not be as good as you want it to be. Maybe you need to get a little bit better. But again, that’s something that is very, very, very, very, very hard to judge. And that my friends, is why we need community. If you are listening to podcasts but don’t have community close to you, in person or a group of friends that are close online. That is something that you really want to cultivate.



[00:07:58] You want to cultivate writers who are real writers, who are trying to get stuff done, who are not just dabbling and writers who will tell you the truth and writers who are smart enough that you can trust them. And if one of those writers says to you, John, I don’t think you will be pleased if this is your first published book.



[00:08:17] You won’t be pleased in three years. When you know down the line after you’ve gotten more books under your belt, listen to those people. If you think your book has as good as it can be, then yes, set the self-publishing date, stop publish if you don’t find an agent before then I don’t think there’s, there’s, there’s nothing wrong with that.



[00:08:34] And I think it’s kind of a fun, exciting dance to do also. So Katrina, a very good and thought provoking question. Um, I know you’re writing and it’s fabulous, and your book is fabulous. So I just think, do whatever your heart desires. There’s pros and cons of everything, and it sounds like you’re doing everything just right. And with excitement and keep us and me posted please. So to the rest of you, I wish you very, very, very happy writing. It’s raining here in California and I have been enjoying doing my own writing the sound of the rain around me. So I hope that something in your life is sparking joy. And as I guess Marie Kondo would say, I think I stole that from her. And that you’re having a sweet time with your own creation, with their own words. Thank you for listening and we will talk soon.



[00:09:20] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you, Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, https://twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, http://rachaelherron.com. You can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life or as little as a buck an essay at https://www.patreon.com/rachael, spelled R, a, c, h, a, e. l. And do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers at http://rachaelherron.com/write/. Now, go to your desk and create your own process. Get to writing my friends.

The post Ep. 158: Should You Plan to Self-Publish AND Seek Agent Representation? And Are Retreats for Introverts? Bonus Episode appeared first on R. H. HERRON.