Writing Character Reactions

What writing character reactions can teach you about being a writer…

How to write realistic, fascinating character reactions…and what that can teach you about BEING a writer…

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Coaching with Julie


Transcript

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Good morning, good
evening, good afternoon.

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Julie here from Story a Day and I am
here this week to talk to you about

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some other things that I’ve been
discovering working through the One

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Story September Challenge with the
current group of people going through it.

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Last week we were talking about how
characters react to various stimuli and

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so I was sharing the the things I’ve
learned in my study of the psychology

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of the human being, the human creature.

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And one of the things that’s
really striking is that we are

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not as evolved as we think we are.

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So if you’ve been struggling, if
you’re interested in how to write

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better characters, I’m going to
talk a little bit about that today.

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And I’m also going to talk about
how we can use that knowledge.

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to help ourselves to escape from
the prison of imposter syndrome or

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procrastination or lack of motivation or
starting things and not finishing them.

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All of these complaints that I hear
from people every time I put out

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a survey that asks you what’s, uh,
what you’re struggling with right

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now or any time basically I talk to
writers or, uh, be a writer myself.

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So First, let’s talk about
characters, because it’s easier to

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talk about other people, especially
non existent people, than it is to

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examine our deep, dark, inner selves.

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Here’s how humans operate.

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When something happens,
we react instinctively.

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We react chemically, actually.

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We react chemically.

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Our body floods itself with whatever
chemicals in our, our history of human

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existence has taught us is important.

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This is what we’re talking about when
we say we have the fight or flight

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response or how, you know, your
body thinks it’s going to, if you’re

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stressed, it’s like in olden days when
you used to think you were going to

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get eaten by a saber toothed tiger.

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Uh, actually humans are a lot
older than saber toothed tigers.

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And so you’ve heard those things
too, so many times that they

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just kind of wash over you now.

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But I want you to think about the
fact that we react instinctively.

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And our bodies flood us, flood us with
the chemicals that it thinks we’re

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going to need before any rational
thought has time to form in our brains.

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That’s how your characters react.

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And because we are writing something
that is potentially quite intimate

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with our characters, we can hop into
their heads, we can hop into their

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bodies at any point, and we should be
sharing that stuff with the reader.

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The reader doesn’t really want to know
just what’s happening on the external.

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They want to know what’s
happening inside the character.

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We all consume a lot of television
and movies, I’m going to assume.

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That, in the hands of a really good actor
and a really good director, sometimes

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you get some of that inner journey.

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You see a range of emotions
flicker over the protagonist’s face

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before they do the right thing.

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What’s happening, and what’s happened
with that actor and director is probably

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lots and lots of conversations about
exactly how the character wants to react

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and what they’re doing to suppress that
initial desire, and whether they’re

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going to give in to that initial desire.

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And the fact is, that’s what’s
happening in every person all

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the time when something happens.

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We have this instinctive
reaction, and then we have the

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conditioned response response.

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And the Conditioned Response, the first
response that we consciously have,

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even subconsciously, is the Conditioned
Response from when you were a kid, and

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what the people who raised you, and the
people around you, who mattered to you,

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taught you, was an acceptable solution to
a situation, or reaction to a situation.

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So, if you grew up in
a house that was very

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ebullient, whether that’s for good or
ill, if people, if your character comes

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from, say, an Italian American family,
where everybody argues and shouts and

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then it all blows over in a few minutes,
as I am led to believe, then that’s going

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to be how they think it’s okay to react.

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And that’s going to be the first
reaction they reach for beyond

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the fight or flight reaction.

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Um, the, the urge to punch
someone is fairly deeply buried.

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When somebody crosses you, the urge to
like, if they come at you physically,

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the urge to come back at them physically
is fairly deeply in us instinctually.

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Your childhood will have taught you
whether or not it’s acceptable to

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let that instinct go or whether you
need to, like, sit on your hands.

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Beyond that, as you, as your character
lives through life and goes outside

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the world of their family, their, their
childhood environment, they’re going

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to be in other environments where they
will learn other ways of being, and

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they will learn other societal norms.

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When you go to school, it’s very much not
okay to punch someone when you’re in the

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classroom, even though in certain eras
and certain places it might still have

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been fine to scrap on the playground.

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So you have to learn, as a human
being, to suppress instincts in layers.

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As you become, say, this character
who we’ve talked about comes

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from a very voluble, very, very
volatile family, where it might have

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been okay to punch your brother.

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And then they go to school and discover
it’s okay to punch them, but only on the,

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on the playground when nobody’s looking,
certainly not in front of a teacher,

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and certainly not in the classroom.

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Then they grow up and
they become a lawyer.

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for people who may still do the punching.

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But the lawyer themselves has to
have these layers of civility and

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refinement, which they, they drape
over everything that they learned.

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And so if you’re writing this character,
they’re probably not punching anyone

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anymore, except in very extreme
circumstances in very dark alleys.

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Which means that in a situation of
high stress when someone comes at

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your lawyer verbally they are going to
react with that primal urge to punch.

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The little kid in them is
going to want to punch.

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The kid who went through school and
who’s learned to suppress that urge

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until nobody’s looking might kick in.

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And then the kid who went through law
school and learned to suppress all

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of that and come at them verbally is
going to kick in, maybe, on their best

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day, in the best of circumstances.

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So that’s a lot of emotion.

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Those are a lot of stages
that your character is going

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to go through in an instant.

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That’s how the human mind
brain nervous system works.

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If you’re not showing us any of
that, how are we supposed to know

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what your character’s going through?

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If they just quirk an eyebrow or smirk,
what does that tell us about what’s

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actually happening inside your character?

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You’ve got, uh, you’ve got like a
five minute slow mo sequence that you

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could be running through You’ve got
all the off ramps on that journey.

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Your character can go all the way
to the right civilised response and

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come back with a witty rejoinder.

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Or they can take an earlier off ramp
and they can snarl or they can lash

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out or they can, you know, have some
physical reaction that shows them

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wanting to go at the other person and
repressing it because, you know, school.

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Or you can let them.

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Rip and you can let them have their
primitive reaction not even the one

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in the family where somebody would
have stepped in and said Okay kids,

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let’s you know, let’s break it up.

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Now.

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You could let them go even further
You have all of those things to

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go through emotionally inside your
character Before you even start

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thinking about how to show that on the
outside and how far they’re gonna go.

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So We go from a very primitive response
to a conditioned response that can be

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hard to get over to the civilized response
that we have layered on as adults that

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makes the, the, the actions that we
think are civilized and acceptable.

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Part of the journey throughout a story
for your character, part of the internal

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journey of any character, is probably
going to always be a balance between

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what society will accept as civilized and
what your character really wants to do.

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It’s probably a journey between, journey
about, or a balancing act about them

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overcoming their instincts and deciding
how far to go towards what society

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wants and what feels good in the moment.

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And then, of course, you get to
explore things like the conditioning

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that your character has laid over
themselves, both by their family and

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their school and their environment.

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All of these things, all of these, these,
all of this conditioning that has happened

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to them, along with the things that they
have decided to take on in order to fit

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into the world they’re in, some of that
stuff may need to be stripped away.

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You think about a romantic partner
who’s experiencing coercive control.

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They have learned all these layers of
conditioning that have kept them safe and

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some of that stuff they shouldn’t have.

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And they’re going to have
to strip that stuff away.

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And it’s always going to be a fight
between the instinct, the conditioning,

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the intellectual decision about
what’s acceptable, and then perhaps

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a further intellectual decision.

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decision about what’s acceptable now,
in this moment, for me, unlearning

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the stuff that I learned before.

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Humans are complicated and it
happens in the fraction of a second.

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What can you put into your writing to show
us what your character is going through?

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Not all the time, just some of the time.

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When are the good moments
to show that stuff?

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Is your character always going to react
in the civilized, acceptable manner?

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Is that always the right
thing for them to do?

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How are they going to feel if they let
go and they get a bit more primitive?

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How are they going to feel if they stay
civilized when they shouldn’t have?

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Which brings me to you, the writer.

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As you go through your writing
process, you too are human.

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You too are dealing with
all of these reactions.

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to your writing.

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It seems ridiculous, but it’s
not an intellectual thing.

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When you’re writing and things get
hard, this is what you go through.

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You go through an instinctive reaction,
you go through your conditioned reaction,

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and then maybe, if you’re paying
attention, you get to the intellectual

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reaction where you say, I know this
feels a little uncomfortable at the

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moment, but I’m going to be, I’m going
to be cool about it, and I’m going

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to look at my work dispassionately,
and I’m going to decide where it’s

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working and where it’s not working.

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Now, on the journey from the ugh, this,
this feels hard, to no, I’m going to

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be dispassionate and, and sensible,
and I’m going to work on this like

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a scientist and tweak my writing.

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On the journey, from one to the
other, you’re going down a path

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that I can’t possibly know.

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Because I don’t know whose
voices are in your head.

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I don’t know what you were
conditioned to believe was acceptable.

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I don’t know what you’ve
been through in your life.

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But I do know that that
stuff is all in there.

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And when people say to me I’m suffering
from imposter syndrome, even though

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I know they are beautiful writers.

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When people tell me they can’t finish
things, even though I’m dying to know

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what happens at the end of their story.

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I know there’s something going on in that
middle area, in that you were conditioned

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to believe certain things area.

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Maybe you were conditioned to believe
that you shouldn’t take this much

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time away from your family to write.

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Maybe.

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Is that acceptable?

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Is that appropriate for
this moment in your life?

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Is that lesson that you learned when
you had a tiny baby who really did need

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you to be there every second of the day
appropriate now that your children are

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adults or now that your parents are gone
or now that, uh, you know, there’s other

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younger people in your community who can
do some of the things you used to do?

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Does the fact that you’re a good
girl and you never swear mean

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that your characters can’t curse?

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And if it makes you uncomfortable,
how are you going to deal with that?

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If you were the smart kid at school
and everything came easily to you and

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you were able to dodge the classes
that were hard I’m not saying that I

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got out of gym by saying I had singing
lessons, but I’m not not saying that

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If you were able to dodge the
difficult things early in life

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Or you just a lot of stuff came
easily to you when things get hard.

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Do you have You the conditioning that
says hard things are to be avoided.

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Or do you have the ability to push
through that and get your intellect

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involved and say, Yeah, I’m not
very good at this, but that’s okay.

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I can, it doesn’t mean
I’m not good at living.

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It doesn’t mean I’m worthless.

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It means I didn’t write this correctly
and I don’t quite know what’s wrong

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with it and I might have to ask for
help and that might be uncomfortable.

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We have to work through our instinctive
reactions, just like our characters do.

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We have to work through our
conditioned responses and ask

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whether those are still appropriate.

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And then we have to look at our
intellectual rationalising of our actions

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and ask if that’s actually appropriate.

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Is it appropriate to say, oh
well, I’m not very good at writing

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novels, therefore I should just not.

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Or, is it acceptable to say, Oh well, I’m
not very good at writing novels, I need to

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figure out why, and what’s tripping me up.

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Because this is quite a complex thing, and
I bet I’m not not good at writing novels,

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I bet I don’t have a strong sense of
what’s actually supposed to be happening.

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in the scenes in the middle after the
inciting incident and before the climax.

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And maybe I need to go and study
some story structure from someone

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who really gets this and speaks about
it in a way that I can relate to.

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I know, writing’s fun, right?

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Writing’s a thing you enjoy.

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It’s supposed to be fun,
it’s supposed to be easy.

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Uh uh.

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It’s not supposed to be easy.

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If it was easy, it
wouldn’t be interesting.

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You may have to.

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do some work on, on the
bit between your reaction

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and the intellectual response you actually
want and the outcome that matters to you.

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And this all happened because I
promised to share with a bunch of

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people what I had learned in my
writing practice and study about the

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difference between show and tell.

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That writing advice that says
You should show, not tell.

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A.

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Not always true.

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And B.

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Wow, is there a lot to explore in there.

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So we’ve spent this month in the One Story
Challenge, exploring Show, Don’t Tell.

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And in the meantime,

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I got to delve into human psychology
and human physiology in order to

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allow all of us to write a book.

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Better characters who react more
realistically and who have depth.

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Even in short stories you can do
this stuff so easily, not easily,

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you can do this stuff so quickly
and with so few words that you can

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do this in a short story if you
know what you’re trying to achieve.

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So I delved into human psychology,
physiology, and expectations.

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I ended up delving into personal
development, all because I wanted to write

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and help some other people write stories
that were more satisfying to other people.

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There’s nothing wrong with wanting
to please people, especially if

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you can use it to keep learning.

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This life, I think, is a lifelong learning
project, and writing is demanding.

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Because it demands that we look
at what, the human condition.

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So simply looking at a technique
like Show Don’t Tell has allowed

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me to go so deep this month.

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And it’s allowed me to develop,
not just my craft, but as a writer.

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with a writing practice.

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It’s allowed me to examine why I sometimes
resist writing, even though I love it.

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It’s allowed me to examine whether or not
the polite society rules I was raised with

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are serving me, whether I need to be quite
that polite, or whether it would be better

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for me as a human being in this one life

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to react differently to some things.

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It’s allowed me to examine whose
voices are in my head and whether

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they’re worth listening to.

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It’s allowed me to build confidence.

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And I think it’s doing the same for
the people in the One Story Challenge.

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Never think that your
writing is a waste of time.

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Your writing is a personal development
project that trickles out into the world.

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That filters out into the world
around you, to all the people

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that you come in contact with.

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Working on a skill, or a craft
piece, or a story, or a technique,

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is never a waste of time.

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It will teach you so much about people,
about your writing, and about yourself.

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So, I commend you for being a
writer, And for doing the hard

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work, as well as the easy work.

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And if you’re not always finding
it easy or having it fun,

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finding it easy or having it feel like
fun, I heard an athlete talking about

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this recently and they said that their
coach had told them it’s the rule of

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thirds, a third of the time it’s going
to feel easy and joyous and You’re in

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the flow and it’s going to feel great.

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A third of the time, it’s
going to feel like work.

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And a third of the time, no matter
what you do, it’s going to feel

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like you’re failing because you just
can’t get, you can’t perform at your

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best level, you can’t, you can’t
go faster in art, you can’t meet

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the times that you wanted to meet.

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You’re just, you just
can’t do it on those days.

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But as long as that’s a third, and
a third of the time, you’re loving

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it, and the middle third is work.

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That’s about right.

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And I found that very encouraging.

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Worthwhile things aren’t always easy.

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We can look at ways of making them more
easy, we don’t need to make them harder.

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But there are going to be days where it’s
just not happening, it’s just not coming.

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But those days are not wasted.

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Those days are building strength,
building persistence, building grit,

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building patience.

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And for a writer, they’re probably
you absorbing experiences, noodling

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things in the back of your mind
where you’re not thinking about

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them, watching the world, watching
people, seeing how they really work.

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You don’t need to be turning out
2, 000 words a day to be a writer.

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So I encourage you to think about
deepening your character’s reactions

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Letting the reader pause and go through
that process with them occasionally.

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And I also encourage you to pause and
examine your own reactions when you come

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up against something that’s a little hard.

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In part, so you can replicate it on the
page, but in part, so that you can get

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to the intellectual analysis part of it
and figure out if there’s anything you

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need to change and What that might be.

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And there’s no rush, because
this is a lifetime project.

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That’s what I have for you this week.

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If you’d like to join the One Story
Challenge, you can join it at any time by

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coming to StoryADay.org/one-story-signup
keep writing.

Being You is the Best Way To Market Your Writing

Show, Don’t Tell during the One-Story Challenge, AND don’t be afraid of marketing your writing!

This week’s StoryADay podcast is about loving your writing and sharing the love! Yes, there is stuff about marketing your writing in here, but don’t let that put you off.

CHAPTERS

00:00 StADa321 – Being You

01:09 The One-Story Challenge: Show, Don’t Tell Edition

08:07 Marketing

LINKS:

The One-Story Challenge – Show Don’t Tell Edition:

Elizabeth Wheatley’s Instagram:   / elisabethwheatley  

Elizabeth Wheatley’s Books:

Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/r16neqjFs1s

Other Help for Improving Your Writing Life

Download the Short Story Framework:

Take the 3-Day Challenge

Sign up for the StoryAWeek Newsletter

Take the I, WRITER Course

https://stada.me/iwriternow

Join the Superstars Group

https://storyaday.org/superstars

Coaching with Julie


Transcript

StADa321 – Being You

[00:00:00] Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon, Julie, from StoryADay here. And I have a couple of things I want to talk to you about this week. Both of which are topics of conversation in the story of the community. And the first one. Is to do with getting the writing done and the craft of doing the writing.

[00:00:21] And I’m going to talk to you about that and the second things a little bit about marketing your work, because there are so many people in this community who’ve been writing for awhile. Now, storyADay May has generated a lot of content. And it’s been running for 15 years and people who started writing before it even started.

[00:00:40] And who’ve been consistently coming back and writing every year. They have generated a lot of material. They’ve learned a lot. They’ve got some great stuff and a lot of them are at the stage of getting their work out into the world. A lot of people who are getting their work out into the world are drawn to this community because of how seriously we take the writing,

[00:00:58] and I suspect the, how seriously we don’t take ourselves, it’s probably a bit of a draw as well. So when talk about both of those things today, but I’m not going to go too long, so let’s get to it.

[00:01:09] First of all. As I record this, it is September and I want to make a plea. If you haven’t jumped into the one story challenge yet this month. It is not too late. We spent the first week drafting a new story for people to play with.

[00:01:27] You could bring a story you’ve already got, and you could review the materials I provided in week one in no time at all. Generate a new story. If you need to, or bring something that you’ve already been working on. This week, we’re getting into the Show, don’t tell lessons of the challenge. So my promise with this one story challenge was that we would take the whole month to work on a single story. You could start from scratch and write the story.

[00:01:54] Then we would delve into this one particular craft technique that gets talked about all the time and drives people crazy. It’s really effective. It’s really powerful, but it’s become one of those. Things that people see and things that people beat you over the head with in critique groups, if you’re not showing you’re telling and what does that even mean?

[00:02:17] So that’s what we’re talking about in the one story challenge. We’re going from the first week where we’ve been drafting stories to. This week where we’re looking at what. Is really meant. By show don’t tell so on Sunday, I’m going to release that lesson. And if you haven’t jumped into the challenge yet, this is perfect timing.

[00:02:38] Jump into the challenge. It is currently priced at $30 for the month and it will never be this price. Again, I tell you that because I’ll be able to get a ton of work into it, and I’m really proud of it. And as I go through this I’m trying to make sure that the information is clear and doled out in a way that is bite size, fun size. And that you get to go through it. While also having a life. While also having obligations and maybe you’ve got kids going back to school.

[00:03:07] Maybe you’ve got parents who need driven to medical appointments. Maybe you’ve got birthday parties coming up, whatever. It is that you have going on in your life. I’ve developed this challenge, which is very unlike story a day may, which is very like, hit the ground running and writes already everyday. This is a kinder, gentler challenge.

[00:03:24] This week we’re going into what really is. Show don’t tell anyway. And we’re doing exercises that will let you take parts of your story and try out different. Versions of show don’t tell because there’s lots of ways that you can apply that advice. Within a story. And there are places where you shouldn’t apply that advice.

[00:03:49] So we’re talking about that this, the first part of that this week, w we’ll try things out, And the opening or in a scene in the middle, I’m not giving away any spoilers, but that’s what we’re going to be working on this week. Every day. There’ll be an exercise that we’ll let you tweak and play with this technique and see. What it can do for your story and what you like about it and what you dislike about it.

[00:04:09] And just be able to talk about it, defend your work in critique groups in a more confident manner. Because it does get overused next week, we will look at more holistically at the whole story. Not next week. The third week of September. We’ll look more holistically at the whole story. And we will look at ways to see. What proportion of showing and telling you should be doing.

[00:04:34] And we are looking at this from a short story perspective. So although these skills. Can. Amplify and be used in a novel quite often, I find that in writing classes, techniques, when they are talked about from a novelist point of view, Don’t miniaturize. So we’re starting. From the point of view of a short story writer and saying, yeah, but how could I do this in a short story? And so that’s really what we’re going to be looking at the third week of September. And everything that we learn in practice can of course be expanded.

[00:05:10] And I think that’s a little easier than trying to shrink things down and take novel techniques. And. And make them work for short fiction. So that’s what’s going on in the one story challenge.

[00:05:30] And the fourth week. Is going to be, when I focus on helping people get the story really finished, but also on one other thing that everyone needs to do, if they’re going to.

[00:05:45] Do this for the long haul. If you are going to make consistent progress, there is a way to, there’s a thing you need to do. At the end of projects. Which will make it more likely that you’re going to keep working without feeling burned out and stay excited about the project that you just finished, actually finished projects.

[00:06:08] All of that can suck. So we’re going to talk about that in week four of the one story challenge as well. So if that sounds good, come over to story. A date.org forward slash one story challenge. Nope, that’s not right. One story, sign up. I’ll put the link in the notes. There’s hyphens in between those words. I will put that into the show notes so that you can come over and join us because you probably have a story already that you can use.

[00:06:34] You can jump in and use these techniques on. So if you weren’t with us for week one, It doesn’t matter, you can review that material, but bring a story that you’ve already started. When I first run a workshop. Like this that’s exactly what I encouraged people to do was to bring a story that was already. In progress.

[00:06:52] So nothing lost. If you haven’t joined us for week one, you’ll still have access to those materials, but you will get the show. Don’t tell lesson this week, then next week you’ll get the. The making a scene. Version of the next step of that. And then the week four will be all about putting the story to bed. And staying enthusiastic about it.

[00:07:13] So hopefully I’ve intrigued you, but not giving away too much because I want you to join us. I don’t want you to just think about it, don’t just think, oh, I’ll learn that later. Because take talk, Time’s moving on. Life keeps passing us by. And if you start today, you’re going to be so much better in two years than if you start in two years.

[00:07:31] So you’re not.

[00:07:35] You’re not standing still.

[00:07:40] I hate to say this. But if you’re not writing. You’re getting rusty. So I put together these challenges to stop you from suffering the feet that I suffered after years of not writing. Creatively. And discovering that it was so hard to get going again. So I put together all these challenges to give you little ways to get back to your rating. Because it makes you happy.

[00:08:02] It makes you more who you are. So anyway, enough about that, you’ve heard me say that stuff before.

[00:08:07] Marketing

[00:08:07] Let’s talk, marketing everyone’s favorite topic. One of the things that’s come up in the StoryADay Superstars group. Is the idea of doing author newsletters. So we’ve been talking a lot about that. And I’ve been talking a lot to a group of entrepreneur, friends of mine about how to. write. Stories in newsletters and emails and marketing materials, that don’t necessarily involve you exposing your entire personal life. Now. We as writers. Have such a leg up on, on people who are just like, I want to be in business and sell a thing. But they understand they need to do marketing.

[00:08:51] They understand they need an email list. They understand that they need to be posting on social media, engaging their followers and having an avatar and all of that stuff. They understand it, but they don’t necessarily have the writing background to make it work. So it’s a harder lesson for me to teach them.

[00:09:08] But if I tell you. That you can write a short story. About. You know your interaction with the barista today. Or about a D something that happened in history or something that you researched for your novel, you get it, you understand, you could put together like a paragraph about that stuff. You could make it compelling.

[00:09:30] You know how to do that. You just need, I think remaindered as everyone does that when people talk about marketing and putting yourself out there, It doesn’t have to be all of you. It has to be the things that you notice. The things that come out of your brain, the things that matter to you. In your fiction writing

[00:09:54] your values come through. Your preoccupations come through. Your passions come through. If you think that, there’s the life is a zero sum game, that comes through in all of the choices that your characters make, all of the outcomes of your novels. If you think that by giving you receive then, and that you expand the pie by giving away tasters, then that comes through in your stories, every choice your characters make your protagonist, probably not your antagonist, but your protagonist is going to make those kinds of choices.

[00:10:33] It’s. It’s really hard to hide your values from your fiction. When we talk about being authentic in your marketing it’s not that you have to share pictures of your family or talk about where you went on vacation or talk about your politics or your religion or any of those things, but by sharing things that you’re interested in things that make you laugh, things that make you, go, huh? You will draw people to you who like the stuff that comes out of your brain?

[00:11:07] And I have a very specific reason I’m talking about this this week because it happened to me this week. I’ve been following a writer on Instagram called Elizabeth Wheatley, for a while. And I’ve been following her largely because she does a very silly thing. She has a character. That she has created called Book Goblin. Who she talks to.

[00:11:32] It’s one of those Instagram things where, the same person is playing both characters, but she talks to Book Goblin, Book Goblin is very obsessive about books. And so she’s used Book Goblin to talk about. Controversies that have come up in her zone, which is a fantasy, I think like romance/fantasy and there’s various. Overlapping genres there. But she’s used conversations with Book Goblin to , talk about control of receipts that have popped up.

[00:11:57] She’s used it to talk about her upcoming releases. She’s used it to talk about why you can’t find her books on Amazon or at least not when they’re first released. So anyway, I follow her largely because I saw a Book Goblin sketch and I thought it was funny. And then I started to like all of the stuff that she was posting. And. Eventually, when she announced a new book, I thought, you know what? I have had so much entertainment from her,

[00:12:26] I think that the brain that created a Book Goblin, probably has some other characters in it that I might enjoy. So even though fantasy is not my first love, and that is definitely what she’s writing. I thought, you know what. I’ll give it a try. So the new book coming out, I thought, you know what, I’ll go back to the first book in the series. I will read I’ll by it.

[00:12:48] I’ll read it. And as aforementioned, she doesn’t Promote her books through Amazon, barnes and noble and things like that. She sells them directly from our website, which I can respect. Okay. So I went over to the website. The first book in the series is $7, which is more than you would charge if you were slavishly. following the advice of all the indie author. experts out there who tell you, the first book in the series should be free or it should be 99 cents.

[00:13:14] And then you should put everything on Kindle unlimited so that people can get it. And. There’s so much advice out there and she’s not following any of that. She’s doing her own thing. And so I was like, oh, cool. That’s interesting. What, $7 for a book, but I might not like, but I’ve already been following her for awhile and consumed $7 worth of, value from what she’s given me.

[00:13:36] So I’ll buy the book. And I’ll I probably won’t like it, but I’ll buy the first book and we’ll see.

[00:13:43] I like the book. My instinct that the person who showed up.

[00:13:49] bravely, boldly and authentically on Instagram and created this book, Goblin Character, my instinct that this person probably had other characters in their brain that I would enjoy hanging out with was absolutely spot on. Now, understand. I am not saying, that you need to start recording videos that you need to have a character that you need to do sketches any of that stuff you absolutely do

[00:14:17] not. What I am seeing. Is that if you can find a way to show us a little bit of your author self. That part of you that is. Uniquely you, The part of you that goes down rabbit holes. Researching the weaving methods of Flanders textile merchants staff in the 14 00s. And spends three days reading about warp and weft and dye stuffs. You can share some of that stuff with us.

[00:14:57] You are not going to appeal to everybody. You are going to appeal to people who are out there. Looking for someone who is that type of quirky they don’t even have to be interested in weaving, but they’re looking, people are scrolling through social media and they’re looking for something that makes them feel a connection.

[00:15:19] And if you show that level of authenticity, show your weird, show your obsessions. Don’t tell us about your kids and your holidays and what you had for lunch unless that is your obsession and you don’t mind sharing those things. But if you collect vintage high heels show us those. It doesn’t really matter if it’s connected to what you’re writing, because if I like your brain. I’m probably going to like your stories.

[00:15:50] So that’s my message today. Is that Authenticity willl draw the right people to you, and it will repel the wrong people away from you. And anyway, I really have to go now because I have to find out what’s going on with Amira and Daindreth, and I need to read my book. Book. BOOK!

[00:16:19] Keep writing.

The Engine of Success for Writers

Learn the secrets of success from resilient people (and steal some strategies while you’re here),

Sometimes it seems like success comes easily to other people when it feels so elusive to us. But there are secrets to making it more likely you’ll be one of those success stories, and that’s what I’m talking about this week on the StoryADay Podcast. Whether you’re a writer or not, I think you’ll like this one!

LINKS:

Tell me what you’re celebrating: https://storyaday.org/the-secret-to-sticking-with-it/

The StoryADay Handbook: https://storyaday.org/challenge-handbook

CHAPTERS:

00:00 The Engine Of Success for Writers

01:13 Things I Learned About Motivation, from My Kids

03:49 Our Inner Writer Is Just A Kid

07:36 The Characteristics of Resilient People

10:46 Steal the Strategies of Resilient People

Transcript

Other Help for Improving Your Writing Life

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Transcript

318 Find Wonder Everywhere

[00:00:00] Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon, Julie, from story a day here I am just back from my travels. I got to go to Scotland again last week to visit family for very happy reasons. My parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Congratulations, you guys.

[00:00:14] But I wanted to talk this week about. Something that comes very easily when you’re traveling and you’re in a new environment, which is seeing the wonder in everything, seeing the novelty in everything, seeing the world anew.

[00:00:31] It’s something that is easy to do when you’re away. It’s harder to do when you’re in your everyday routine.

[00:00:38] But I think that’s one of the gifts that we have as writers. We are endlessly curious. And sometimes we just need a little remainder to wake that curiosity up. And. I don’t know about you, but when I’m thinking about. writing a product, for example, writing a story that I want to send to a particular market. Or writing a novel for a particular audience or in a particular genre. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the expectations of the outcome. And to try and live up to our expectations.

[00:01:17] And that can take a lot of the fun. Out of the process of writing.

[00:01:22] Whereas.

[00:01:24] Discovering new stuff is really fun. And I’m going to encourage you to try and get some of the fun back into your writing by introducing some more fun into your life this month, this week, this month. And so for example, Last week, when we arrived at London Heathrow to change for our plane to Glasgow, we discovered when we turned on our phone and all the other phones on the plane beeped as well, Or at least half of them did, that’s our flight to Glasgow had been canceled and in their infinite wisdom, British Airways had decided that, . Telling us that we were going to rebooked on a flight. Two days, hence was an acceptable solution. So after some. Nervous laughter and a consultation with the people who they let us talk to.

[00:02:19] We weren’t allowed to talk to the actual help desk people, but the bouncers who were keeping us away from them. We said, what are we supposed to do? And they laughed and said, you could take a train. And we laughed because what else are you going to do? And said, I actually, you’re right,

[00:02:33] we could. So we did, because apparently you can just jump on the underground at Heathrow and go into the city and catch the train to Glasgow. So we did that. And it was great because we got to then instead of seeing the insides of Terminal Five and the jet way and another airplane and seeing, A little bit of London as we took off.

[00:02:53] And a little bit of Glasgow as we landed. We actually got to troll right through the middle of the country. We went up the west coast from London. We went up the west side of the country, of the UK. So skirting Wales and going through the industrialized north with their, the wonderful old factories and all brick chimneys.

[00:03:13] They’re few and far between though, but you still can see the origins of industrial revolution era towns nestled in river valleys. We got to see the flat pastoral land of the south of England. We got to see the hills of the Lake District, we got to see the forests of the Borders of Scotland. And then all of a sudden there we were, heading into Glasgow. In all its industrial revolution, era majesty and getting off at my, one of my favorite train stations, Glasgow Central, which is near and dear to my heart with soaring roofs, and just a hustle and bustle of people. And so it was a, it wasn’t a terrible outcome for us to have to take that. And as we were whizzing through the countryside.

[00:03:58] Every time I looked out of the window, it was a different landscape. So the reason I was thinking about that is that I was, following along with people who are heading to Glasgow this week for World Con, which is a big science fiction and fantasy convention, and somebody else was taking the train from London to Glasgow. And they posted a picture of their laptop screen on which they were watching the classic SciFi movie, The Matrix, and, Judgey McJudgerson here. I was just in my head I was just screaming, look out the window.

[00:04:29] Obviously you’re welcome to do whatever you want when you’re traveling And if watching The Matrix got them in the mood for their scifi con good for them. But I having just done the trip, I was like, ah, look out the window. You’re missing so much. And it does strike me as ironic actually that they were watching The Matrix and missing The real world going by on the window outside, but that’s, that’s a topic for another day.

[00:04:51] So what is what. What struck me. And then as I spent the next few days, visiting places that were both familiar and unfamiliar to me, because I grew up there. And I’ve been gone for a long time. I was appreciating things that other people weren’t even looking at. I was taking pictures of the purple loose strife, which is everywhere on the verges and the sides of rules on the sand dunes,

[00:05:17] At this time of year. It’s an upright green plant that grows in very dry conditions and it’s it’s a weed basically, and it’s gorgeous this purple flowers that break out everywhere and create great big swaths of purple in the land.

[00:05:32] And I was bending down and taking pictures of the low growing purple heather.

[00:05:37] And I was, listening to the seagulls and not seeing them as a pest because I just don’t see them very often anymore.

[00:05:45] And watching the patterns that the water makes in the edge, the wet edge of the sand as as the tide comes in and out. And as adults, we don’t always get time to stop and appreciate those kinds of things.

[00:06:01] And yet the people who do, people like the poet, Mary Oliver, people, poets in general… one of the reasons that people are drawn. To poetry is because there are people who make the choice to stop and look and observe and make connections between the running water and something in our everyday lives as writers.

[00:06:30] We need to actually create space and time.

[00:06:35] Too. Just be. In the world. And observe.

[00:06:40] And process. And noodle.

[00:06:42] And sometimes that means stepping away from product writing.

[00:06:48] In May, I encourage you to start and complete a story every day to get in the habit of creating complete works, things that can be turned into products, something for someone else to consume.

[00:07:01] But sometimes we just need to practice.

[00:07:03] I’ve been watching a lot of baseball this year. And , we see the players come out onto the field in their nice uniforms and their colorful socks and we see them step up to the plate once, once in a while.

[00:07:18] And then they go and sit down for a bit and it looks like a kind of an easy job, but if you watch what they do before the game, they turn up early. And the drill, they just stand there, whacking balls. They work out in gyms, they practice, sprinting, the practice throwing and catching, different different kinds of Keynes of throws different positions, different. place to try and catch different people out. None of that is on display for the audience. And yet if they didn’t do that work, what did show up at game time would be a sloppy mess. So we need to remember that sometimes going for a walk or a drive, or watching a, documentary or reading a non-fiction book or listening to a conversation someone else’s having in a coffee shop and then creating space to just noodle on that.

[00:08:16] Just doodle, just create little word salads for ourselves that aren’t necessarily part of the product that we are going to put out, is vital. This is a vital part of writing. Adding new words to a manuscript is wonderful. But celebrate the team that you spend

[00:08:39] doing things that feed your writing.

[00:08:42] My theme here at StoryADay this month is Triumph, and I’m going to be talking a lot about things to celebrate, both in your own writing in other people’s writing, in the writing world in general, in the reading world. Because that celebration of all the things that are good and the celebration of things that are curious and unusual and the connections that we can make, celebrating that stuff. Is what keeps us energized.

[00:09:15] It keeps us curious.

[00:09:17] If you can, this week, I am going to encourage you to try and vary your routine. Celebrate this world we live in and this existence we have. We don’t always feel like doing that. There’s plenty of bad in the world, and looking at that is important so that we can challenge it and fight it, but also celebrating the things that make us go, Ooh, Is really important as well.

[00:09:49] So this week I challenge you to very routine and find wonder wherever you are. You don’t need to get on a plane and travel to another country to see your world anew.. Take a new route home from work and really notice your surroundings.

[00:10:07] Go to a different grocery store and try and find all your usual stuff. See what they’ve got this different.

[00:10:14] This Week’s Assignment

[00:10:14] Wind your windows down on the way home and listen. Smell. Feel the air around here. Is it warm? Is it called? What smells can you smell better yet? Get an, a bike and cycle and remind yourself that travel doesn’t always need to be insulated and isolated from the world around you.

[00:10:37] Take off your headphones and listened to the world. As you walk through it.

[00:10:41] If you’re feeling brave, talk to a stranger. You don’t have to have anything interesting to say, ask them about themselves. Try to find out what it is that gets them excited. Try and find that one thing that lights them up. One guy I knew that the thing that lit him up was British empire era. armies And their equipment and their campaigns.

[00:11:03] And although I wasn’t terribly interested in them, it’s so fun to find somebody else’s passion and then step back and watch them late up. And as a writer, you get to watch how it changes their whole physicality when someone is talking about the thing they’re excited about.

[00:11:18] If you don’t want to talk to somebody order a different type of coffee in the coffee shop while you’re there listening to people and then try to describe The taste, the smell, the feel the The heat of it, in words on the page.

[00:11:35] Visit a museum that you have never been to since a school trip took you there, or since your last out of town visitor came.

[00:11:43] If you live in Middleton, Wisconsin, there’s a National Mustard Museum there. Have you been there?

[00:11:48] Another way that you can find wonder is to simply wander the Nonfiction. stacks at your local library and pull a book off the shelf. I did that recently and it was great fun.. It challenged me. And it sparked all kinds of ideas in my head, not entirely related to the content just related to sitting there reading.

[00:12:07] I just grabbed a book. Sat down at a table. And spent 15, 20 minutes leafing through the book, and thinking about the type of person it was intended for the type of person you would have to be to write this book. The type of person who would spend time creating the intricate diagrams that this book was explaining. Just grab any nonfiction book off the stack and leaf through it.

[00:12:35] You’re not attempting to learn anything, you’re attempting to spark your imagination.

[00:12:41] Or simply stop and look, as I did at the weeds. Growing on a free growing patch of earth Somewhere near you right now. How many different types of plants are there. Are there flowers. Are they tiny? Are they huge. How much dirt are they growing in? What kind of insects can you see in there? Are they growing up through the cracks in the pavement, how are they doing that? Are they growing in what used to be a pristine lawn? Why is it no longer pristine? What kinds of insects feed on these flowers? What if you were insect sized, what would you make of these weeds?

[00:13:23] So many questions will start to pop up in your head. Don’t repress any of them. You don’t need to create an, a thing from this. Once you have done this exercise , when you have gone out into the world and trying to find some wonder in it, come over to the blog and leave me a comment.

[00:13:43] I’ll leave the link in the. In the description of the podcast and you can come over. It speeds. It’s just storyaday.org/find-wonder-everywhere is link and leave me a comment and let me know how you find wonder or how you found wonder this week?

[00:13:59] I’m not encouraging you to come up with a different novel idea every day or a different short story idea every day, but just to help you come up with things that spark your imagination and a low you, a little space to play with words.

[00:14:18] If you have a copy of, or are signed up for the story of the challenge handbook from earlier this year. You’ll find 31 of these types of exercises in the warmup section of that. If you haven’t got hold of the challenge handbook, yet you can get that.

[00:14:35] now, at a discounted price. storyaday.org/challenge-handbook. Again, the link’s in the description. If you’re on your phone, open up your podcast app, as long as you’re not not driving and click on this episode and the little information button, and you’ll find the links in there. Click on those, go through and have a look at the handbook.

[00:14:54] So in the handbook, it’s it’s not actually a book, it’s a, an online site where you get videos and exercises from me. And there’s 31 short story prompts, but every one of those has an attached brainstorming exercise, which is directly related to helping you brainstorm the topic of the, Of the prompt, but each one also has a warmup exercise and I encourage you to throughout the year, open those up and pick one at random.

And I always say in those Warm-up exercises, set a timer for five minutes and just free-write and I give you a topic and it’s usually sparked by a memory of yours or a question. And it’s usually related to the topic of that day’s prompt, but you can use these individually any day of the year when you’re feeling like writing, and you don’t know quite what to write, pull up one of these warm-up exercises from the challenge handbook.

[00:15:51] And do this, this play practice. Intentional play, where you dive deeply into a memory or an emotion or an experience or a something you’ve seen or something you’ve touched and guided by me. And then just write, just play with words for five minutes. And I almost guarantee it will take you out of whatever anxiety you have from your daily life, from the project that you’re trying to work on and it will remind you why you love to play with language.

[00:16:33] It’s a commute for you. It’s a mental commute. But it’s also a serious business.

[00:16:39] I start a Story A Day because I was sick of seeing writing exercises, which were exactly this kind of play because they weren’t connected to anything. And I didn’t really understand the importance Of writing snippets about you or a memory from your childhood of going up the stairs or whatever it was.

[00:16:57] And I got frustrated because I would buy a book of those exercises and then I would just be like, okay, so I’m writing, but I’m not really writing anything. So when I started StoryADay May, I was like we’re going to, we’re going to write, but it’s going to be with a purpose.

[00:17:09] We’re gonna write stories. And we’re going to learn to start, get through the middle and finish stories everyday. And that’s been great and it’s absolutely has its place, but this year I decided with the handbook to bring back in some of that warmup work, some of that practice. And you can choose to do the warmup and the brainstorming and the short story on the same day, or you can just dip in and any time that you want to write, you just pull it up, open up one of those warmup exercises and spend a little time experiencing the world. In a way that we don’t get time to do when we’re just charging through it, trying to get all the things done.

[00:17:49] Your gift to the world

[00:17:49] What we do as writers is a gift to other people. We give them the gift of being able to take a little bit of time to slow down and experience the world in a different way in the way that our ancestors experienced it. At that slower pace that everybody says they want but don’t quite know how to give themselves. What we do at writers is generous And

[00:18:15] healing, and it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of effort. And we might as well enjoy it as much as possible.

[00:18:23] So please this week, take up my challenge of taking some time every day to see the world in a new way, to pay attention to the details, to write those things down, to challenge yourself to play in a productive way with language and practice so that when you sit down to work on a particular project, that will turn into a product that you turn out into the world. You’ve got whole of this material banked inside your heart waiting to come out.

[00:18:58] That’s what I have for you this week. Check out the story at a challenge handbook. If you haven’t already it’s at storyaday.org/challenge-handbook. If you have checked it out already. And you have a copy, do yourself a favor and open it up this week. Pick one of the warmup exercises.

[00:19:17] Maybe do one a day. Maybe do one every three days. Do these exercises in addition to wandering through the world with your eyes wide open, breathing in all the smells and listening to all the sounds and touching all the things. And don’t forget to wash your hands. But most of all, keep writing.

[00:20:18] Thanks for listening. Why not come over to the blog at storyaday. org and check out this week’s writing prompts and articles. And in the meantime, have a great, creative week. And of course, keep writing.

Your Writing Questions, Answered

In which I answer questions sent in by the StoryADay Community about how to overcome their writing challenges.

On this episode of The StoryADay Podcast, I discuss how to manage fear when it comes to writing, and how to overcome common struggles that writers often face.

You’ll learn why taking action is key to managing fear, and how participating in Story A Day can help with perfectionism and encourage creativity.

I also dive into the importance of having a deeper purpose for writing, and how to find motivation when it feels impossible to make time for writing.

Tune in to hear about the Story A Day Superstars Group and how it can help writers build community and celebrate their successes.

Plus, learn tips and tricks for acquiring and polishing writing skills. T

his is a must-listen episode for anyone looking to find inspiration, motivation, and guidance on their journey as a writer.

LINKS

Sign up for the StoryADay Challenge

Find out more about the Superstars group

Support the podcast

Watch vvv

TRANSCRIPT

StADa285 StoryADay QA

 Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon, Julie, from StoryADay here.

We are a little over a week away from StoryADay May.

[00:00:21] Survey Responses – challenges

I sent out a survey recently asking you all. About your secret dream for your writing life? I talked a little bit about that in the last episode. I also asked about people’s biggest challenge.

When it comes to writing at this moment in your life. And that’s what the first question. There was a lot of very personal heartfelt. Honesty in the answers. And there was a lot of. Similarity between what you all had to say. Everyone has their own take on it. There were certain people struggling with different areas of writing.

But, and none of it surprised me and none of it made me feel like any of you needed to quit. I think what we need to do. Is acknowledged that writing is hard. And there’s no better way to do that than to hang out with other writers because I, I. See this, I see all these answers and I’m staring at a screen of them right now.

I see all these answers and it’s all stuff I’ve heard. From other writers that I’ve been hanging out with, who are going through the process of writing.

And I’ve been hanging out with them for the past couple of decades and this stuff is. Is part of the process of writing. So let’s talk about what am I talking about? Things that I see in the survey.

[00:01:50] Writing Is Hard, M’Kay?

Making time and space to sit and write every day. Consistency of output, finishing what I’ve started. The confidence to keep making, moving forward, having the team and capacity to rate. All of these things. Are. Incredibly common among us. It’s very difficult. To take words. And create worlds.

And create interesting characters. And put them in fascinating situations that have twists and turns and can hold somebody’s interest. And we all read these wonderful books that have been published that have been through the polishing process and the revision process and the draft after draft, to get them to be

brilliant and twisty and fascinating. And much less often do we get to look at first drafts. Second drafts. Or to hear from writers who are going through that process.

It turns out that.

[00:03:06] Mythbusting

Everything we think we need to do in writing usually comes with an asterisk. Yeah, you have to write a polished draft that goes through multiple revisions. Except some of it may not. You might actually. write a great couple of scenes that stay intact all the way through the process.

Yeah, you have to write consistently, but consistently doesn’t mean every day.

It means keep coming back to it. Don’t leave a three year gap between stories that you’ve written.

[00:03:37] Fear is Managable

People who are retired or out of work will tell you that simply having space and time for your writing does not guarantee that you’re going to be able to sit down and write, because once you’ve solved the time and space issue. Then you have to deal with all the inner stuff. Am I good enough? Do I know what I’m doing? The fear of of not being good enough.

Which is by far the harder problem to solve. It is solvable. Because. Those kinds of fears. Am I good enough. Am I going to be able to, am I interesting enough? I’m going to be able to write this way or that way, these. Once you acknowledge that chatter is happening in your head. You can give it a name and that name is fear.

And once you have a name for it, you can start thinking about it. And once you start thinking about it, you look at these questions that are popping up in your head about, are you good enough? Can you do this? Can you write an eight? Eight 80,000 word novel. Can you tell an interesting story? All of these things are skills.

That you can acquire that you can build that you can polish.

And the thing about fear as the bravest people in the world will tell you. Is that it doesn’t go away. You just get better at managing how much power it has over you and the way to manage that power that it has over you. Is by taking action and doing a thing. So if you’re feeling fear,

The best thing to do is just to write anyway. It won’t be as bad as you thought and the , next time you feel that fear, you will know that you can push through it. And the more you do that, the less of a hold fear. Has over you.

So if you are. Avoiding your writing for some reason, if you are sitting down at your desk and then stepping away to do something more easy, clean the kitchen or do the laundry or make a meal. These are things that you know how to do. So they are easier, even if they’re not more enjoyable, they might be, but I don’t know who you are. If you enjoy cleaning the kitchen

more than you enjoyed writing. The point is. That. If you don’t know why you’re getting up and running away from your desk. Whenever you want to sit down and write it’s possibly fear-based. So call it that and then have a look inside and see what those fears are. Are they about. You’re afraid that you’re going to write a boring story. Okay.

Then write a boring story and then go and figure out how to make it more interesting. Don’t wait for it to come out perfectly, and be interesting on the first shot. Write some characters don’t put them in a setting, ask them some questions. What do you want and why can’t you, why don’t you have it already? And then start listening to what.

What comes out of your brain as you write, and you have to be writing for those answers to appear.

And once you’ve written your boring story, you’ll discover that the world did not end. And you get to write more stories or you get to revise this story. But nothing permanent happened. And if you feel like nothing happened in your story, then you go and you read some articles or a book about story structure, or how to add tension to a story or how to inject conflict into a story.

And you go and ask other writers, how do you do this? I had an example of this the other day. I’m writing. I’m writing a romance. I got a little stuck and I talked to a friend of mine who specializes in romance.

And I told her the story and I told her what was happening and how I’d set it all up. And she immediately asked me one question that made me realize what my story was lacking. And it was just, she just has that skill in her toolbox that she understands that genres so well that as I was fumbling through telling her my story, she realized there was a huge piece missing.

And she asked me where’s this piece. And I said, I haven’t written it into the story. And she went well, start there and it was just a very low key question from her because she understood. The skill she has these tools. And she asked. The right question.

 If you have fear about not being good enough, It might just be a lack of skills. You just don’t know if you have the skills you need, in which case you get to pursue the skills, you got to go find them. You get to ask people questions and say how do you do this? And if you’re hanging out with other writers, you’ve got a wealth of people to do that with. The good news for you is that the internet is full of writers who are very happy to talk about their process. So there’s tons of interviews and there’s tons of classes you can take. There’s tons of groups you can join to find other writers.

Even if you’re introverted. Joining a group and being with other people who are pursuing this difficult thing. Has been transformational for me. And for, I think a number of people. In the story of the superstars, which is opening up again soon. So keep an eye on your emails for that.

So if you have time and space to write and you’re running up against that fear there. There are some things that you can do to help yourself keep moving.

[00:09:09] Finding Time

 I think one of the things that we all have to do, and this will. Address those of you who said that you have. Trouble finding or making time to right now, there are genuinely lives out there that are very busy.

And especially those of you with young children or people, other people that you’re looking after or demanding jobs, or maybe three demanding jobs. Making time is tricky.

For some of us that is less tricky. But for all of us. The thing that will make it more compelling. For us to make time for a writing. Is to manage the motivation question. This was another one that I saw coming up for people was that they were struggling with finding the motivation to write, keeping the momentum going.

All of these kinds of words, cropping up in the survey. And the most powerful thing. I have. Discovered in this area. Is to think of other people.

To remove yourself from the equation a little bit. And weight more heavily the people who will be impacted by your story. And you can think about when you were a kid. And you read that book that just made you feel seen, that entertained you when you were down, that. Just moved you. And this doesn’t have to be when you were a kid, it could be last week.

If you think about that. And if you can keep your thoughts, cause I know you’ve got your thoughts, recent mailer minute. That’s why you’re a writer. You’re very creative. You’re very imaginative. I knew tend. I am speaking for myself. When you start thinking, doing this thought exercise.

 It’s very common to think about. Oh, I want to create something like that, that, that moves someone and then respond to oh, but. Oh, but oh, . I have to write it all, but I have to finish it, or, but I’m not good at this, or, but I have to figure out how to get it published and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that stuff is a different skill set. That is managing the business of being a writer professionally.

And you have to learn to put these things in silos and move that one over there. Let’s not think about that today. What we’re thinking about today is really. Thinking about your. Ideal reader. And.

Feel the love. For that ideal reader.

I know, it’s motivating to think about, getting checks from publishing houses and production companies and all of that kind of stuff. That’s great. That’s fine. That’s motivating. That gets you excited. Go for it. But it doesn’t tend to last as much because we’re all sensible people and we’re aware that there’s a certain amount of luck involved in there.

And you can’t guarantee that’s going to happen. You can guarantee that you can write something that will move someone. And if you have that, someone in mind, even a a theoretical person or somebody real from your life. It may be somebody who’s departed from your life already. And focusing on doing your best work

and trying to move that person, trying to reach that person, trying to help that person.

We’re pretty altruistic. I think. Most of us. And the idea of helping someone else is a really good way. to. Get over. A lack of confidence in ourselves.

If I was standing in front of you, and I cut my hand and I was bleeding and holding it out to you. I don’t think any of you would go, oh, I don’t really know what to do, but I’ll just, you just stand there with your hand bleeding. No, you’d grab a paper towel and you’d. Hand it to me and save, I don’t know, put pressure on it because , you know, that much.

And I don’t think anybody who’s listening to this, wouldn’t do that for me.

You don’t need to know how to do things perfectly, to be able to help people, touch people, move people, see people. If that helps you. Shift, focus from your shortcomings as a writer. To your aspiration. To help someone else. If that is motivating to you. Then hang on to that one.

And once you have that kind of motivation, whichever one you choose that really. Grabs you and moves you. Once you have that motivation in your mind.

You will. Find it harder to not find the time to write. So if you’re struggling to make time to write.

Keep in mind that deeper purpose that you have for writing. And you will find yourself much more motivated to cram little bits of writing into the little bits of time you can find. And two. Carve out pieces of time. Elsewhere.

[00:14:11] Overwhelm

 We do have big dreams. And a lot of answers from people who have this big dream of publishing a novel. Getting the movie deal, but. They are. New mothers or. Have elderly parents to look after. And so the whole big goal of writing or finishing the novel, or this is also for people who’ve lost momentum and are one person said, which I think is brilliant.

When I’ve lost momentum on a project, getting started again feels like standing at the base of Everest in flip-flops. Tell me that’s not a writer.

Overwhelm. It’s really common. And. This will not be news to you, but the idea of chunking things down, making them manageable, doing what you can today and not worrying about the whole project,

is really the only way to get anything done. If you are feeling like you’re not being consistent enough or that you don’t have enough time, that you can’t imagine rating. 80,000 words on one project, you don’t have to. Not today. You have to write the next scene. Or you have to think about the next scene.

Maybe map out the next scene, what does it need to achieve? Who’s going to be in it. Where are they going to be standing relative to each other? Maybe that’s all you can do today. But that means that when you sit down tomorrow, you’ll have that roadmap and you’ll be able to maybe write. 500 words, 300 words of that scene.

We tend to be very ambitious, which is good, but we also tend to be ambitious, which is bad. Because we want to write 2000 words every day and we want to finish a story every day. Now I’m going to encourage you to do that during May , but that’s not a sustainable goal for the rest of your life. And that’s part of the reason.

That I do story a day, because I want you to understand that some days you’re going to fail and some days you’re going to write badly and some days you’re not going to finish and you just get up and keep going the next day. And then at the end of a month, Look what you did. You wrote all of these words, all of these stories or partial stories and you weren’t perfect.

And. You still produced a bunch of stuff and you had fun.

You know what I’m going to say next perfectionism. Whether or not you think of yourself as a perfectionist. I certainly don’t think of myself as a perfectionist and yet. Perfectionism creeps in. We have to battle it.

You don’t have to be consistent in a way that doesn’t feel right for you. You don’t have to finish everything. You don’t have to write a good story.

You don’t have to have a perfect writing practice. You don’t have to have a perfect system, for getting your stories out to market. You just have to keep coming back. And B. Optimistic and hope filled about it.

[00:17:14] Want More Julie?

 There’s so much more and I’ll be coming back to these questions on your responses. In future episodes.

I’m always really touched when people contact me after I released these podcasts and tell me that I said just what they needed to hear. Inspired them to keep going, something like that. But it’s not magic. The reason I know what’s going on in your head is because I spend a lot of time with writers.

These kinds of questions come up in our StoryADay Superstars group, which is a group that gets together monthly for Hangouts to talk through issues like this. But also during the week, we have lots of writing dates where we get together and we actually hold each other accountable. Actually sit and write together on zoom calls.

And in the breaks in those calls, these kinds of questions come up as well. And we talk about them. You’re able to, if you’re in that group, you’re able to ask me very specific questions about your writing and the particular project you’re working on. And I, and the other writers in the group are able to ask you very specific questions about what exactly is going on, where the problem arises.

What, what is stalling you? What particular, you know, character issues are you having that kind of thing? So as well as the workshops that we do together really the benefit of. Being in the Superstars group, which is, as I have mentioned, opening up again soon. Is that you get. Basically more me.

You get more eyes on your specific problems. You don’t have to listen to me talking about these generic writer problems. You actually get. Coached on your specific. Issues. And. You get to celebrate with people who understand. The nuances of the writing life. So, if you are interested in. Finding a group like that in getting more access to me to get my eyes on your particular writing practice.

Come over to story day.org. Get yourself on my mailing list by putting your name in one of those sign up boxes. And I will email you this week to let you know more. About how you get into this group, which is like being at the best writers conference or workshop, but all year round.

Remember StoryADay May start soon so make sure you’re signed up for that. at StoryADay.org/signup

[00:19:45] Support the podcast

And finally a remainder that know you can support this podcast, if you would like to, which some people have asked me about and to do that, you go to glow.fm/storyaday, and you can make a one-time or recurring donation to keep the show going. And I really appreciate your support. That’s it from me this week. Happy writing. And I’ll see you again soon.

[Writing Prompt] Day 9 – Character Desires Are Key

Knowing what a character wants, tells us what’s at stake in the story. Conflict between the character’s desire and their circumstances will keep your reader hooked.

The Prompt

Establish, within the first couple of sentences, your character’s desire. Put them in a situation that conflicts with that desire. Tell us how it works out.

Tips

It’s important for a reader to know what your character wants.

Once they know what your character wants, is afraid of, would never do, or desperately wants to do, the reader knows WHY they’re reading this story. That will keep them reading.

Keep it simple. In a short story, you can only examine one of your character’s desire.

Scaling Mount Motivation – The Kiva Way

Everest & Lhotse by James C Farmer, on Flickr
Everest & Lhotse by James C Farmer, on Flickr

Do you ever struggle with motivation? Lord knows, I do. [1. Let’s face facts: I’m the kind of person who needed to launch an annual month-long, world-wide challenge to get me back to writing short stories!]

It’s October. The mornings are dark. The novelty of the kids being back at school has turned into the grind of early breakfasts and fights over homework. I’m having trouble writing new words, or sticking to a healthy eating plan. Frankly, even the breakfast dishes are looking like a bit like Mount Everest right now…and I feel just as likely to conquer either.

(OK, this is the strangest opening I’ve ever written to a pep talk. Let’s hope things pick up from here, eh?)

How To Move Forward?

So: bad week.

But this morning I got an email that changed my perspective.

A few years ago, a friend sent me a $25 gift certificate for Kiva.org. (Bear with me.)

If you don’t know: Kiva is a micro-lending program that works with people all over the world, to help fund their businesses and entrepreneurial ideas. You choose and person and project and contribute towards their goal. They pay you back gradually.

This morning I got an email about my two most recent loans. Chin, in Cambodia, is a 61 year old mother of five. She’s using her loan to build a latrine for her family because her house has none [2. If that’s not enough to make me stop and count my blessings, I really AM a lost cause!]. Her first repayment came in this morning.

KivaLoan10-14

Do you see what I got?

$1.04

All she paid to me was a measly $1.04.

But she’ll keep paying my $1.04 regularly until she has paid off the entire $25 that was my portion of the loan.

Her total loan amount is $750. That must seem like a Mount Everest of a number (or at least Phnom Aural). But she’s paying just under $32 every month for 26 months to pay all her funders. By paying that small amount ($1.04 of which comes to me) she will pay off all her debts.  Dollar by dollar, she’ll get there.

Are You Paying Your Creative Debts?

Think of all the ways we borrow from our creative lives. We put off writing to do laundry, to do our day jobs, to be nice to our family and friends, to give to charity, to do anything but invest in our art.

Sometimes it doesn’t seem worth coming back to the desk if we can’t give ourselves a big payday. It doesn’t seem worth it when we’re only adding a couple of hundred words at a time, or writing our Morning Pages.

But if we just follow Chin’s example and keep chipping away, day after day, month after month, we will achieve the impossible. Chin will pay off her $750 loan. We will create a life that includes our art. We may even create some art that touches other people.

What could you do today if you didn’t have to finish $750’s worth of writing all at once?

  • What if you only had to write $1.04’s worth of it?
  • Could you manage that much?
  • And could you come back and write $1.04’s worth tomorrow? And the day after that? And do the same next week?
  • Even on your worst day you could manage that, couldn’t you?

Incidentally, my loans? Look at the default & delinquency rates:

KivaDelinquency

Women living hard lives in Peru, Cambodia, Mexico and US have all committed to investing in bettering their lives. And they have not quit. They have never even shown up late.

Take a tiny bite out of your creative debt today

  • Write a Drabble (100 word story)
  • Write a haiku
  • Read a short story (check out the Tuesday Reading Room series for some suggestions)
  • Sketch out the ending to a story you’ve left hanging
  • Write a sensuous description of something in the world of one of your unfinished stories (how does it smell, taste, feel, make your character feel?)
  • Write three pages of stream-of-consciousness blah-blah, to warm up your writing muscles (rip up the pages when you’re finished)
  • Take the plunge and submit that finished story to a contest or publication (who cares if it doesn’t win? All judgement is subjective, but you gain something valuable simply by putting it out there!)

Let me know what you did — or plan to do — in the comments. Heaven knows I’ll need the inspiration next time I hit a slump!

What If I Don’t Feel Like Writing?

You love to write, right?

Except when you don’t.

2006_05.28 Isaac tantrum

What’s a writer to do on those days when your inner writer is being a cranky toddler, plumping it’s big fat bottom down on the floor, screwing up its face and wailing,

“I dun wanna wri-i-ite!”

Today I bring some tough parenting love for your inner child-writer. Next week: seven practical strategies to jump-start your writing on the days when even The Mommy Voice won’t cut it.

Tough It Out

D’ya think the dairy farmer always leaps out of bed before dawn, whistling and praising the winter wind that whips away his breath on the way to the byre? Nope, but you need milk for your coffee, so he drags himself out of bed.

Readers, no, the world needs your stories, so get your fingers on the keyboard.

But Julie, you say, writing is a creative pursuit! How can I be expected to turn out something wonderful if writing feels like work?

In answer I say: how will you turn out something wonderful if you aren’t sitting down every day and learning how to get through the reluctance, the fear, the slog? You don’t have to write something wonderful every. You do, however, have to write. Whether you feel like it or not.

Do whatever it takes to get yourself past the reluctance and into that happy place where the words flow. Stay in your chair until you are happy to be there. Your readers will thank you.

Rewards

If you are not writing for a steady paycheck and legions of crazed fans, you need another reward structure.

It IS hard to start and finish a story. It IS hard to face the revision process. You DO deserve a reward for putting in the effort – beyond the satisfaction of knowing you did it.

So, set up some incentives for yourself. Be generous, but canny. Your rewards should enhance your creativity rather than take the edge off.

Examples of creativity-enhancing rewards:

  • -a call to a like-minded friend,
  • -a new notebook,
  • -some guilt-free time contemplating a thing of beauty,
  • -a walk in the woods

Stodgy, counterproductive “rewards”:

  • -a half-pint of ice cream,
  • -two hours flipping through the channels,
  • -a free-flowing bitch-session about how hard it is to be a writer.

 

Goals

Yes, goals. Set regular goals and meet them.

Any or all of the following – especially when you pair them with the accountability of telling a more-bossy friend about them – can help you break through the barriers on a day when you just don’t want to write:

-a daily word count or ’scene goal’. Commit to write X number of words or complete scenes every day. You will progress, even if you end up revising heavily later.
-a weekly goal can make the whole ’goal’ thing less stressful than a daily goal. Struggling on Tuesday? Make up for it on Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday.
-write down mid-term and long-term goals: “finish three stories this month”, “revise and submit stories to ten markets by October”, “self-publish a story collection in 2013”.

Refer to your list as you sit down to work. Remind yourself it’s not just about the slog or the word-count: you have goals for your writing.

And if one of your goals is “support myself through my writing, full-time” then it’s even more important that you figure out, now, how to write even when you don’t feel like it.

Next week: seven specific techniques for getting yourself in the mood to write even when your inner child-writer is saying “I dun wanna!”.

Then, let me bust your writing excuses. No more excuses!

 

So tell me, what do YOU do when you don’t feel like writing?

Week 1 – Story A Day So Far

Thanks to everyone who responded to my questions about how your week is going. I’ve collected some of the responses…

We’ve made it to Day 7! Congrats to everyone who has written anything, or still plans to! And thanks to everyone who responded to my questions about how your week is going. I’ve collected some of the responses below.

When I had this idea to write A Story A Day, back in March, I knew I was going to need a crew to keep me honest, because I knew it would be hard. My non-writer friends a families gave me that ‘uh-huh!’ look and said things like “that’s ambitious”.

With the help of a few people like Debbie, Carol, Robert and Eden, and the Twitterati, word spread rapidly and I discovered that there are tons of writers out there just as hungry for an excuse to focus on their writing as I was. Tons of people who took “That’s ambitious” and made it a cheer, not a groan.

So now, I have — according to my Story A Day Dashboard — 77 new friends, who are all serious enough about their writing to want to do this challenge. Not everyone is writing every single day and not everyone is finishing a story every day they start one, but everyone is serious about their writing and that is such an inspiration to me.  (Sorry, I’m gushing)

FEEDBACK

Story length:

The shortest story people are laying claim to is 25 words. The longest is over 3000

Tips for keeping going:

@mapelba says  “As Ann Lamott said–butt in chair. It helps to listen or read an interview with a favorite author sometimes. Oh, and I’ve given up a lot of TV. That helps.”

@Cidwrites says: “The excitement of my friends who are doing this helps a lot!”

@KristenRudd says: “My trick so far is to mull my story all day, while I’m doing whatever it is I do. I think about the directions it could go, but I mostly think about how to open it. Then, when I can finally sit down after the kids are in bed, the dishes are washed, and I’ve done everything else that needs doing, I’m excited about the story that’s been buzzing all day. If I have the opener, I can sit down and just WRITE (That said, neither story went where I had planned. Characters kept popping in and announcing themselves, changing the story). Who knows if this will hold up – we’ll see! Ask us again in two weeks!

“My other trick was to sign up my kid. I have too much pride to be outdone by a seven-year-old, so I’lm guaranteed to write every day.” (I love this one!)

@Wendolin says: “I keep going because every day I wake up and the first thing I think about is . . . what will I end up with today? I go about my morning chores thinking about possibilities. I make this challenge the focus of my day, and though I have many other things to do, I keep the story in the back of my miind, cogitating, adding and subtracting, until at last, I just have to sit down and start writing, no matter how much laundry there is in the hamper.”

Thanks everyone! Keep writing!