It’s been over a year since I’ve done a blog post. I was taking a break to focus on my ONE writing priority: FINISHING MY NOVEL. It’s been a long project since I was learning how to write while I raised a family, worked, and tried to keep up with our house. My struggle is every artist’s struggle: How to keep creating when life is overwhelming you. (Unless of course you have a fabulous patron and you’re living in some historic castle writing away while dragons play outside.) But for the rest of us, here’s my story on how I kept to my goals when life was super challenging. And the tips, techniques and resources I used to keep myself on track even when life was busy making other plans for me.
January to May, 2021: For my particular schedule and climate, January to May is the only time I can get some solid work done. I always set New Year’s resolutions and intentions on what to achieve during this “work period”—before the weather gets too nice and all I want to do is be outside. My goal was to get my plot ironed out. I had the big picture, but after many revisions, I had to make sure it flowed seamlessly. And the best way to do that was to work on it every day, stay in the story. I didn’t have a lot of time, but I found it didn’t take much, consistency was more important.
Then, as I was coming toward the end of my edit, I saw a promotional tweet for the Sage Hill Summer Courses: “Share this tweet and you could win a free entrance fee“. (Reading quickly, as I often do, I thought I could win the course free, but really it was only the $25 submission fee.) Nonetheless, I won the entrance fee, so I figured I might as well do a submission—nothing to lose. (Good marketing, Sage Hill!) I applied to the Fiction Course and got accepted. But I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it work as my mom was supposed to come for a visit that week. (The program was online due to COVID.) But how could I turn down the acceptance? I decided to leave my time in fate’s hand. I’d set my intentions and I was going to keep going.
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” –John Lennon
June 2021: Literally the day after I finished that edit, I called my mom to check in. That’s when I heard her struggling to breathe while we spoke. She tried to brush it off, but I got in my car and drove the three hours to her place. She was rushed to the hospital with congestive heart failure and we found out she most likely had lung cancer too. It was a lot for us both to deal with.
Obviously, my writing would take a back seat. I kept a journal, as always, but that was the extent of my writing. For the month of June we worked to get my mom’s heart stabilized and eventually she was able to be on her own again and I could go home for a few days, but I. I’d be back to grocery shop and clean.
July 2021: Happy with her progress, she was still planning on our visit at my place. I didn’t know how I’d manage the writing retreat, but I just kept focused on my priorities and figured I’d worry about it later. (I had written and advised my mentor / instructor about my mom’s health issues to give her a heads-up.) After about four days into her visit, my mom decided she was ready to go back to the comfort of her own home. That happened to be the morning before my course was to start. I’d never told her about it not wanting her to worry about me, she was my first priority.
My husband and daughter drove her home. Those ten days of the course were the only ten days I’d been away from my mom since she got sick, and would be only a brief break as her health stabilized and then worsened. A window of time opened up and I took it, excited and inspired. And then I won a free substantive edit of my novel. The value of which more than paid for the course.
August-September 2021: Originally, I’d wanted to do another line edit before sending it out on submissions, but I didn’t have time, wanted to take advantage of the edit so I decided to let my novel go. I sent my manuscript off and they had the month of August to read through. My mother’s health was failing so all I did was journal, dealing with the many emotions I was going through. Sadly, my mom passed on September 10th of 2021. It was time for me to pack up and go home.
October 2021: Now I had my writing cut-out for me: my mom’s obituary and eulogy. After my mom’s funeral, it was time to get back to writing. Where to start? I decided to work on a short story for a competition in a local magazine. And I joined Sarah Selecky’s online writing group: Centered. I had been thinking of it for a while, but knew I didn’t have time. Now I was ready to take advantage of all the site has to offer: a monthly guest mentor workshop, conversations and co-writing, bookclubs, and more. There’s always inspiration to be found.
November 2021: I had my notes from the substantive edit and decided that it would be a good time to work on my query and synopsis, help me bring the novel into focus. While working on that, I saw that Writer’s Digest University was holding an online Literary Conference, and as a bonus, you could submit your query for critique. Just what I needed.
At the same time, I had my local writer’s group (Ascribe Writers!) critique my query and short synopsis. Taking their notes, the substantive edit notes, and the feedback from the course, I thought more about what the central conflicts in my novel are and how to make them stronger, resonate more.
December 2021: Which is when I saw that Jordan Rosenfeld was offering a course on: Imagery and Emotion in Your Writing. Just what I was looking for!
“Passion plus creativity equals persistence. A long-lasting focused practice, integrated into your life, your “writing practice”, all drops into a bucket. A reminder that it’s the journey not the destination.”
–JR Rosenfeld
January 2022—time to bring it all together and work on my final edits. But there was a problem: the beginning didn’t quite fit. I went back to those query critiques and notes. It then took me three months of work to get the beginning right.
March 2022: What better time to take a course on the Agent One on One: The First Ten Pages with the Talcott Notch Literary Agency. After the first round of feedback, I make a couple tweaks and there were no more changes on my second submission. It was time for me to move on. And now I’m coming up to halfway through this final edit and I will have it done this summer, then on to my beta readers while I rework query and synopsis for submission.
June 2022: What’s the point of my story? Life happens to all of us. Set goals and intentions. No one cares if you write your book, paint your picture, play your song. The only person that cares is you. Life will always get in the way and provide a convenient reason for you not to do your craft. And you don’t have to, no one is expecting you, no one really cares. But if you care: set your goals, make a practice, and it will carry you through thick and thin, because it’s what you love. And if you show up for yourself, the universe will show up for you in unexpected ways.
Take aways:
- Set goals and intentions. Know where you want to go.
- When life happens, you have to roll with it. Keep an eye on your priorities.
- When you need inspiration, look around. There’s a lot of fabulous online courses and writers groups. (Links below for those I’ve mentioned.) You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home! (Especially if you’re living in that castle.)
- A little bit every day goes a long way. Tried to stay connected to your art, not just to accomplish something, but as a salve in trying times.
- It’s the journey, not the destination. We’re just walking each other home…
Links:
Hey Diane, great to read this story of your story. Love the imagery of walking each other home. I appreciate the links too – planning to follow up on them.
I’ve been meaning to thank you very much for responding to my blog about the war in Ukraine. It was just recently that I saw your comments as I must have missed the notification that’s usually sent.
It felt risky to post such a controversial subject but I did it anyway. Your response was so thoughtful and gave me more info to follow up with as well. I just really appreciated your willingness to engage in the conversation.
Congrats to you on putting your plan in place and following your heart in several directions.
Thanks Bernice. I always love our conversations. And I think we can both agree, there are no winners in war. Since commenting, I have read more with respect to the concerns you raise, as well. Thank you for reading, and here’s to our continued thoughtful conversations! And more writing!
Great to see your blog again Diane! Lots of good lessons and tips here. Thanks!
Thank you, Seana!