The Development Pit Stop In Your Author Journey
Development In Your Author Journey
Podcast Episode 9
Hi, Kathleen Guire here. This week we are continuing talking about the parable of the sower- the Writer’s version. We are on the last kind of soil, which is the best kind of soil. So if you miss the first three, go back and listen to those episodes. But you don’t have to right now. Just listen to this one. I am going to start with reading the scripture that we have been using.
What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel. It sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots. So when the sun came up, it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds. As it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on the good Earth and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
So we talked about impenetrable shallow. Last week we talked about thorny, which is really the thorns for a writer are our weaknesses. And this week we are going to talk about the good soil.
Yay. Finally, the good soil. Because this is where we want to be in the good soil. This is the soil we want it’s when we move from our desire to write, our denial, and we move on to owning the fact that we are writers.
We hear the news that we are writers and we find the resources we need. Podcasts, books, and websites like this one. Kathleenguera.com, we acknowledge that we have weaknesses, but we don’t let them stop us from writing. We reframe our potentially limiting beliefs and fears.
And you can use the Journal exercise in the free roadmap to do that. And then we move to action. We move to action. And then we produce that harvest that is beyond our wildest dreams.
Because you know what an amazing feeling it is to have a book in your hand that you’ve written, or even if you’re starting with, hey, I wanted to start a website and I was going to do a series of articles and I’m going to write articles for a long time. And then I’m going to put them together in a book just having that article published or that one Journal entry written. It’s just something to celebrate. It’s something wonderful. And that’s the good soil and good soil.
You know what that means? It means you got to stick your head down in that dark, deep soil, and plant yourself. Don’t look to the left or to the right. You don’t look at what anybody else is doing. You don’t spend all your time on Instagram looking at other authors’ pages.
I think it’s really funny. It’s always kind of struck me as funny and I do this myself. So I’m laughing at myself here. We follow other authors on Instagram. You know, that it’s like we’re all following each other, and then we’re all looking at each other.
Well, she just wrote a new poem. Oh, she’s having a book released. Oh, my goodness. She just wrote that article. And man was that powerful. And then you know what happens? It’s okay to celebrate other people’s victories and to read other people’s wonderful things, but then we end up not writing, and that’s not good. And sometimes we spend all this time on Instagram or any other social media sending each other quotes from other authors. And not that that’s a bad thing. I’m not saying it is because there are a lot of good people out there who know a lot of information, knowledge, and have wisdom about writing. And I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing to look at those.
But when you are in the good soil, you’re in the soil you’re planted deep. You’re getting up at 05:00 in the morning. That’s me. That doesn’t have to be you. Whenever writing time is good for you. But that’s me. I like to get up at 05:00 in the morning. When it’s dark, it’s quiet, and I’m putting my head down on the good soil. I’m leaning over my computer and I’m writing, and the thoughts are flowing. So that’s the good soil. And that’s the soil that we want to be in. And like I said last week, I would be moving into the next pit stop on the roadmap for crafting your authentic story with courage. Make sure you get yours if you haven’t gotten yours yet, so you can follow along.
Development
The next stage is development. And that is the good soil is when you just say, I am a writer, I’m going to do this. You’re moving into this action phase, action and education. You’re going to educate yourself on the craft of writing. But more importantly, you’re going to actually write. Because that’s what writers do. Writers write. Writers don’t edit, they don’t revise. They’re not scrolling on social media, not until they’re finished writing anyway. Writers write. I’m going to be talking through six keys of development. And there’s a whole article about this on the website, which I will link in the show notes. The six keys of development. These are essential in your writing career. You have to have these. And number one is schedule time to write. If you don’t plan to write, you never will. If you’re waiting…
- for all your circumstances to line up
- until I’ll do this
- when this season of my life is over
- or when soccer season is over
- or when summer is over
…it doesn’t really work that way because then it’s not a priority to you. It’s something that you will do only if you have time and then you won’t.
Schedule Your Writing
I promise you. I’ve been there. There have been seasons in my life where things slow down. That’s a famous one. When things slow down. All right. No, things never slow down. So schedule time to write. Be creative with scheduling. I put it on my calendar. I have a meeting with myself every Sunday afternoon. I plan my week. I know I’m a little OCD, but I block out my time for writing and I make my writing goals for the week. I do that. And you know what? Little by little, things get done. In fact, just today I printed off the complete sloppy copy or rough draft of my newest tween novel that I’ve been working on, a Sera Craven mystery (here’s the first one). I printed off the whole thing. I finished the last little bit this morning and printed it off. So that’s what happens. Little by little, you schedule those blocks of time. Maybe you have an hour. Maybe you only have half an hour, or maybe you have half an hour in the morning and half an hour at night. I don’t know. I don’t know your schedule. But you do. You know when you can write what time of day works best for you.
If detailed scheduling is not your jam, then at least have a little task list for the week. I’m going to put in four writing sessions, and they’re going to be – you can either do it by time or by word count.
And if you’re afraid to block off time to write because you might fail, here’s a little hint. You will fail. And it’s okay. I know. I hate to be blunt, but you know what? Wouldn’t you rather plan to get seven writing sessions in and get four of them? Isn’t that a great thing? Wouldn’t you rather do it that way than not right at all? I would, but be flexible. Play around with it. You need to figure out when you are the most awake and alert and have time to write all of those things at the same time.
Stage of Life
I know this depends on the stage of life you’re in. You might have a lot of other responsibilities. When I wrote a positive adoption story, I was homeschooling kids, plus chauffeuring them to play practices, swim practices, and other events. But instead of chatting with other moms and this took a lot of discipline because sometimes this was the only time I really got to talk to other people besides my children. I had to just be in that good soil and put my head down and write. I would carry a notebook with me and sit there by the pool or in the theater seats. And you can do it.
Yes, it is difficult, but if you want to write a book, then you have to write because writers write. And that’s what worked for me. Only you know what works for you. Okay.
And then number two, have a clear idea of what you are writing about and whom you are writing to. And stick to it. I know that’s a long sentence and it’s very wordy, but each one of those phrases is very important. What you’re writing about, whom you are writing to, and then stick to it. Because the truth is, as writers, we can sometimes get shiny object syndrome or comparison or what is everybody else doing that group mentality like, oh no, everybody’s writing about this. I saw it on Instagram or I watched a YouTube video. Now everybody’s writing about this.
No, stick to your theme, your transformation, your story, what you set out to write about, and who you decided to write for. Who are you writing for? Who are you writing to? It’s very important.
So who is your audience?
Remember, you’re not writing for everyone. You can’t write a book for everyone. When you go to the library, you don’t read every book. You don’t grab every book off the shelf. When you go to the bookstore, there’s a section that you like to go to. Every reader is the same. So which reader are you writing to?
I use an example and here it’s kind of funny. For example, my audience on this website is writers, more specifically, writers who need tips and encouragement to craft their authentic stories with courage. Writers who want to write a book, a nonfiction book, which I usually say a hybrid self-help memoir, because that’s what kind of book that we’re talking about. And I know those are a lot of work, but it’s a kind of book that offers a transformation that you’ve gone through yourself. And now you want to help others do the same.
So I’ll talk some more about those six keys next week. I’m just going to use the last few minutes of the podcast to talk a little bit more about the nonfiction book framework.
Nonfiction Book Framework
Last week, we ended with -making a document for each chapter. And at the top of each of those documents, you’re going to answer this question- what did I overcome? Or learn? Or another way of saying it is, what transformation am I offering my reader in this chapter? Now that might sound overwhelming because you’ve got to really dig deep about what this chapter is going to be about.
You can refer to the timeline of your life if you made that. And I hope you did. And then you can also refer to the research you did on yourself and in books and on podcasts, which we’ve talked about in that way, if you know in each chapter what question you’re answering or what transformation that you had, then you can begin to craft that chapter to reflect that theme.
And that’s why some people think that writing just means grabbing a pen and a Journal and just everything’s going to come out perfectly organized. That’s like saying I’m going to make muffins, I’m going to make banana muffins, and I’m just going to throw a banana in there, whatever else I feel like throwing in there and whip it all up and put it in the oven and hope it turns out it doesn’t work that way.
Writing is a craft. It’s something that you can organize. You want to organize it so that it flows and it makes sense. And that when you sit down to write a chapter, you know what that chapter is about. And that way you can go back to the timeline of your life and you can pick the scenes, the turning points, the pivot points, the epiphanies. And I always keep using this example, like Budget-friendly Moms, maybe you’re writing a book about that. Then you will go to this is when I learned the value of money. And you’ll write a little scene about that on that document for that chapter.
So I hope you’re getting what I’m saying is you’re going to organize each chapter before you write it. And don’t worry about being perfect. Don’t worry about what order the chapters are in. Don’t worry about which order the questions or the theme is in. Like if you create, say you’re doing twelve chapters and you create twelve documents, don’t worry about organizing them into chapter order, then you can change everything later. Right now we’re just getting a start. This is a framework.
We’re getting a framework for your book so you can actually start writing it, which is really exciting. And if you’re not finished, we talked about the timeline of your life and picked out those that had to do with your theme. Then if you’re not finished journaling those, keep journaling those while you’re putting these chapter documents together.
Organize Your Writing
So you can use Google Docs. I like Google Docs. You can create a folder for your book and then a document for each chapter and keep them all in that folder and keep adding to them. Other people like to use Evernote. Other people like to use Scriviner. There are all kinds of writing helps that you can use, but find one that works for you and get started today. And if you downloaded the Free Roadmap for Crafting Your Authentic Story with Courage and you’re like, this is really good. It’s really helping me. I’ve been doing these journaling exercises and it’s making a difference in my writing journey. And I would like a little bit more.
There’s actually a Complete Roadmap Kit on the website and I will link that in the show notes that you can get and it has actually a chapter framework too. It has a PDF for putting together a chapter because you’re going to get to that point really soon where you want to actually put together and write a chapter.
And also on each one of these pit stops that we’ve been talking about so far, we’ve talked about desire, denial, and we’re on development right now but there are six pit stops. For each one of the pit stops in the Complete Roadmap Kit, there’s a whole chapter for you to read with journaling exercises, mind map exercises, and worksheets to help you plot out your chapter.
So like I said I will link that in the show notes so if the free roadmap kit has helped you then you’re going to want to purchase the Complete Roadmap Kit.
Thanks for joining me today and I will see you next week. Bye.