Looking back, last year was an exploration of newly found freedom. I was in a flow state. I tried a bunch of things. I tested how many spinning plates I could manage at one time. I did a lot. I learned a lot. It was actually pretty awesome because it helped get really clear on what worked and didn’t, what supported my goals and what was a second or third head growing out of my creative body (nothing wrong with that, but it’s not the look I’m going for).
Clarity Over Chaos
I’m not a person that has a problem doing things. I am a person that sometimes has difficulty determining what things I should be doing – the things that would make the most difference. I expanded myself so much over the last year that it only seemed prudent to evaluate it all and make adjustments as appropriate. My past few posts have been about that and I am pleased with the progress.
When I look at all the things I have created this past year, I remember how much fun I had in doing so. However, I can also see that if I had framed a lot of it towards my main life goals, the framework would have been much stronger sooner and I might be further along.
Note to Self: Busy does not necessarily equate to reaching goals.
I’m not beating myself up. Just making an observation so I can be more efficient going forward.
Writing, With Intention
When I’m planning a book, other than the story idea itself, one of the first things I hone in on is the theme. Once I have that established, I use that as a filter for making other story decisions.
As I prepare to work on my next few books, I’m thinking about things differently. I feel like my last three books were rushed along faster than they needed to be. It was almost as if the getting it done was the most important part. I’m proud of what I accomplished, but a bit more planning would have helped me market them better.
Being in an ebb state now and with a clear purpose is showing me where I need to prepare my structures to hold and support/guide me when I’m back into flow and wanting to spill all over everywhere. It’s a balancing act. I find that I have to be cautious to not cut out too much when I’m ebbing because most things can just be tweaked to be aligned with what I want.
A Season of Restructuring
I expect many creatives experience this. I think we have to go through overflow after overflow to learn and grow and decide what really enlivens and inspires us.
I’m restructuring my day and month and year and general project plans in ways that I expect will support me. If a system breaks along the way, I’ll just fix it or replace it with something better.
Going forward, I’m all about my bespoke busy-britches!
I can’t remember where I first came across the following quote (and a quick search online didn’t help me either), but it had a big impact on my thinking:
“If you see something you think someone should do something about, you’re just as much someone as anybody else.”
It points to the fact that if we don’t like something we should just do something about it. It is a little annoying because sometimes I just want to complain about stuff. Ha!
The Writer Room Ripple Effect
A similar resistance showed up for me this past week when I was gaining more clarity around how I wanted to proceed creatively. In my last post, I mentioned that I shifted my room/office to be more expressive of my writerly-ness.
That, in turn, caused my mind to increase its focus as well. I could see that there were other areas in my life (especially online) where I had the same sort of convolutedness as I saw in my room pre-adjustment.
When Action Is the Answer (Even If You’d Rather Write)
I could also see that it would take quite a bit of work to get it adjusted (such as rebuilding/reorganizing websites and such) – time that would be taken away from constructing the books currently in my creative pipeline. I mulled it over longer than I should have.
I realized I had to take action, though, because I could see that taking care of these things now would allow me to grow more unfettered in the future. It would be better to get it all more closely aligned with my writerly-ness now than confuse people when I changed up stuff later (because change would be inevitable).
So, that’s what I’ve been doing these past few days. Thankfully, it has been going better than I expected. I still have work to do, but I know I am heading in the right direction.
The benefits of heading in the right direction is the gift of new book ideas popping up in my mind like perfect little saplings in a garden. Gotta continue keeping the weeds managed. Gotta get back to work…
I remember back in late 2023, I was talking to my Write on Purpose Coach, W. Bradford Swift, when I became clear that while I often talked about writing, I hadn’t made it a dominant part of my life.
On our video chats, I noticed that Coach Brad had a bookshelf full of his books behind him. In contrast, the shelf behind my desk held various things that I made and my books were stashed away in a cubby out of sight. Nothing wrong with that except that I wanted writing to be a dominant part of my life and my environment was not reflecting that.
A shift was in order.
Becoming the Writer (Visibly)
Inspired by uncovering my purpose in writing (to write enjoyable stories that cause young readers to imagine and experience new and expansive ideas), I took on becoming the person that would fulfill that purpose. I wanted anyone that looked at my desk area and shelf to know that I was a writer.
At the time, I only had two books published, “The Secret in Bladham Wood” and “Hope & Josie Go to the Prom” (co-written with a friend of mine). They didn’t take up much room on my shelf, so I took a few spare copies of my Bladham novel and covered them with mock-covers of books that I had already started and wanted to finish.
I couldn’t help but notice them every time I walked over to my desk and seeing them always made me smile. It helped me want to finish them even more.
That was late 2023, and now in early 2025, I have completed and published three of those books: “The Resurrection Incident”, “Sentenced”, and “Goddess Game.” (The illustrated stories have been written and storyboarded, but sidelined for the moment).
The Power of Visual Identity
It feels like quite an accomplishment as I had started them all around 2012-13 and there was no completion in sight.
I highly recommend a coach if you’re having trouble seeing why and how you’re holding yourself back.
Now that I have all that experience under my belt and new ideas, I’m not as intimidated as I once was to start and actually finish a book. I mean, I still have moments like “I have no idea where this is even going, how can I commit to finishing it!”, but then I recalibrate back to the person with a purpose, and I get on with it. (I don’t mean to make that sound super easy. I definitely still squirm a bit before I get back to work.)
Shifting Space, Shifting Self
Since my husband and I moved last year, I’ve been writing and I’ve also become a Sheila of multiple trades. My room/office has been filled with many wonderful supplies and tools.
I love having access to all these things AND I realized this past week that it did not reflect my writerly-ness.
When we first moved in, I had thought I might have a corner of the room dedicated to cozy reading or even meditation. Instead, in last year’s burst of exploratory growth, every nook and cranny was filled with “making things.”
A room is a bit more challenging than shifting around a bookshelf, but I took on rearranging it to be more aligned with where I want to be in life. The “making things” have been organized and stuffed into the closet (I will be spending time at a later date crafting some of my supplies down to a more manageable amount).
The end result: I have a corner cleared and ready for a comfy chair and blanket.
The Creative Center
The change feels right.
It feels aligned with my spirit, which wants to do everything (for sure), but mostly wants to write stories and enjoy stories.
That has to be the centerpiece. I’ll fit the rest in around that. 😊
For 2023 and 2024, I was finishing up writing a book at the end of the year. For 2023, the book was “The Resurrection Incident.” This year, I completed “Goddess Game.” It’s kinda cool that I have done that two years in a row, but I’m thinking I would prefer to use the last quarter of the year in future to outline and plan book projects for the upcoming year and maybe focus on direct sales. Might be a sweet experiment for next year!
Year-End Reflections & Routines
I know it’s cliché, but I do enjoy a fine rumination at the end of the year, reflecting on what worked and didn’t and making those glorious plans for the future. It’s a little dangerous and I can easily stay in the thrill of imagining all the things and forget to shift into the necessary doing.
I’ve learned a lot in 2024 about how I create, how to organize my time to get projects done, and the habits I can continue to tweak to help me achieve my goals consistently and with more energy to carry over to the next project.
2025: Superpowers Activated
For 2025, I feel like I am going into the new year with superpowers activated. I still have much to learn (and won’t I always?), but I have a confidence that I have not experienced before.
I’m focused on making life better and better and expressing that in the various ways that I enjoy: writing, drawing, crafting, music
It seems like in the past I didn’t think I could dare allow myself to feel capable if I wasn’t perfect at something. Now I know life is always an ongoing journey and I will get better at whatever I focus on. And that’s the same for all of us, which is so very cool.
In January, I’ll be releasing my fifth fiction book. I’m pretty proud of that. Typing it out is a bit surreal because there was a point where I wondered if I really could write book after book after book – which is sort of what you have to do if want to establish a career as a writer (this is still a work in progress, by the way).
The “Goddess Game” Season
I have been editing my upcoming novel, Goddess Game, for the past month. It has been a lot more work than I was expecting. Some threads in the story began to change, one disappeared. Some character personalities became a little more defined. More ideas popped up to include that I am trying to resist, but they may prove to be irresistible.
In short, I don’t feel like it is finished quite yet and I have a decent amount of work that I want to do on it.
But here’s the thing: I am not worried about it in the least because…
This is my fifth book, y’all! This is how it works for me.
I have uncovered my method, how I work, how the story rolls out.
The Process Reveals Itself
Each time I got to this point on my previous books, I had a moment where I wondered if I was going to be able to really get it all ready. And, every time, when I sat down to get it done, the words showed up, the stories grew into what they needed to be.
That’s where I am with Goddess Game. The story is in a final tweaking stage. I keep going through it chapter by chapter and it feels like it is becoming more of what it should be with each pass. In the next couple of passes, it should just need some beta reading for feedback. And proofreading, of course.
My Writing Method
I’m not a “pantser” when it comes to writing (tried it and it doesn’t work great for me).
I have an idea, I develop a theme and characters from that, and then I start outlining. It is a much longer process than that one sentence hints at, but having a system to get me that far helps me feel confident when I start writing.
And once I have that framework built up enough, the surprise ideas that my psyche has been holding out on me start to show up. I love that part.
I also love that I don’t feel stressed out around writing. The confidence is a little disconcerting because it is still newish, but because it is based on past experience I have no issue trusting in it and myself.
For the Writers Reading This
If you don’t do the work, you won’t get the experience you need to have this type of confidence. It’s okay if your work is not perfect. You’ll get better. Guaranteed.
If this speaks to you, let it sink in and take root in your creative soul…and then get to work. 😊
