Skillsets That Take the Pressure Off Writing

As writers, one of the most important things we do is tell stories. But sometimes the pressure that comes from trying to craft a compelling story can just grind our progress to a halt or build up too much tension in our own minds and prevent us from getting those words on the page. 

When that happens, it can help to fall back on other skillsets to help reduce that tension and figure out a way forward. These are a few of my favorites to turn to when the pressure of a story starts to get to me. 

As a bonus that really isn’t a true skill so much as it is an activity, I’ll add that walking is just one of my favorites. It’s gentle and contemplative, and it allows me to process things from my stories to life. So if you just need something to organize your thoughts, walking is a good option. 

But for something a little more, here are my favorite choices for taking the pressure off writing, having some fun, and sometimes getting a new perspective. 

Cooking

It’s rather handy because we do all have to eat. For almost as far back as I can remember, I’ve loved cooking meals and snacks inspired by what I was reading. Soon I realized I could transport that excitement and gain inspiration by preparing meals that were inspired by what I was writing. Bound By Blood (which probably should have been titled Bound By Soup) is the first book where I actually really delved into building out segments around recipes and in which I cooked almost everything I wrote about. But it helped so much in completing the draft and getting the right mindset down that now I incorporate it far sooner. 

Thinking about what my characters would eat and their general culture provides so much inspiration, and really it’s just fun to create recipes based on scenes or that I could imagine being prepared at certain points. Not all of them though. And never spider. Never again at least. There are some limits to how far I’ll go for creative inspiration in storytelling. So if I am writing about a character or world that is far afield of my actual tastes (or frankly budget), I just come up with fun alternatives or focus on what makes me feel inspired to keep going (which sometimes is basically just cheese). 

Drawing

I chuckle a bit because of how truly dreadful I am at drawing. While I am a decent cook so long as you don’t expect artistic presentation, my drawing skills run in the opposite direction. Once when I was trying to explain to an artist what I wanted for a cover illustration, I roughed out a sample image, and the artist messaged back “lol, I can see why you’re hiring an artist.” I definitely agree.

But that doesn’t mean that drawing doesn’t help take some of the edge off of writing as well. While I don’t do it every day, I regularly sit down and work on sketches. Being dreadful at it and accepting that also removes even more pressure. All I am trying to accomplish as I draw is expression, and a good drawing session with terrible lines and roughened forms. After one of those, I often find the words come along far smoother

Dancing

While perhaps a little less obvious, dance is another of my favorite skillsets for taking the pressure off. And, like drawing, it isn’t actually because I’m good at it. The best term for what I do is probably balter. Graceless but enthusiastic. 

There’s something about switching on music and moving in time to it (or even in rough approximations) that shakes up the mind in all sorts of good ways. Even better if it’s to music that reminds you of the story you’re working on or the characters or the world.

For each story I create, I have at least one playlist. Sometimes one for each of the characters if I need to get into their heads. 

Putting that on and dancing around the room to it can help me enter that space while also getting the blood flowing. And on low inspiration days when I have the energy, songs like “Bad Romance” are just excellent for enjoying movement period whether they actually fit my story or not. Even on bad pain days when I can’t really move my legs as much, chair dancing and interpretative swaying are fun options.

As a bonus, sharing those playlists with readers is also quite fun. In fact, all three of these include creating something that you can share with your readers if you want to let them in on that part of your life. (If you’re feeling really bold, I suppose you could record your dances and share those too, but that would probably increase the tension for me).

Amid the hosts of skillsets out there, cooking, drawing, and dancing are the three I love most for getting the pressure off storytelling. 

What about you? What skillsets help you reduce the pressure from writing and get you into a better place for your storytelling? 

Jessica M. Butler is a USA Today bestselling romantic fantasy author who never outgrew her love for telling stories and playing in imaginary worlds. She lives with her husband and law partner, James Fry, in rural Indiana where they are quite happy with their two cats and all of the wildlife and trees.

Find her at https://jmbutlerauthor.com/.

Building Skills

 

This creative development question is my topic. It came to me because years ago, a friend who is now a very successful author decided to write her second book. She sat up in our local writer's meeting and said, "I want to make readers cry. I'm going to try to write a book that makes 'em cry." It stuck with me. She's continued with having a goal for each book - something that stretches her skills and at the time, I was envious of and intimidated by the conscious decision to attempt something like that. What if you failed? I've since gotten over that fear of failure silliness. New skills are new skills whether you execute them perfectly the first time or not. In the spirit of 'what doesn't kill me makes me stronger' nothing new that's attempted is ever wasted.

At the moment, however, I have only one goal. Recover from burn out and finish the book I'm working on so I can write the book that was due a few years ago. My goals for books are currently in a really simplistic place. I want to tell a competent, compelling story. I'll worry about technique after. I need the story to feel right before I can fuss with heightening whatever skill I stumbled on accidentally -  which is what usually happens. As an example, the book I'm currently working on requires that I learn how to handle a little bit of horror technique. I have no clue whether I'm doing it correctly. That will be for readers to decide. I'm *trying*. But it wasn't a conscious decision. It was simply what this story needed. It's the story that intrigued me enough to write and as I wrote it, the story revealed to me that it needed a reasonably high creep factor. This was a skill I did not (and to this day, may or may not) possess. But yes. I sought out a class. A couple, in fact. 

My next book requires me to tackle a theme that isn't entirely my forte. We've been eyeing one another, that theme and I. There's been research and some free writing around the associations and emotional loads. Now lets see if it will mature into a plot that won't bore readers to death. If I don't stick the landing, so what? I'll still have learned something that I'll carry forward into the next story. And the next.

As a part of the recovery process, I'm doing my best to keep writing as nourishing as possible. Some days that means fun. Some days that means challenging. Some days it means trying things I've never done before - with the awareness that such experimentation might not end up being ready for anyone else's eyes. That's okay. I look at it as building strength. It's also a useful way to break up writerly monotony. Experiment builds upon experiment, and eventually, there a new skill is likely to emerge.

Planning for specific skills for each book? No. Not yet. I'm not there yet. I aspire to be. Working on it. For right now, the stories lead the way. What they want, I attempt to deliver. Succeed or fail, I at least give it my best shot and trust I'm learning from the process. I expect that at some point, I'll learn enough that I'll be able to declare an objective like "I want to make them cry!" and be able to rise to the challenge. But for today, finishing is good enough.

Old Skills and New Skills

We’ve reached the middle of January and the new year has yet to shed all of it’s glitter and shine. It’s a great time to pursue goals and think about trying new things…like new writing skills? This week we’re asking if we try new skills each year or with each book. 

To date, I’ve written four complete novels and roughly a dozen intros with synopses. Over the years I’ve found my writing groove: best time of day, chapter structure, outlining, and word count expectations. All of this was determined by use of a spreadsheet. I don’t sit down to work on any novel without first pulling up its spreadsheet. 

Yes, I’m a Virgo. I’ve got spreadsheet skills.

I’m not going to say I won’t learn new tricks or processes, because I fully expect to. I want to grow as an author, I don’t know how you can write multiple novels without growth, though I expect it to be a gradual thing. For now, I do feel comfortable with my writing skills and how I go about turning thought into book. At this time I’m not looking for new skills, I’m looking to strengthen the ones I’ve got. 

My spreadsheets—they’ll continue to be tweaked as I determine which parameters need to be tracked more closely. My plotting graph—that’ll stay the same handy form that it is. And Scrivener—it’s capable of gobs of options I don’t use, but the ones I do are irreplaceable. 

That’s the rundown on my writing skills. How about yours, do you try out anything new when you start a new manuscript?

Creative Development: By Book or By...

This week's topic: Do I look for new skills to try each year or with each book?

Intentionally? By series. I definitely like to attempt something new-to-me with each series for three reasons: 

1. I'm always trying to improve as a writer
• There's a difference between the natural growth that's a result of practice versus the deliberate pursuit of a challenge, of reaching for a higher rung. 
• Book-to-book within a series my storytelling inevitably improves as I become more comfortable with the characters, the world, and the conflicts.
• Series-to-series I push myself to take on a creative challenge. Sometimes I succeed (and those series make it to print). Sometimes I fail (and those messy attempts never leave my cloud storage).
• I keep an eye on the higher rungs that are my creative goals. Similar to what Jeffe mentioned on Sunday, there are series I want to write but lack the chops to do my concept justice. Those partially drafted Book Ones languish in notebooks or on my cloud, waiting for the day I have the skills to properly convey my vision.
2. It prevents me from writing "the same book with different names." 
• I don't feel I've reached my fullest potential as an author yet. I certainly don't want to lose my creative drive by repeating a storytelling formula that's comfortable or easy. I like the excitement of challenging myself and improving.
• Note: There's nothing wrong with developing a storytelling formula that works best for you (and your readers) and applying it over and over and over. There are plenty of famous authors who use a tried-and-true method to great financial success. Many readers find comfort in knowing exactly what they'll get from that author.
3. No Bait & Switch
• Once I introduce a series, I don't want to change the voice, style, or structure whilst in the throes of the greater story arc. I feel that's an injustice to the reader, a violation of the storytelling promise I made in the opening book.
• By contrast, I don't want to be locked into a specific storytelling style for the rest of my career. I feel that changing my style from series to series is a clear enough indicator to the reader of Achtung! Different Book Ahead!

Sometimes we grow as authors through intentional acts, and sometimes we grow through myopic focus (hello, contractual deadlines) where we don't realize the breadth of what we've accomplished until it's behind us. In whatever manner your progress happens, I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on how far you've come--even if it's not as far as you'd hoped--and be proud of yourself. You did it. Congratulations! 

Leveling Up - Whether We Want To or Not

This week at the SFF Seven we're asking each other: do you look for new skills to try each year? Or with each book?

My first reaction is that this isn't an annual process for me, but an ongoing one. Because it's absolutely something that happens with every book. And not because I plan it that way! Quite the reverse. With 65 published titles, I often go into new books thinking something along the lines of "This one will be a fast and easy write because x, y, z."

I am, inevitably, always always wrong.

That's not to say that some books don't write easier than others, but they all pose unique problems. It seems to be the nature of the beast, that the creative process goes to a new and more challenging place every time. 

I have two caveats to this:

1. I do kind of look at this on a yearly basis because of my agent, Sarah Younger at Nancy Yost Literary Agency, who sets up annual chats with all of her clients at the beginning of each year. (She jokes that she has to dig some clients out of their caves once a year for this. You know who you are.) I really love this about Sarah because it's part of what she brings to the table: long-term career strategy. She says she keeps a goal book for each of her clients and we revisit those goals and set new ones each year. For me, a big part of this conversation is always how can I grow and expand? What do I need to do to level up?
2. The second caveat is that I save some ideas for when I have the chops to execute them. Writers often talk about (and are asked) where they get their ideas and how we choose what to write next. (See above for that.) For many of us, ideas arrive all the time, but that doesn't mean we're ready to write them. The second novel I ever wrote was like that - only I didn't know that I didn't have the chops to execute the concept. So, over the years, I've gradually been adding skills as the stories demand them. In Shadow Wizard, book one of the Renegades of Magic trilogy, I added extra points-of-view (POVs). That was the first time I wrote in more than two POVs. In book three of that trilogy, Twisted Magic, I had five POVs. Who knows where it will end??

Except that someday (maybe?), I'd like to go back and rewrite that second novel. I bet I could pull it off this time.

 

Inspiration and Community

 

Although I'm an introvert, I gain a lot of inspiration from the people around me--writer friends and groups, my family, and, of course, my book friends (they count, don't they?). After a day of work, parenting and household chores, and writing, it's great to take a little time for myself and connect with someone(s) who will make me laugh or make me think or make me cry. All good things to fill up the creative well. 

Thanks to the FaRoFeb group

Let me begin today with a big thank you to all the FaRoFeb contributors for 2023. They gave us insights into being a writer and writing fantasy romance, thoughts on current topics, and tips and hacks we can use every day. I've learned a lot and gotten to know my fellow authors better. I'm so proud of our group and thrilled to see what FaRoFeb has in store for 2024!

Family matters

My extended family is big--I have 11 aunts and uncles (not including their spouses) and over 40 cousins, all of whom are amazing individuals and are creative in all kinds of ways! Many of my characters begin with one or more traits from a family member, as they are wonderful inspiration. As we have grown older, we see each other less often, but Facebook and family weddings (and funerals, sadly) give us opportunities to catch up. I have so many fabulous memories to remind me I'm loved and I belong. My family gives me the courage to express myself creatively and believe in myself.

Reading Women

Like all good writers, I am a confirmed bookworm. Like many of us, my childhood was filled with fairy tales, science fiction and fantasy, and world myths--a perfect training for writing fantasy romance. In addition, I have advanced degrees in English literature and teach at the postsecondary level. One of the great joys of my job is reading books and stories and calling it work.

I will read almost anything as long as it's written well and isn't misogynist or racist, etc. Now that I'm older, I've decided life is too short to waste my time and energy on hateful or toxic materials. Fill the well with good stuff, I say!

Today I read for fun and also to learn the craft and spark new ideas. I love learning about plot reveals and turns in crime fiction, creating action-packed scenes in suspense, and how to make a relationship compelling in contemporary romance. From fantasy and science fiction, I explore new worlds and societies, from historical novels I glean ideas about setting descriptions and family dynamics. Women's fiction helps me see the nuances of telling women's stories and seeing a variety of viewpoints. We can learn from everything!

Happy new year and wishing you lots of inspiration for 2024!

Pick Your Size Well Refilling

Refilling the creative well is like drink sizes at one of those massive gas station / truck-stop arrangements. You can get the kiddie cup, something approaching medium, or the ridiculous, last-for-days and have-to-pee-every-hour grand gesture hydration solutions. Filling the creative well comes in all those sizes, too. If it doesn’t for you, I argue it should.

Kiddie cups: These little sips are daily practices. Work out, maybe. Meditation. Breathing exercises. Yoga nidra/NSDR. That twenty minutes after work and before the dinner rush wherein you sneak- read a few pages of a book. Journaling. Singing when you’re alone in the car. Spending ten minutes outside in the early morning sunshine admiring the trees and plants and flowers. The daily kiddie cups may be small, but they keep the well topped up and the workings clear of debris. There’s a saying among hikers: It’s the water in your body that keeps you alive, not the water in your canteen. Refilling the creative well feels very much the same. In the throes of stressful daily live, whether there’s a deadline or other pressures, most of us can’t afford anything more than a few short, stolen moments to pour a few ounces back into ourselves. A few ounces at a time won’t keep us topped up, but they will sure slow the draw down.

Medium-ish: These rehydration investments are bigger investments, whether in time, effort, or cash. A class. An entire day alone with no one else setting the agenda. A solo trip to an art gallery or a museum or a bookstore. A day of enjoyable outdoor activities. Sailing, hiking, biking, exploring, whatever. It can be short writing retreats or a local conference. The point of the medium-ish creative well refill project is to tip a lot more into the well to bring the levels markedly up. If you’ve watched any ancient Egyptian archeology shows in the past decade, picture the Nile measuring systems the Egyptians built to keep track of flooding. They knew that if the Nile floods didn’t hit a certain height, it meant famine and they could plan. We’re using our medium drinks to bring up the level of the Nile. We don’t want creative famine. So, we need a cadence of regular pours to inch that level back up above the uh oh mark.

Grand gesture: These are huge, major investments in well refilling. They’re great emergency measures akin to getting an IV in the ED. The grand gesture can be life and soul saving after major burn out. Everyone’s grand gestures will look different. It could be a major conference (San Diego Comicon, DragonCon, etc.) It could be a longer-term writing retreat or even an artist-in-residence situation. The grand gesture is meant to be a big adventure, preferably undertaken solo. You shouldn’t have to share your Big Gulp. Not when you need it. It’s supposed to shake you up. It’s supposed to be faintly scary. Refilling the well like this should feel a little wild and uncontrollable as if you might be swept out to sea by the force of the flood. I mean, okay. My analogies are breaking down and getting tangled up. In my case, it was a ten-day trip to Ireland. Ten days of beginner mind because everything was new and bright and shiny and well-filling. Your grand gesture may, like mine, be a once in a lifetime event. That’s fine. I just hold that everyone trying to refill a creative well should indulge in a grand gesture at least once in life, understanding that grand gestures may need to be scaled to accommodate budgets, schedules, and envious spouses.

 

3 Ways I Refill the Creative Well

Happy 2024! What better way to start the new year than by talking about inspiration. And not simply where do we find inspiration, but three sources of inspiration. 

I have forever, and will forever, love hearing about a story’s origins. When I fall in love with a book I want to know what inspired the place, the characters, the events. Isn’t it fun to hear an author say the idea struck them as they sat in a specific place and watched [fill in the blank with basically anything that’s ever happened and it’s likely to have inspired someone]. That’s where my mind goes when I hear: book inspiration. But what about a source of inspiration? 

A source insinuates a well, a continuous refilling. A place, or a mood, that is guaranteed to inspire the story muse. Now that’s a horse of a different color. And here we all thought simply being inspired was the trick! 

Well, what do I do when I’m drained—besides take a nap? I give in to my husky pup and go outside. Like Jeffe said, nature refills my well. Fresh air combined with rain, sleet, snow, or sun revitalize me. I suppose gardening and getting my hands in the dirt fall into this category as well. But being outside, which pretty much always means I’m at least walking if not doing more, can unlock my brain like nothing else can.

As a runner up I’d say yoga is another source of inspiration. Not necessarily the physical act of yoga, though that feels fantastic and the more limber the body the more limber the mind, but the mental aspect is what I would pinpoint as the source. You can yoga with friends, you can yoga with goats, you can even yoga in a high temp dance-like studio. Or you can yoga and focus on your breath and slide into the quiet headspace where I’m emotionally and mentally refilled. You can call it meditation, though I’m still learning and meditate better when I’m doing certain poses since it helps me focus on my breathing or certain muscles and then suddenly I’m not thinking of anything else! Yoga is a source because when I’m done I’ve got clear headspace and am ready to create!

And in third place, which sounds sad, but really isn’t, would be reading. It doesn’t matter how wonderful or flawed the writing is, reading is a source of inspiration for me because it jumpstarts my imagination. Love them or hate them, characters interact with your imagination. Homey or alien, worlds make you feel like you want to hang around or run away screaming.  And head-scratching or applauding, plot lines are like parallel universes, one choice spins the story in a whole different direction.

There you have it, my three sources of inspiration that I return to again and again. What well do you draw from?

Inspiration & The Value of Social Media

 This Week's Topic: 3 Sources of Inspiration

Happy 2024! On this second day of the new year, some of us are reluctantly emerging from the haze of excessive consumption, questionable decisions, and the bitter confirmation that we are, in fact, too old to keep doing "this." Whether "this" is guzzling a magnum of champagne by yourself or writing 30 books in a year, you're not alone. Across the globe, people woke up not to New Year's resolutions but to New Year's realizations.

I salute you, my fellow members of Team Realization.

I realized that something I detest has somehow become something on which I...rely. 

{huge dramatic sigh} 

Social media has become the means through which I discover my inspiration. My first two sources of inspiration haven't changed no matter my age or circumstance: music and folklore. However, novels and movies have taken a step back as social media swaggered into third place. 

I know, I know. I am pained to admit it.
Yet for you, dear readers, I do confess.

Improved information accessibility via the evolutions of technology and the intense social pressure to perform for the world if one has a mote of talent (for better and worse) permit me to fall down deep, deep, deep rabbit holes chasing videos or teasers from amazing creatives whose works I discovered due to a post on social media. 99% of the time I didn't discover those artists directly from their feeds, but through others linking to a post about an article about a TikTok about a technique, a myth, a song, a story, an animation, etc.

That's the kind of viral marketing every author (and everyone selling anything) dreams of happening. It's not a pathway of discovery that the source can measure or of which they are even aware. True, this fan-based trail is typically rife with click-monetization, yet it creates a symbiosis in the discovery environment. Truer still, the creative at the end of the trail probably sees less than 0.0001% of the monetization (if any money at all). Despite that, the feat of being discovered in a sea of billions holds immense value. When talking heads speak of social media being necessary for creatives, this is why. This elusive interlinking Gordian knot of passions, fans, creatives, and products is wonderful even when the artist never knows if or how their efforts are working. 

*Note: This description of the value of fan-directed, interest-related discovery in no way supports the pirating, scraping, or theft of any works or content. Nor does it support the exploitative practice of "exposure as payment."

To my fellow authors and artists who feel like they're shouting into the void, keep posting. You never know when your talent will fuel another creative's inspiration. 

Three Places I Find Inspiration

 Happy New Year!

On this New Year's Eve day, I'm busy crunching year-end financials in preparation to go to quarterly tax-reporting. Author finances, however, are not the topic of the week at the SFF Seven. Instead we're discussing a much happier topic: sources of inspiration.

The two are somewhat tied together for me as I've spent the last two weeks refilling my creative well. I finished my revision of ONEIRA (final title to come) on December 15 and sent it off to my editor. Since then, I've taken a break from writing work - very unusual for me. The time has been consumed largely by Christmas prep, travel, visiting family, and doing business like the above crunching of year-end financials. Looking at this, I've realized that I've been relying on passive well-refilling: hoping that if I simply leave the creative well alone, that the vast water table of the universe will seep in and top that puppy off for me. 

And, to some extent, that's true.

However, I'm realizing I haven't been following my new tenet of aggressively refilling the well. That would mean finding ways to actively pour juice into that well. And that's where inspiration comes in. What are my top three?

Media

I'm putting a lot under this heading, much like my sibling-under-the-skin, Murderbot. One thing I have been doing is a full re-read of this excellent series by Martha Wells. Reading books - particularly brilliantly written ones by authors I admire - is a great source of inspiration for me. I also include listening to music under this heading. While road-tripping, I put my music library on All Songs Shuffle, which unearths interesting stuff I haven't listened to in ages. A Cat Stevens song - The Wind - turned up, so now I'm diving into a full Cat Stevens song shuffle. What an amazing songwriter, to communicate so much in so few words. Finally, I love watching movies for inspiration. I got a great idea just the other night from a movie and now I'm sizzling to write this series. Though it will have to wait, the sparkle of that excitement adds to my overall feeling of creative flow.

Nature

I'm fortunate to live in a beautiful place. My desk overlooks a spectacular view and my morning walk with the dog is replete with huge skies, distant mountains, and beauty of all kinds. I say I'm lucky to have this - and I am! - but I also sought out this place, because being outside in a beautiful place is super important to me. Just living here refills my well.

Silence

Longtime readers probably know that I'm an advocate of silence for creative flow. By this I don't necessarily mean the absence of ambient sound, though it sometimes means that for me. I'm talking primarily about the silence of the mind, the emptiness that allows creativity to flow in, that enables us to hear the voices scintillating through the veil, telling us their stories. Taking time off from the "noisier" parts of my life has been invaluable for that. 

Huh... Turns out I've been doing better at aggressively refilling the well than I thought!

Best wishes for an inspiring 2024 for us all!

So Turns the Wheel of the Year

 

In the liminal space between this end of year cluster of holidays, I wish you the warmth and relaxation and coziness of Arya nesting in my lap. May the new year be bright, prosperous, healthy, and joyous. I have no great advice to give or pronouncements to make. May we all become the best versions of ourselves as we move into another cycle.

Goodbye 2023

My husband and I smiling goodbye to 2023!

It’s been a year. I spent countless hours at my kid’s sport events. Read 78 books. Wrote one sci-fi thriller. And I’m excited about 2024. I’ve got goals and I’m going to reach them. 

The new year is right around the corner. It’s a time to look forward in anticipation. It’s also a time that many make resolutions. Resolutions, goals, whatever you want to call them, they’re good motivators. And if you’ve been looking for the push, the thing that’ll energize you, now is a great time to decide that it’s going to happen now. 

A positive mindset can carry you a long way. I was reminded of that as I watched the most recent season of Alone with my family. If you're not familiar with it, it's a reality show from the History Channel that pits people against the wilderness and their own minds as they survive out in the woods alone. The woman who stuck it out to the number two spot was incredibly positive and grateful throughout the experience. She outlasted her competitors, who brought in more game, with berries and a smile. Watching her daily lift her face to the sky reminded me that I want to face 2024 with a grin. 

That’s my plan as I prepare for the new year. I hope your New Year celebration is safe and filled with joy and laughter, but also brings you a good dose of grit for your goals. 

Cheers to the Changing of the Year

 This Week's Topic: Thoughts on the Closing of the Year/Start of the New Year

As we say goodbye to 2023 and look ahead to 2024

I wish you all 

Good Health

Good Fortune

and

Good Company

Cheers to the changing of the year!

FaRo on my mind

 

FaRoFeb website

As we look back on 2023, I want to thank our group, FaRoFeb, for contributing to the SFF 7 Authors blog this year! I love this partnership. I really enjoy seeing the different perspectives on the blog each week, and adding a variety of posts from a diverse group of our authors has been a real joy for me. 

For those of you who might not know, HR Moore founded the Fantasy Romance February (FaRoFeb) group as a way to bring together authors and readers of fantasy romance for a month of bookish activities. Now the fun lasts all year long! The group supports authors and readers of Fantasy Romance, providing spaces on social media to build community and promote great books.

The FaRoFeb team of volunteers works tirelessly to make the magic happen. If you'd like to learn more about them, please check them out:

• HR Moore, www.hrmoore.com
• Vela Roth, www.velaroth.com
• Lisette Marshall, www.lisettemarshall.com
• Colleen Cowley, www.colleencowley.com 
• S. L. Prater, www.streetwitch.net
• MJ Faraldo, www.mjfaraldo.com
• Elsie Winters, www.elsiewinters.com
• Mimi B. Rose, https://www.mimibroseauthor.SheWritesSteamyRomance.com
• Jen Lynning, https://jenlynning.com/

Finally, follow FaRoFeb on social media and join their newsletter. There are games, book recommendations, character art, giveaways, and more.

• https://farofeb.com/, https://farofeb.com/newsletter/
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/429207234870645 
• https://www.instagram.com/farofeb/
• https://www.tiktok.com/@farofeb

Next week, we'll thank the volunteers who contributed to the blog this year and wish you a wonderful new year!

Blessings,

Mimi

Winter Solstice What's on My Mind

Blessed Winter Solstice. On my mind today - Time. 

Time in all its complexity and in its simplicity. We brought in a tea advent calendar from Friday Tea in Seattle. We're counting down to Christmas with a different tea each day. We also brought in a wooden puzzle advent calendar. These simple time keepers were an attempt to handle one of our more complicated time issues - family.

My father received news from his doctor this year that no one wants to receive from a doctor. We're all aware that as we count down to Christmas this year, we're also counting down how many more Christmases we'll have together. It's a fact of life, of course, but no one has to like it, and we don't. So we're focused on connection, on creating moments for slowing down, for pausing and looking around. We're concentrated on creating enjoyment. The puzzle has been a surprisingly good way to do all of that. Dad isn't fond of the holidays to begin with, so we were pleasantly surprised when he opted to engage with the puzzle advent calendar with us. Well timed batches of holiday cookies have helped a little, too.

I'm making some of my family's favorite things to eat, of course. The holidays are time for me to try new recipes simply because I enjoy experimenting. I'm contemplating how to create more time and space in my life for my dreams and my ambitions. During this solstice season, I'm pausing, taking a full, deep breath and holding it in the depths of the dark while I look around with eyes not clouded by my breath in the cold night. Solstice night is the time to leave behind the parts of me that no longer serves me. Time to strike the match and light the midwinter fire. This is the doorway out of shadow into light.

It's time to realize that our lives are advent calendars counting down the clock of our existence. What matters to us can no longer wait. 

Winter On My Mind

Food preparations, gift wrapping, laundry, my twin’s birthday, packing overnight bags, picking up dog food…these are a few things on my mind this week, and sadly none of them are writing related.

I knew the holiday time between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years would be busy, but I naively thought I’d be able to write. I wasn't prepared for a few days to have gone by since I’ve had the time, or been home long enough, to open up my laptop.

Now I seriously understand every author who has said they don’t write during the holiday season. But I’m not beating myself up over it. It is what it is. I’ve also got a lingering bug that I caught at a family Christmas, so I’m choosing salt baths and hydration over pushing myself for words. I'm choosing to winter.

Yes, I'm wintering. That idea that we need seasons same as our environment. Winter is the time of year for salt baths, cozying up on the couch with a warm cuppa, quiet nights at home with loved ones. It's restorative and does wonders for the brain. If you haven't done any wintering yet, I highly suggest it! 

My imagination hasn’t taken time off yet, my plot continues to grow in my mind. So I’ve got that going for me. 

I hope your holiday preparations aren’t driving you crazy and that you either get time with your own words or turn some pages with someone else’s! 

Merry Christmas!

A Peaceful Pause

 This Week's Topic: On My Mind, the Winter Edition

It's the time of year when I give myself permission to not write, to pause marketing analysis, and to back off ad management. There's no guilt for missing word-count goals. No stress over skipping editing pages. My book discounts and winter ad campaigns were launched at the beginning of the month and are slated to run through the end of January (yes, I do winter campaigns versus holy day campaigns).  I check my sales mostly because it's a habit and not because I will do anything to adjust campaigns.

When writing full-time--or any type of self-employment--we often forget to give ourselves permission to take a break. As creatives, it's imperative we step back, step away, and step into a place of regeneration and relaxation. Too many of us attempt to keep our work schedules during times of the year that we know will demand a lot of us outside our fictional worlds. Whether it's family obligations, religious observations, charity deliverables, or community interactions, the end of the calendar year is exceptionally taxing. Fighting the inevitable isn't worth my health or my sanity. Thus, I give myself permission to set aside my writing--both the creation and the business--to participate in the season of giving. Giving my time, my emotion, and my cooperation to those who've supported me throughout the year. 

Now, now, I don't give away all my time. I still maintain my restful hours. I even claim a few extras. Because, as stimulating as it is to reconnect with loved ones, it's also exhausting. This recluse can only handle so much of...people.

This winter, dear readers, I wish you the serenity of a peaceful pause.

Me and the Rise of Romantasy

 A weird thing about me: I'm always a bit ahead of my time. I don't know why this is, but it's been true all of my life. And it's not nearly as cool as it sounds (if it does sound cool). In truth, it's not a great thing at all, because it means I'm never in the full swing of the cultural zeitgeist. I'm the odd duck, the one not marching along with everyone else. 

Many of you have heard these stories of my trajectory (which implies a straight course and steady momentum which would be entirely incorrect). In summary:

1. No one knew how to market the weird cross-genre stuff I was writing, starting back in 2007ish.
2. Catherine Asaro told me to keep going and just know that writing cross genre would be like wading through hip-deep snow.
3. Agent at a conf in 2010 told me my work fell in the cracks between genres. I cried. Friends dubbed me "Crack Ho."
4. I didn't know I was writing Fantasy Romance until Carina Press took a chance on a crazy, cross-genre kid and published my books under that genre label.

Fast forward to today and the coining of the term Romantasy.

A number of readers have contacted me recently, having just encountered the term, largely via the new Goodreads Choice Awards category. I'm not sure who coined the term, but the portmanteau of Romance + Fantasy has now come to encompass Fantasy Romance and Romantic Fantasy. This has been occurring first in the Indie spaces and now is moving into traditional publishing as they catch onto the trend. Just last February - on Valentine's Day - Devi Pillai, Publisher at Tor, the notable publisher of science fiction and fantasy (SFF), announced that they'd created a new imprint: Bramble. Monique Patterson, Editorial Director at St. Martin's Press, moved over to head up Bramble, which will be SFF + Romance.

In very cool news for me, Monique was featured in Publisher's Weekly Notables of 2023 and namechecked me! (Along with my friend and colleague, Amanda Bouchet.) Monique said:

Romantasy may be the shiny new portmanteau on the block, but the fusing of speculative fiction and romance, Patterson notes, is nothing novel. She points to series by such authors as Amanda Bouchet and Jeffe Kennedy that would likely be categorized as romantasy now, but came out before the term was coined. It was tough putting out such books in years past, but they “would probably do wonderfully now,” she says.

Isn't that cool? I was so pleased to be mentioned in this context. From Crack Ho to Trailblazer! 

Ain't that just the way it goes?

Websites as Crutches

For the most part, I aspire to keep away from distractions. However, I find that good ambient sound works well for creating a cone of privacy around me while I'm writing. Especially when there are noise cancelling headphones involved. Therefore, I usually have YouTube up in the background. I'll run 3+ hour dark scifi, dystopian, or horror ambient tracks. I have specific needs for those - they need to run long and not allow ads. They can't have a ton of melodic line. These things are more a vibe than they are music, and they're just enough to keep my critical brain busy and out of the way of drafting while they also provide cover for the other noises of the household.

I'm a big fan of Wordhippo.com for word finding. My rule for this is that I must open and close the browser window for every single look up. It's an attempt to keep me from sheering off of making words with rando look ups. Some days, I don't open the site at all. Other days, I may need a little mental jog or two. Those days, I need to find just the right word before I can unclench and move on.

My final favorite website while writing is a website for writing. Consider this my ongoing plug for 4theWords.com. Timed writing, gamified, stripped down to a basic text editor so I can't get too precious about how stuff looks while trying to get x amount of words before time runs out. It's a great place to fast draft and a great place to write about writing. It's a perfect venue for doing a bunch of the prework of writing - compiling research / noodling how that research impacts plot and characters, getting characters hashed out, getting GMCs worked through, etc. I'm on the site every single day.

Once I have a draft, no matter how skeletal and bloody, I shift out of websites into Word. Edits and rewrites happen with fewer website interruptions. By the time I'm in edits, I pretty much know where we're going and how we're going to get there. I no longer need to anesthetize the critical portions of my brain like I do with drafting.  Until that point, though, websites are my crutches, and I lean on 'em.

Ugh

 

I’m sick, so this is what you get. Every inch of my body aches, but this fur ball still found me and hasn’t left my side…maybe he’s taking advantage of my bed bound state, but I appreciate it.

Inigo Montoya and My Favorite Website

 This Week's Topic: What Website Do I Use The Most While Writing?

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.--William Goldman, The Princess Bride

I am guilty of this far more than I care to admit. There's a point at which contextual clues fail, and my vocabulary is filled with those results. Turns out, close is not actually good enough when one is the author instead of the reader. My greater foible is homophones. Greater still, straight up bad spelling. Then there's the whole When to Hyphenate issue. We won't discuss the CapItaLiZatIon iN FanTasY chaos that gives grammarians GERD.

I really ought to send my copy editor an Inigo Montoya plushy. 

{sheepish}

Stay Offline While Writing!

 This week at the SFF 7, we're asking what is the website you use the most while writing?

I'm going to answer this a bit contrarily. While writing - that is, while drafting - I don't use any websites at all. I do my best to stay entirely offline while drafting. Anything I feel I might need to look up, I put in square brackets and save for the revision stage. On my most recently completed book, TWISTED MAGIC, I had nearly 200 square brackets when I stopped drafting and started revising, which was at about 75% through. 

(Sometimes I draft all the way to the end, then revise; with other books I stop at some point and go back to the beginning, revise from there, then go to the end. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Each book is different. But that's another topic.)

Now, when I'm revising the website I use the most is... Plain Ol'Google. 

(What a world we live in now, where I can write down Google search as an old-fashioned method.)

Now, my Google-fu is strong. I use [word] + etymology a lot to find better words for what I'm trying to say, or that word in another language. I look up specifics on things I want to research more. I look up names. I stay away from rabbit holes, even while revising. 

For me, the internet is anti-writing, so I steer clear. Maybe that's true for you?

Getting Unstuck

 

It happens. 

We all reach that point in the story where we feel stuck. For me, it often happens about halfway through the story. And right before the end. Often somewhere in the editing process as well. (It happens a lot.)

It's like the wheels turn into bricks, and the path turns to icy sludge.

And when that happens, argh. I want to set the pages or something on fire. But that is surprisingly not as effective at resolving the matter.

So how do I get unstuck? There’s no one guaranteed way, but here are a few of my favorites.  

Get Physical 

Physical fitness isn't precisely at the top of my task list when I’m in the middle of a deadline. But there’s little better than getting the blood pumping when the story won’t move. Often when my body feels slow and stagnant, it reflects in my writing, sometimes bogging me down even more. 

It doesn’t have to be a lot of activity. Sometimes a gentle walk suffices. 

In some cases when it’s a bad pain day and I need to get a lot more done, deep slow breaths help me clear my thoughts, even if it isn’t enough to resolve it. 

If you need more than that, meditation can also help. The Calm app as well as Headspace provide breathing tracks along with guided meditations to help, and K. A. Emmons provides guided meditations for authors on YouTube. (This is one of my favorites, but each one of hers I have tried has been lovely.)

Ask Someone You Trust for Their Opinion 

This works in two ways. Sometimes there are people in your life who understand what you’re working on and how to get yourself out of the mire. They may have good advice to share. In that case, asking for their opinion can lead to direct solutions.

And sometimes you have people in your life who will tell you what they think and, as soon as they do, you realize you know what it is you really want to do. If this is the case, remember to be respectful and courteous. Most will understand if you explain that other people throwing out ideas helps you spring off the initial concept to new ones as well rather than the implication that you don’t value their advice. (Having been on both sides of this, honesty helps so much and reduces the risk of hurt feelings.)

Mark Down the Motivations

I don't always outline (I adore the discovery process too much to be able to commit to much more structure than a rough outline that gets modified significantly as the story progresses). 

But when a story starts feeling like quicksand, one of the first things I check is whether I'm clear on the motivations of the characters. All of them. Even if they don't have a spoken line in the scene. And the motivations don’t even have to be big. But everyone always wants something.

One of my favorite Kurt Vonnegut quotes on writing refers to this situation: “Make your characters want something right away even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.”

Figuring out the motivations and marking them down on a scrap of paper can go a long way toward breathing new life into the scene and helping you know where to go moving forward. 

Approach It from Another Perspective 

Sometimes I feel stuck because I've started the scene at the wrong point or in the wrong POV. (I like to joke that I start every story two chapters too early or two chapters too late.) 

When that happens, the simplest thing I can do is just start rewriting a bit. I like to try starting the scene from another point or a separate character. As I write in third person deep limited POV, this requires that I consider the details that that character notices (sometimes I combine this with the motivation exercise above). Those added details often bring to light why the scene is not working or what is currently missing to make it stronger. 

Recognize It Might Be Part of Your Process 

Becca Symes often talks about questioning the premise and analyzing why we respond the way we do. In quite a few of her Quitcast videos on getting unstuck and the Stuck List, she discusses how sometimes it is just a part of the process for us to get stuck. Our minds are still working through the story, and really what we need is to just be stuck for a little bit.

While a little alarming to know that you can’t just blast through it, it is comforting to know that it may simply be a necessary stage for your mind to continue processing and refining the story before you can move on.

Feeling stuck happens to all of us. It may even be part of your process. Whatever the cause, know that this feeling and sensation won't last forever. So try not to worry. It may take multiple attempts or techniques to move past the stuckness, but eventually you will get unstuck. This is just a part of being an author. And sometimes it’s good just to know you are not alone. 

So what about you? Do you have any favorite techniques for getting yourself out of being stuck? 

Jessica M. Butler is a USA Today bestselling romantic fantasy author who never outgrew her love for telling stories and playing in imaginary worlds. She lives with her husband and law partner, James Fry, in

rural Indiana where they are quite happy with their two cats and all of the wildlife and trees.

You can find her at https://jmbutlerauthor.com/

Path Out of Stuck

Take it from someone who walked face first into stuck (that was really a kind of burnout I didn't know I had) and then flailed there for a very long time: There's a difference between stuck and burnout. You need to know the difference.

Stuck is frustrating. Stuck is scary. Stuck still has hope of breaking free. Stuck usually means something is wrong with the story somewhere (and that's fixable.)

Burnout is paralyzed. Burnout is numb. Burnout says 'I can't'. Burnout usually means something is wrong in your environment or possibly in your physiology. 

Burnout needs recovery time and effort and may require professional assistance either from a coach, a therapist, or a doctor. Stuck needs a little strategic psychology to pull you free of the mire and can usually be resolved within a few weeks. Burnout can take months or even years. 

Whether you're in burnout or whether you're stuck, the antidote for the poison is the same: So long as you say 'I can't', you won't. The only way out of stuck and out of burnout (eventually) is to begin asking 'how can I?' Example: Going from 'I can't make this work.' to 'How can I make this work?' It's not magic and it's not immediate. You have to ask the question and ask the question and ask the question. Then you have to sit and listen. Free write around it with no rules. Stream of consciousness write around 'how could I make writing work?' 'What would it look like to make writing work again?' 'What do I need in order to write again?' Just keep asking and keep noodling. Initially, the answers will all be I don't know. Then, one day, you'll get an outlandish, crazy idea. Mine was to get some plywood up into the attic and laying it down across the rafters so I could get a desk and plug up there as well as a little damned peace and quiet and solitude for writing. Living in Florida where attics are regularly a bajillion degrees made the idea unusable but it did start a protracted effort to find some privacy in an overcrowded house. It's s process that's still unfolding. Recovery is a process that takes a little self awareness, honesty, and a willingness to ask for help if it's needed.