The Myth of Thicker Skin

One of writing’s oldest adages is completely wrong; here’s what to do instead

This article originally appeared on The Writing Cooperative blog

You’ve all heard the recommendation: If you want to be a writer, develop thicker skin. Searching for “writing, thick skin” on Google yields almost 75 million results. But after two decades of writing and editing, I can tell you: getting a thicker skin will only hurt your writing.

Don’t get me wrong. This advice comes from a well-meaning place. After all, writing for publication is a rejection-filled process. And as writers, we do have to accept feedback on our work if we want it to shine. From critique partners to agents to editors to copyeditors, multiple people touch each book, story, essay, or poem that goes out into the world and sometimes their feedback, no matter how gently delivered, stings. This is not an article telling you to ignore all feedback on your perfectly brilliant first draft. I’m a book coach by trade — I obviously believe in the value of editorial feedback. And I won’t claim, even for a second, that accepting feedback isn’t hard. But I will tell you there’s something that’s the absolute opposite of thick skin and is crucial to good writing: vulnerability.

How a thick skins detracts from your work

This month, author and story guru Lisa Cron released Story or Die: How to Use Brain Science to Engage, Persuade, and Change Minds in Business and in Life, the latest in a series of books about how our brains process the stories we’re told. Her second book, Story Genius, is required reading for my coaching clients and I use the exercises in it each time I sit down to write a new short story or novel. At her launch party for the book on March 2, Lisa said, “To be likable, you have to be relatable. To be relatable, you have to be vulnerable. Emotion telegraphs meaning.”

And what’s the opposite of being vulnerable? Having a thick skin. Sure, you can try to compartmentalize. Be vulnerable when you write and put on that thick skin for critique group and submission news. But I’ve tried it and it just doesn’t work. Not only is denying or suppressing your emotions for the sake of getting a “thick skin” a great way to let anxiety and depression creep in, but it can also lead to an endless cycle of trying to write to the market to avoid rejection only to find yourself the recipient of rejection letter after rejection letter. And as slow as publishing is, writing a book is even slower. Writing to the current market is like a dog chasing its tail — you’ll never quite get their and you’ll end up dizzy with exhaustion.

OK, OK, so I’ve convinced you that the idea of needing thicker skin to be a good writer is a myth. Now what? Here are three things you can do instead of building a thick skin that will help you become a better writer:

Practice vulnerability

Being vulnerable is terrifying. If you put something surface-level out into the world and it’s rejected, it’s more self-fulfilling prophecy than crisis. If you put your truest self out there? It can be devastating to hear that your best work is not yet good enough. But focus on that word: yet. It’s not good enough yet. But it will be. The only thing that guarantees you’ll never be published is quitting writing altogether. Don’t do that.

Instead, practice vulnerability in your writing. Every character you create — even the villain and the monsters — reflects some aspect of your own personality and life experience. And each of those characters is going to reflect some aspect of your reader’s life experience as well. Tap into that and your words will be more powerful because they come from a place of truth. And remember, as story guru Lisa Cron said, readers respond to that truth, that relatability, that vulnerability. Readers recognize and gravitate toward writing that feels authentic and true, no matter the genre. And that’s what we all want, right? Readers who are engaged. Readers who want to read more.

This may take a little practice, especially if you’ve spent more time trying to build up a thick skin than you have trying to be authentic on the page. Free writing and meditation are two ways to practice getting in touch with the more vulnerable side of your inner storyteller. Don’t let self-editing or self-doubt keep you from digging deep.

You can’t control the business, so don’t try

Once you’ve developed your thin, vulnerable skin, you have to stop trying to control the business side of things. This is actually the key to surviving this business with the vulnerability and emotion you need to move readers with your words. You cannot control how agents, editors, readers, or reviewers respond to your work. Don’t try. It’s the fastest way to sap the joy out of the work.

Amazing agent Kate McKean offered this key perspective in “How To Keep Your Spirits Up”: On the whole, you cannot do anything about the overworked agent with 5 minutes a day to think about queries, when yours is 100 deep in the slush pile. You cannot do anything about the editor with 5 minutes a day to read submissions, and yours 50 deep in the submission pile. You cannot do anything about someone losing their job or moving to a different house or a publisher closing up shop. You cannot do anything about the ever shrinking books coverage media landscape. You cannot do anything about blurbers who are stretched thin and can’t read your book. You cannot do anything about closed bookstores or conservative bookstore orders. You cannot do anything about a global pandemic, outside your own house or community.”

What can you control? The work. The energy and focus you bring to your story. And doing that well requires the opposite of thick skin. It involves having skin thin enough to put all those deep emotions on the page. It requires being vulnerable in your writing, letting real human emotions shine through, even (especially) when it’s scary.

Even great work gets rejected

I’m not going to tell you a story about someone who received 12 agent rejections before finding success. I’m going to tell you the truth: good stories, publication-quality, moving, well executed stories get rejected all the time. An editor just signed something too similar. The market just shifted from last week’s hot topic to next week’s hot new thing (see Paranormal Romance, Dystopian, and many other examples). The editor who loved your work couldn’t get it past their boss/sales/marketing.

These things happen all the time. So if they happen to you, you’re in good company. Don’t take the subjective passes as a sign that something was flawed in your work and quit just before you sub to the editor who would have totally gotten your story.

Final thoughts

Once you stop trying to control the outcome of your work, that thicker skin won’t be necessary anymore. The mental space taken up by worrying about things you can’t control can be put to good use working on honing your craft and learning to be vulnerable on the page. Sure, you’ll commiserate with friends and loved ones when the rejections come in. But you’ll keep writing. Keep submitting. Keep trying to learn and improve. And eventually, you’ll find that magical yes that will make all that painful, vulnerable thin skin worth it.

Julie Artz is an author, editor, book coach, and master pep-talker living in a magical forest outside of Seattle. If you’d like to receive her creativity tips and workbooks right in your inbox, subscribe to her monthly #Create2021 newsletter.

How to Get Accepted by a Writing Mentorship Program

Two writers busily preparing for a writing mentorship program. — Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

This post on writing mentorship programs originally appeared as a guest post on janefriedman.com.

As college tuition, including MFA programs, skyrockets and author income remains low enough that it rarely allows an author to leave their day job, more and more writers are looking for low-cost and no-cost ways to learn about the publishing industry and the craft of writing. Mentorship programs have become a popular way to gain knowledge and exposure, but as their popularity has risen, the competition has gotten tougher as well.

I’ve been a Pitch Wars mentor since 2017 and was a mentee myself in 2015. I also helped found my local Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) chapter’s mentorship program. So I’m both a big fan of mentorship and an experienced mentor. And although there’s no silver bullet that will guarantee your spot in a mentorship program, there are lots of things you can do to improve your chances.

Why writers benefit from writing mentorship

When talking with my coaching and editing clients, I often describe the writing journey as a multi-level pyramid. If you’re just getting started, you’re focused on the foundations of the craft. What is a scene? How do I structure my story? How do I build characters that come alive on the page? That’s the base of the pyramid.

Once you’ve mastered that, the next layer of the pyramid dives into the finer points of point of view, conveying emotion, and writing snappy dialogue that builds character. Only by the third layer of this pyramid do you get into using figurative language to convey theme, using rhythm to create both musicality and tension, and keeping pacing tight.

It’s likely to take more than one manuscript (or at least more than one revision pass) to move from the base level of the pyramid to its peak. And you’ve got to get to the peak before you’re ready to consider querying agents or submitting to publishers.

But a mentor can help you make the climb more quickly and efficiently by homing in on your specific needs and taking the time to understand the heart of your story.

Even once you’re ready to query, publishing can be a lonely and rejection-filled process. But having an experienced writer to guide you can reduce stress and help you navigate tricky situations with more knowledge and confidence. While professional writing organizations, writing conferences, and online webinars or courses can be a great way to gather information, one-on-one feedback will take that foundational knowledge and build upon it to take you to the next level in your writing journey. And the community that is built around these programs is worth more than any Agent Showcase could ever be.

Choose your writing mentorship program wisely

Choosing the writing mentorship program that’s right for you and your work is vital to success. Not only does the program need to accept the genre, age category, and form you write, but it also needs to take place at a time of year when you have time to devote to revision.

Here is an alphabetical list of popular mentorship programs for writers and when their applications typically open:

Author Mentor Match – AMM provides mentorship for middle grade, young adult, and select adult projects and typically opens to submissions in January each year.
Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) – AWP’s Writer to Writer mentorship program is a members-only mentorship program. Applications are typically due by January each year.
Latinx In Publishing – Applications for this mentorship program open in the fall and pair an unpublished/unagented Latinx writer with a published mentor.
Pitch Wars – Pitch Wars provides a limited-time (usually 2-3 month) mentorship period for adult, young adult, and middle grade authors with applications typically opening in late summer/early fall. CrimeReads recently published a Pitch Wars roundtable with more information here.
The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) – Many SCBWI chapters offer mentorship programs for fiction and nonfiction children’s books. There is typically a fee for the mentorship, though prices vary by program.
We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) – WNDB’s mentorship program selects mentees from traditionally underrepresented communities. Applications will open in fall of 2021 for the 2022 program.
Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) – WFWA’s twice annual mentorship program opens in the fall for those writing women’s fiction.
WriteMentor – WriteMentor provides a monthly paid mentorship service, but also provides a free summer program that opens to applicants April 15-16, 2021.

I’m sure there are other great national mentorship programs I’ve missed (let us know in the comments!), and there are many local options as well, so check in with the writing organizations and libraries in your area.

Have realistic expectations of mentorship programs

Mentorship programs have recently led to several glamorous success stories, but the best way to find success in a mentorship program is to enter with realistic expectations. Many of the writers who are selected have been writing for years, are not submitting a first draft, and would have gone on to find publishing success even if they hadn’t participated in a mentorship program. If you’re working on your first novel, don’t expect a fast train to the New York Times Best Sellers list. Remember that writing pyramid? You can’t race straight to the top without mastering each step along the way.

That doesn’t mean there’s no point in applying if you’re a beginner. On the contrary, having a professional on your team going over your manuscript and providing an edit letter similar to what an eventual agent or editor will provide gives you invaluable experience. But it’s not going to turn your rough draft into a bestseller in one round of edits. What it will do is teach you skills you can apply to additional rounds of revision and future manuscripts. And if the mentorship program has any sort of agent showcase, it can get your work in front of industry professionals. If you are selected, focus on learning everything you can from the experience.

And if you’re not? There are lots of opportunities for finding critique partners and new writing friends during the Twitter chats and forums some of these mentorship programs provide. So even if you aren’t chosen, you might find a new critique partner. And that’s huge, especially during a pandemic when in-person writing events are few and far between.

Revise before you apply to a mentor program

Although learning how to revise deeply is one of the great benefits of participating in a mentorship program, do as much as you possibly can before you submit your manuscript for consideration. That means looking at plot, character arcs, tension, and pacing. If you have finished a complete draft but have a list of things you know need to be fixed, fix them before you submit if you possibly can. That will clear the low-hanging fruit and let your eventual mentor focus on the deeper issues.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in my submission inbox, especially in the speculative genres, is information dump. I don’t need to know every last detail of your mythical world to select you as my mentee, but I do need to get to know your main character enough to follow them through the whole story (and the inevitable two to three read-throughs I’ll complete during Pitch Wars). If you’re not sure how to approach this issue in your writing, Susan DeFreitas’s Backstory and Exposition: 4 Key Tactics on this blog will help.

Find a beta reader to help

Sure, a mentor can provide that first set of eyes, but if you’ve already had readers, you’ll be able to get even more out of the mentorship experience. And if you already know the competition for mentors is stiff, why not put your best work forward? Beta readers or critique partners can catch plot holes, naming inconsistencies, revision artifacts, and other confusing places that your eyes might miss since you’ve read the manuscript so many times.

Do that final buff and polish

Once you have that crucial beta feedback, take another pass through the manuscript. Fix as much as you can. Sandra Wendel’s guest post on The Difference Between Line Editing, Copy Editing, and Proofreading is a great checklist. Yes, you ought to do at least a line edit before you submit. That’s not to say your manuscript will be rejected if there’s a typo, but anything you can do to make it easier to read will make it more appealing to mentors going through their slush pile.

Bonus points if you take the time to read your manuscript aloud. This is one of the best secret weapons for weeding out awkward or wordy phrases, repeated words, and unnatural sounding dialogue.

Maintain a professional presence on social media

I am not going to tell you that you have to have 10,000 followers on Twitter to get a mentor or that you can’t make a fart joke for fear of not getting selected. But I will say that I always check a prospective mentee’s profile to make sure that they aren’t being harmful or abusive online. It’s also a great way to gauge whether we’ll be a good personality fit, which is a crucial part of a successful mentor-mentee relationship. I mentor middle grade, so the well-timed fart joke is totally on-brand for me. But other mentors may feel differently.

Do your homework on mentors

While we’re talking about social media, do your research on the mentors you’re applying to work with. Do they like speculative fiction or do they only want contemporary? Do they have particular content they prefer not to mentor? Are they strong in areas where you particularly need help?

In addition to researching potential mentors, learning to read submission guidelines is a great skill to cultivate. Over fifteen percent of the writers who submitted to #TeamUnicornMojo (myself and my super-star co-mentor Jessica Vitalis) in Pitch Wars 2020 were writing in genres clearly outside our wish list. For example, we love historical fiction, but if there’s no magic, we’re not going to pick you no matter how beautiful the manuscript is. Because we write and mentor fantasy. Historical fantasy? Bring it! Straight historical? There are other mentors who are a much better fit. Mentors provide their wish list not only to convey preferences but to let writers know the genres they’re best equipped to mentor. Sneaking a portal fantasy into a mentor’s inbox by calling it “fantasy adventure” will not help your cause.

And make sure your manuscript is in standard manuscript format (unless the mentorship’s submission guidelines specify otherwise). Standard manuscript format is:

12-point serif font (Times New Roman or similar)
double spaced
first line indent
1” page margins
page break after each chapter
space down 2-3 lines before each chapter title
no first line indent on first line of new chapter or scene (this can be confusing, so grab a book and look at the first line of the chapter to see what I mean!)
page number, manuscript title, and your name in the header or footer of each page

Finally, ensure your word count falls in the publishing industry’s general guidelines. Agent Jennifer Laughran wrote the definitive post at Wordcount Dracula. If you’re 1,000 words over or under, don’t sweat it. If you’ve got a 200,000-word middle grade, consider a deep edit before you submit.

Parting advice

In truth, these recommendations hold true whether you’re applying for an MFA program, hoping to secure a writing-related grant, or applying for a mentorship program. These good habits will serve you well no matter where you are in your writing journey. But if you’re really hoping to find a mentor in 2021, best get revising now so you’re ready when the submission windows open. Best of luck finding a mentor—they really can change your writing life.

A Whispered Promise

This post originally appeared on thecreative.cafe

Sunlight sparkles
on branches drenched
with dew.

Blackbirds celebrate
the promise of
warmth to come.

Cedar’s sharp scent
perfumes the frosty
air.

Soft moss gives
way beneath my
curling toes.

And through it all,
the goddess softly
calls…

Spring will be here soon.
Do not despair.

Putting the Garden to Bed

A poem for the dark days of winter

This post originally appeared on thecreative.cafe.

It’s easy
when you put the garden to bed
on a cold winter day
to focus on
the bare branches
fallen in the wind,
the number of green tomatoes
— such a loss of potential —
the blackened buds,
what a waste, what a waste.

What’s harder is to relish
the sunlight on my face,
the crisp crunch
of the leaves underfoot,
the hidden treasure
of winter carrots.

But when I pause,
see past the gloom
of cantaloupes
that didn’t fruit,
of slugs that
rasp at the cabbages
in the long dark,
I look up
and find
against a bright blue sky
a little bit of beauty,
a gentle reminder
that we survive
that this is an ending
but not only that.
That spring will come
again,
with light
and hope.

It’s in the Dough: What pandemic pasta-making has taught me about writing

This post originally appeared on writingcooperative.com.

After eleven months at home, we’ve finally gotten tired of baking sourdough bread. Don’t get me wrong, my husband makes a mean loaf of bread. But by December, we were ready for a new culinary challenge to distract us from the pandemic.

So of course, Santa brought me a pasta machine and an extruder. A week later, a bag of “Tipo 00” Italian pasta flour arrived at our door. We looked up a basic pasta recipe in our favorite Italian cookbook (River Cafe Cookbook Green) and off we went.

It’s not a quick process — good thing we’re stuck at home indefinitely. First you mix the dough, then knead it for 10 minutes, then refrigerate it before rolling it into walnut-sized balls that go one by one into the extruder. Once you’ve shaped the pasta, it goes back in the fridge before finally being boiled, mixed with any number of delicious sauces, and going straight into our bellies!

And now for the writing metaphor…

Last night, as I waited for our most recent batch of dough to chill, I started thinking about the manuscript I’m drafting right now and how much the writing process is like making pasta. Author Shannon Hale’s view on first drafts is often-quoted: “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that I can build castles.”

I think drafting is more like making pasta than sandcastles. Because writing’s not just shoveling the sand into the sandbox, it’s about starting with the right tools and ingredients, kneading the dough until it’s just right, taking the time to let things rest and cool when they need to, and then shaping the dough into the right shape for the meal you have planned.

Tools and ingredients

The beauty of this complex, diverse world we live in is that there are multiple tools and ingredients that can get the job done in pasta-making, writing, and in life. Rather than dictating that my clients use a particular methodology, piece of software, or approach to writing, I guide them toward something more holistic.

Gluten-free? There are options for that. No money for a fancy extruder? Hand-rolling and cutting is absolutely an option. No budget for an MFA? I’ve got resources you can pick up at your local library or bookshop that will help you learn what you need to in order to make just the right dough to support your story sauce.

What’s more important than any one tool or technique is a broad knowledge of both story and the writing process. And the more you master the basics, the more you can experiment with the fancy stuff as your knowledge grows and expands. I made spaghetti before I tackled ravioli. And I tossed a few batches before I got dough that was good enough not only for me to eat, but to share with guests.

Kneading the dough

The next two steps, in my experience, are the most often skipped when either pasta-making or writing. And it’s tempting to take short cuts because as long as the writing process takes, publishing can take even longer. But in the same way that kneading the dough hydrates the flour, warms it, and gives it just the right texture, taking the time to thoroughly mix and meld story elements is an important part of writing.

Rarely does an author get just the right balance of backstory, action, dialogue, character interiority, and setting right on the very first go. Only through thoroughly mixing in revision will writers achieve the perfect balance. Skimping here will leave you with a tough, sticky mess that’s hard to shape. Trust me on this one. I’ve made this mistake before.

Letting things rest

Likewise, it’s easy to forget to let the dough rest. In pasta-making, letting it cool keeps it from sticking to the extruder or the rollers, depending on what final shape you’re going for. In writing, letting your story rest will let you come back to it with fresh eyes. But unlike pasta making, you’ll come back not just to shape the dough, but likely to do some heavy trimming.

This step is so important that I’ve written a whole essay about it as part of my Writing in the Garden series. If gardening is your thing, you might like “Walking Away From Your Story.” But no matter whether gardening or cooking appeals more to you in terms of metaphor, you’ll want to let your drafts rest for anywhere from two weeks to two months (or more!) so that you can see the truth of your story more clearly and adjust as needed.

Choosing the right shape

Although you likely set out on your pasta-making/writing journey with a particular shape in mind, once you’ve got your hands on the dough, a different shape might present itself.

In writing terms, this could involve adding or cutting a particular point of view, changing perspective from first to third (or the reverse) or adding verse, epistolary, or other forms to deepen your story themes. Nailing multiple timelines, an unreliable narrator, a perfect historical or fantasy setting, or a mystery full of just the right red herrings takes time and thought. Sometimes it even takes more than one try before you land on the perfect shape for your story.

Bon appétit

The perfect pasta takes time, the right ingredients, practiced technique, and the right blend of dough and sauce. So too does story. The results, when the right time and care are taken, warm you on a cold winter’s night, comfort you in trying times, and of course are beyond delicious. Is there a particular step in the pasta-writing journey that’s giving you trouble? Comment below and maybe I can help!

What Stories are Hibernating in Your Creative Greenhouse?

What greenhouse gardening taught me about the creative life.

What stories are hibernating in the greenhouse of your creative life? — Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

If there’s one silver lining to being home for nine months and counting, it’s that my garden has never looked better. The extra at-home time convinced me to try something I’ve been wanting to do for ages: greenhouse gardening. So this past summer, we ordered a greenhouse kit and my husband and son, bless their hearts, spent several days building me a 7’x13′ greenhouse.

Although I read a couple of books on greenhouse gardening, as the temperatures dipped, I started to panic. I had this whole huge empty greenhouse — how would I decide what plants to put in it? How cold would it get during the coming winter? What would survive?

As these questions swirled in my head, another one emerged: Is there a writing metaphor here? And of course, there is. Because I cannot control Mother Nature or what type of winter she sends us. Nor can I predict what temperature a brand-new greenhouse might maintain through the cold season. And there are several other factors equally outside my control from pests to humidity to light.

There are many things outside our control in the creative life. We cannot anticipate how our words will be received nor whether someone will beat us to that shiny new idea. We cannot know in advance if we’re submitting our story to the right publication, the right agent, the right editor. All we can do is create our best work and put it out into the world.

Ultimately, I put a variety of plants into my greenhouse this fall. Herbs, both tender and hardy, flowers, and seeds, and even a sweet potato and a hot pepper that I dug up from my vegetable garden.

More Will Be Revealed

The cover for book coach Julie Artz's client's book, In Pillness and in Health.

Author Henriette Ivanans talks with memoir coach Julie Artz about success of her debut memoir, In Pillness and in Health.

Book jacket for memoir coach Julie Artz's client's debut, In Pillness and in Health.

This post originally appeared on the Author Accelerator blog.

The year 2020 was a tough year to be a creative person, a sensitive person, a person in general. It was a year to take stock and to think about what’s really important. So I was thrilled to end the year on a harmonious note by chatting with one of my earliest clients as a memoir coach — Henriette Ivanans.

Her indie-published memoir, In Pillness and in Health, is a bestseller on Amazon and poignantly tells the story of a marriage held hostage by disease. In raw and moving prose, Henriette recounts her battle with kidney disease and drug addiction. Woven throughout is a love story that ultimately helped her find redemption and healing.

Julie Artz: It’s so good to see you, Henriette! For our readers who weren’t there as it was happening, tell us a little bit about your publication journey. Why did you choose self-publishing?

Henriette Ivanans: I tried for a year to get an agent or a publisher. I’d written a book I was really proud of and I gave it everything that I had. I hired an ex-agent to help me craft a query letter, I researched everything, I watched webinars with Jennie Nash and Lisa Cron and others, I researched self-publishing, hybrid publishing, and traditional publishing. I’d come to a point in my life where anything I was going to do, I was going to work harder than I had ever worked before by being open, being teachable, and being willing and really learning about things in a way I’d never committed myself to before.

But after a year, it didn’t happen. The thing that gave me some perspective is that I used to be an actress. And the literary industry is not that different from Hollywood. It’s still a bit of a club and I didn’t take that personally. I really understood that perspective from the acting world. Since I didn’t know anybody, after a year, I just dove right into self-publishing.

I would recommend Rob Eagar’s Mastering Amazon for Authors course from Writer’s Digest. It has three components: publishing, marketing, and advertising. It had absolutely everything — 5–8 modules each, 30–40 hours long — that I needed to master Amazon. Every time I did something out of the box like that, it was very empowering. And I got more and more and more excited about self-publishing.

I was in acceptance and not in any bitterness about the traditional publishing route. Even if you are traditionally published, there’s a lot you give up control over and you have to do a lot of marketing yourself anyway. I wanted to get the book into the world, so I was willing to do anything….

JA: And you’ve had phenomenal success!

HI: Yes. As of today, I’ve sold 5200 books! Most self-published authors sell 100–250 copies in a lifetime. In Pillness and in Health has been out for a year and a half. I knew I’d written a good book, but I honestly had no expectations.

It can’t be about the money — it still isn’t enough to live on. For me, success was really when I understood why I was writing the book — that’s Jennie Nash’s “Deep-Level Why”. My dad died of alcoholism when I was 10 and I never understood why. Now I’ve had the opportunity to live sober for 7.5 years. Now I get to share what I know addiction to be. This book is my perception and understanding of it and I had to get that into the world.

After the book came out, people started to write to me on social media. A woman in New Zealand reached out and thanked me. She said she could better understand her husband, who was addicted to meth, and she understood how to approach him differently now. I still get goosebumps when I think about it.

At the time this story took place, I was an animal for drugs and alcohol. So if I can touch one person, if I can get that understanding to someone else, that understanding that for some reason my dad couldn’t get in his life, it’s been a success for me. It’s my entire reason for being on this earth, to connect with others and help somebody understand that story. It’s been incredibly exciting to have it received like this, with numbers like this.

JA: That’s so beautiful, and now you’ve been awarded with that orange bestseller badge for all of your hard work.

HI: It never gets old to me. That through the help of all these people including yourself — I’m very clear that it’s a collaborative experience, the willingness here and the knowledge and experience there — it still blows my mind that I wrote a book that I’m super proud of and that it’s out in the world.

JA: So what other things did you do to promote the book?

HI: For years, I had been following a number of different marketing people like Dan Blank, Jennie, Jane Friedman, Writer Unboxed. So by the time is came around to me being ready to publish, I knew where to go to get best-practices information. But the truth is I did a lot of social media posts before the book was out and, initially, I got quite a following. Then, once I released the book, they knew about the book and went out and bought it.

I was on the front page of the arts section of the Winnipeg newspaper on the day of my launch and the local bookstore, a chain with three locations, does a lot to promote self-published authors. They put together a whole launch for me.

I’ve taken a lot of webinars on Amazon advertising. There have been sales and there has been profit, but it’s a very intricate and challenging system to master. I looked into BookBub and have advertised there.

Part of mastering Amazon is finding these subcategories where you have a shot at being a bestseller. You can join up to 10. There’s maybe only been 14 days where I wasn’t on the Organ Transplant Bestseller List. There are 100 books on every Bestseller List. They change hourly depending on sales. I’m №1 because I sell books every single day. There have only been eight days in the last year and a half when I have sold zero books. And In Pillness is actually on seven total (including Organ Transplant) Bestseller Lists tonight, which is a very big deal. It’s kind of surreal sometimes.

I’ve pitched to newspapers and there still is very much a stigma against the self-published author. Jane Friedman is very educated on what will work and what won’t in self-publishing. My husband has had a photography business for 25 years and over the years we’d try all different kinds of ways to advertise, but eventually what worked the best was word of mouth. I have to say that has to have a lot to do with it. There’s a component to it that you can’t control. And that’s impacted my book — I don’t know what happened in March, but when COVID-19 hit, my sales doubled, even tripled: from 6 books a day to 12, 14, 18. You track it and try to figure out what you’re doing, but….

I’ve done some podcasts and posts, but I’m not in bookstores, I don’t have a publicist, I haven’t gotten in any big papers or on radio, so I have to think word of mouth has something to do with it. I keep working hard at it. I’m always doing something. I ask for a lot of reviews from people who tell me they’ve read my book. Reviews and ratings definitely help boost my profile on Amazon and Goodreads. Balancing all that marketing work with staying creative is a challenge.

JA: Can you talk a little bit about what the process of working with a memoir coach was like? You called working with a memoir coach a collaborative process. Tell us more!

HI: Who doesn’t fall in love with Jennie right away? Her energy and “yes you can” attitude oozes out of her. I was smitten and wanted to work with her. A couple months into it she told me I just wasn’t ready to write a book. I was crushed — devastated. I asked her what she suggested, and she said it wasn’t the writing; it was that I didn’t know what I was trying to say.

We talked about accountability. I said I didn’t know if I was going to be able to write a book without someone to be accountable to. By that time, I’d written four chapters and Jennie thought I’d be perfect for [an Author Accelerator certified memoir coach]. I worked with another memoir coach first and you (Julie) both had the story’s back from the beginning — you always had the narrative in your mind — and that was so valuable. I felt very held and that was crucial for someone so new. When that first memoir coach [stopped coaching], you stepped in.

There are no mistakes…when you came on board, you completely got that the book was about the marriage, that that was the focal point: the marriage going through the addiction. When you hit that for me, everything else fell away like feathers and everything else was so easy. Pages and pages I could hack away, like polishing something and watching it become brighter and brighter. It was magical.

I learned so many things from [working with a memoir coach]. Jennie said really early on that if you want to write a book, you have to give up something. You will not churn out 10 pages a week of focused content unless you give up something in your life. I remember thinking, What am I going to give up? I cut back a little bit on a number of things: less housework, less working out, and less socializing, for example. The first pages back from you were overwhelming, all the colors and the edits, but it was exactly what I needed. I wanted tough love [of a memoir coach] and I knew it was necessary if I was going to have something good.

I went into the whole [memoir coach experience] being very clear about how new I was. That I had some kind of raw talent for writing, but I didn’t have a clear understanding of the difference between the story and the plot. And you guys also got me on that train. It was very basic stuff, but as a new author it was what I needed. It was invaluable. I have recommended it to many new people. To feel all through the process that you guys were there, that I was writing with your note or comment or suggestion in mind. It felt collaborative.

When you write a book and you see all the pages of acknowledgements — there’s no way I feel like it was just my book. I feel like you’re a huge part of it, Jennie was a huge part of it, Lisa Cron was a big part of it. My six beta readers. One of them, one of my best friends, is a professional screenwriter. That’s why you guys are right up there in the acknowledgments.

That whole time that I was writing the book I was suffering with a horrific nerve issue and I felt so alone a lot of the time — and Jennie talks a lot about that in terms of the busyness of moms, but for those of us who are chronically ill, it’s a whole different situation and series of things you’re dealing with on a daily basis. How do you find time? Deal with pain? Go to endless appointments? So again, my drive to complete a book nudged me, it propelled me, to work through the pain.

On my wall, I had a quote from Lauren Hillenbrand’s essay A Sudden Illness. She’s lived with autoimmune disease and, while writing Unbroken, had vertigo so bad she’d have to lie down and write with her laptop propped up next to her and maybe write a paragraph all day. It’s mind-blowing that she could come up with something that genius given the condition that she had.

So I had to surround myself with not only Author Accelerator, but with inspiration from chronically ill authors, and the spiritual principles of Alcoholics Anonymous — people who do the work and show up no matter what and that kept me accountable and inspired. The fact that you guys were showing up with really solid efforts that were clearly not dropping the ball, that inspired me to keep going.

Writing, I always felt like I had someone with me. It wasn’t a lonely process. When I think about what I’m really trying to say, and realize I’m doing it to connect with other people, I never feel alone. And in a way, because he was my Deep-Level Why, my dad was always there too.

JA: What’s next for you?

HI: Honestly, I’m at a point where I’m trying to pick something. I have a podcast possibility to tell the story of addicts. To create more tolerance and patience and less judgment, to help people with understanding that it’s a disease. And I have an acting agent who wonders if there’s a limited series option.

But I have ideas for books too. I’ve had five dogs in my life and I’ve always wanted to write a Marley and Me-type memoir on the healing nature of dogs, especially during all the periods of sickness and sadness in my life: addiction, kidney disease, tinnitus, heartbreak, marital separation, chronic nerve pain, etc… How Five Hounds Healed a Hen.

But I’ve also written a children’s book for adults about arachnophobia. We lived in a little cabin in the foothills outside of Los Angeles with no AC and no heat. By our back door one day, we found a tarantula. She had her little cave there and she’d come out at night and she’d sit on her little crag of rock, and she’d get a cricket, and then go back in. I can’t overstate how arachnophobic I was before meeting her. For two years, we watched her and I came to maybe not love her, but to at least have compassion for her. So I have an idea for that too.

Again it’s like Jennie would say: “too many ideas” syndrome. So I need to take two weeks and think about if that’s really what I want to do. More will be revealed.

JA: More will be revealed, indeed. Thanks, Henriette. It was great catching up with you! So glad I could be your memoir coach on this project!

To find out more about whether a memoir coach is right for you, read more at Book Coaching.

Writing Myself Back Into the Light

Writing Myself Into the Light by Julie Artz, available on The Writing Cooperative

The year 2020 left many artists struggling to create. For me, it was a time of intense depression and anxiety. Today I’m over at The Writing Cooperative talking about Writing Myself Back Into the Light during the darkest days of 2020. So if you’re struggling to create, can’t come up with the motivation to write, can’t find your flow, or just need a creativity booster as we get into the swing of a new year, check this out. I hope you like it!

The year 2020 found lots of different ways to crush my soul and with it, my creativity. A particularly dark winter meant I was still singing the Seasonal Affective Disorder blues when COVID-19 showed up in Washington State. Then everything shut down and my morning ritual of sipping tea and writing words in a quiet house disappeared. Suddenly there were three extra people at home all day long. Noisy, hungry, talkative people. Even with my office door shut and the fan churning out white noise, their energy threw me off my creative game.

Struggling to create

I was primed for a creative crisis already, to be honest. A beloved writing project didn’t get picked up over this past winter — the culmination of a couple of years of disappointment — just as my writing partner got the book deal of a lifetime (which I continue to celebrate with my whole heart). So many conflicting emotions swirled in my brain as we headed into spring and one message kept coming up for me: Wouldn’t I be happier if I just quit writing?

I run a thriving book coaching business. My husband and I spend our free time guiding our two amazing teenagers toward adulthood. And my anxiety is such that the constant stream of rejection that’s part of the writing life not only stings but can send me spiraling into depression. I wasn’t sure I needed that in my life, especially in a year of pandemics and human rights violations that brought tears to my eyes nearly every day. For the first time in nearly twenty years of writing — and against every piece of writing advice I’ve ever given — I considered quitting rather than struggling to create.

Over the next few weeks, I talked to my therapist, my friends, my husband. Of course, they all supported me as I struggled. I stopped writing for nearly two months this spring. Instead, I planted my garden, started a Victory Garden 2020 group on Facebook, and focused on my coaching clients. I put aside the dream. And I slept peacefully through each night for what felt like the first time in ages.

The itch to create

As spring led into summer, the sun came back to the Pacific Northwest. It would be a lie to say I didn’t enjoy the lightness of not having a word count goal to hit or a story to submit as I dug in the dirt, as I spent my time on other things. But it didn’t last. The sleep renewed me. My broken heart began to heal. By midsummer, I was feeling the itch to create.

But I knew it would have to be a new story. Revising something I’d already written felt too encumbered with baggage and disappointment. I started plotting a new novel. This story was light and fun and full of so many of my loves — nerdy science and garden lore, family mysteries and multi-generational bonds — but once I got through the outline, I struggled to write it. The voice just wasn’t there.

Then I got a note that changed everything… (Read more on The Writing Cooperative.)

And for more content like this, subscribe to my monthly newsletter where I help us all #Create2021.

Seven Non-Writing Tips to Boost Your Creativity

Many writers are coming off the creative high of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). But how do you boost your creativity? And how do you sustain it through the dark days of winter, the busy holiday season, and beyond? There are many articles out there about how to butt-in-chair your way through a draft. But I have a few suggestions to try when you’re not sitting at your desk.

Tip #1: Create Time

One of the best things you can do to boost your creativity is to cultivate efficiency. For me, reducing or streamlining administrative tasks increases creativity and reduces stress! Ask your teenager to help with the laundry or other household chores.

Do your social media posts for the week while waiting in line at the pharmacy. Use the crockpot during the week to make dinner prep easier. Anything you do to create more time will give you extra minutes to spend on your creative work.

Tip #2: Add a Meditation Practice to Find Flow

Whole books have been written on how to find creative flow — it’s the Holy Grail for creatives. Adding a ten-minute meditation routine to my schedule has made slipping into flow when I sit down at my desk easier. It clears the mind of distractions and worries, the two biggest flow-thiefs out there. Although many folks meditate by sitting quietly and focusing on their breath, there are many great meditation appsout there to support you as you build your meditation practice.

Tip #3: Declutter Your Writing Space

Once you’ve decluttered your mind with meditation, consider ways to declutter your physical space as well. Come up with a better system for all those random sticky notes on your desk. Get rid of the dried-out pens and highlighters that are overflowing from your pencil jar. Sort through the pile of papers, books, and unread magazines that’s been on your desk for months. Once those distractions are gone, creativity will flourish in the space that remains.

(read more…)

Book Release – Beyond the Latch and Lever

Book jacket for Beyond the Latch and Lever, book by Julie Artz et al

Beyond the Latch and Lever is an Amazon Hot New Release. — My story, *The Wending* Way, is part of this great new speculative anthology, *Beyond the Latch and Lever*, available now!

Sometimes the best things in life come as a total surprise. At the beginning of 2020, I never expected I’d be working on adult fantasy this year. Not only did I write an adult fantasy short that I’m proud of, but the anthology is out NOW! Beyond the Latch and Lever is a speculative anthology with stories from emerging authors with ties to the Pacific Northwest.

From Amazon: “Doorways can be a bridge to another world, a portal to a bygone era, or a crossroads between two cultures—or two lives. Sometimes a doorway is a ledge between the racist past and a robotic future. A passageway leading to celestial spirits, or earthbound souls—to a crumbling castle adrift in time.

Doorways are the ferries that usher us through beginnings and endings, steering us into possibility and misfortune, alike. Some doors protect us and give us privacy, while others keep us isolated and confined. Some doors trap people inside their haunted minds.

In this book, you will find eleven doors. Eleven stories waiting to be opened. Each one a passageway into the unknown.”

Book jacket for Beyond the Latch and Lever.

I’m so proud of the editors and authors who came together to make this anthology possible. I’m thankful that I had this opportunity to try something new (both short story writing AND writing adult fantasy). I’d love for you to add Beyond the Latch and Lever to your TBR list, and of course give us a review once you’ve had a chance to read!