III. The Empress

Time to do some nurturing

Welcome to The (Writing) Fool’s Journey, a tarot themed log of my creative process as I work on a new novel.

The Empress: nurturing, creativity, beauty

I’m on the road again. Or, I will be this afternoon. I’m heading straight from work to the airport, heading to Cleveland to speak with some amazing booksellers about Where Lost Girls Go. And, as mentioned, that means taking a little break from my drafting.

I’d hoped, during my two weeks home, to get a lot of dictating done. Unfortunately, both I and my puppy were sick this past week. In my case, it was a cold (thanks, dramatically shifting weahter patterns) and, in his, it was an upset tummy and a mild cough. We’re both find now, by the way. But it definitely slowed down my progress.

That’s partly an excuse, though, because, truth be told, I probably still could have done more. But it’s finally happening. I’m finally hitting that phase of the first draft where the excitement is fading, replaced by anxiety and insecurity. Even nine published novels in, I still fear I’m actually a hack a lot of the time.

So I’m trying to take some inspiration from The Empress here. Particularly the “nurturing” aspect. I’m focusing on taking care of myself - and my puppy - but I’m also trying to nurture the fragile spark of creativity that’s still burning for this project. Trying to make sure the fear and the burnout don’t let the fire die.

One way I try to combat burnout is to allow myself to slow down - just a little - and to engage with literature in a less stressful way. So, I’ve been listening to a lot of writing podcaasts, and I’ve been reading. My current read is Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale, which I’m really enjoying. Sometimes all it takes to get me back on track is to read something great and feel that surge of ambition, that voice yelling in my head, “I want to write something great, too!”

And it’s been helping! In the last two days, I’ve dictated 1.5 new chapters. Not the amount I wanted, but nothing to sneeze at either. That puts me almsot halfway through this draft, based on my outline, which is pretty exciting, actually.

And with me back on the road, that means I’m back to editing the raw transcription for a few days. But I’m not going to push myself too hard for the moment. I’m going to keep nurturing that spar - reading on the plane, talking to the other writers at the event, immersing myself in literature and soaking it all in so that it can fuel my own creativity.

Next week, when I’m back at my day job, we’re getting back on schedule, healthy, refreshed.

Have questions about the writing process? Ask in the comments! And join me next Wednesday for another installment of The (Writing) Fool’s Journey.

If you want to read more of my work, you can preorder my new novel here!