After the Excitement, Back to the Grind

- a post about writing

Well, in case you missed it, the anthology I am a part of came out last week. If you’re interested in all the gushing excitement, just read the last couple posts. It was a fun day/week for our little anthology, and its opening day was really amazing. So much excitement! So much checking of stats! So much fangirling when this happened:

Okay, sure, his book has been in that general area forever, and we only hit it for a little while. But still, it’s one of those little moments you just have to enjoy.

Now a week has passed, and we’re past all the first hoorahs. And suddenly it’s like my writing is in a vacuum. I’ve been spending the last several months on almost weekly deadlines—short story contests, submissions, materials to submit for the upcoming Storymakers conference, final proofs for Unspun, etc. Now I have this gigantic lull.

I think this is where writing is hard for some of us. Somehow I manage to pull out some impressive feats once in a while when I’m backed up against a deadline, but then in the in-between spaces it can be hard to feel properly motivated. But these in-between spaces are where a lot of the real work happens.

So we have to find ways to motivate ourselves. It’s different for everyone, but we have to find what works for us. One thing I’ve got right now is an amazing accountability partner—we check in with each other every week on goals and plans. It doesn’t keep me perfectly in line, but it helps me to remember, “Hey, if I spend five hours binge-watching reality cooking shows, I’ve got to go tell LaChelle I was a total spaz. Maybe I’ll just write for five minutes... and then binge watch.” (At least I wrote first!) I’m also trying to practice building in deadlines (like most short story markets have deadlines, so I’m trying to write to some of them). I have friends who create their own reward systems—new shoes, new books, a bowl of ice cream, etc. There are lots of options out there!

So if you’re like me and you need some extra motivation to keep writing past the really exciting moments (first ideas, first drafts, publications, etc.), go find it, implement it. Not every moment of writing has to be filled with joy and inspiration, but I think we can find a lot more lasting fulfillment as we practice writing through the grind as well.

P.S. Here is your subtle reminder that if you read and enjoyed Unspun (or even if you read it and didn’t enjoy), we as authors would be thrilled if you would write a review on Amazon and Goodreads. 

The Cosmically Cool Katherine Cowley*

* Dorky alliterative title because I can.

Why, yes, I am really terrible at getting good photo lighting.

ONE DAY UNTIL THE OFFICIAL RELEASE! (Also, if you want to buy a copy and haven’t yet, tomorrow is the perfect day to do it and benefit us authors. Amazon likes it when there’s an uptick in purchases on a single day.)

Now let’s talk about how nifty Kathy Cowley is!

In the process of joining this project, I let Kathy know that I was willing to do some of the copyediting/proofing. I felt so privileged to be able to help with a little bit of this work, and it meant I got a preview of many of the stories along the way. In doing this, I also got to make friends with Kathy Cowley, and I consider that definitely one of the highlights of working on Unspun. I’d already read and loved some of her flash fiction. (“Celestial Accounting” in last year’s Mormon Lit Blitz was my favorite piece other than mine. It is so good! Also, “The Last Bathroom” is just the right level of weird-but-fun.) So getting to know her as a person was fantastic.

In looking at her blog again to find links to some of her stories, I made an amazing discovery. Kathy wrote “In Which Eve Names Everything Else,” one of my favorite pieces from a different year’s Mormon Lit Blitz too! I had no idea this one was hers, but people, it is beautiful. Kathy just keeps getting cooler and cooler the more I know about her.

We’d been working together for a few months when she emailed to let me know she would be visiting family in Arlington—and did I want to get together for dessert somewhere in between there and here? Yes! Of course! I will even brave my driving phobia about new places!

So we met up at a restaurant one night and sat and ate tremendous quantities of cheese (no dessert in the end, but the cheese was definitely worth skipping the cake). We talked writing, our latest projects, family, etc. As expected, Kathy is as fun and cool in person as via email and phone (and on the phone she sounds like one of my dearest friends, Sariah). She’s working right now on a book that just sounds so very fun (if I get permission, I’ll tell you what it is).

Kathy took on so much of this project. It absolutely wouldn’t be the lovely book that it is without her. She coordinated people, arranged multiple edits, and probably did about a thousand other things that I don’t know about. Oh, and did I mention she did all the interior design?

Since we met, she has also given me fantastic (and speedy) critiques of a ton of my short stories, and her suggestions have been invaluable in them all. Finding a great critique friend is awesome, and I’m so glad to add her as one of mine.

Anyway, I’ll stop fangirling now. Let’s just say she’s awesome, and when she publishes more books, you should go buy them. Immediately.

The End.

P.S. Her website is down at the moment (stinky hackers!), but as soon as it is back up, you should go check it out.

A True Story (about Unspun)

Now for a true story:

A little less than a year ago, I got an email from Kathy Cowley (whom I did not know at the time). It was an invitation to submit some poetry for an anthology based on what happened after the fairy tales ended. I don’t know if you’ve missed it, but rewriting fairy tales is kind of my favorite thing. But poetry? We are not the best of friends. So this email was both awesome and devastating at the same time. Exactly the sort of anthology I would jump at! Right at the time when I was looking to write more short fiction! Hooray! But poetry. Despair.

Here’s the embarrassing part: I might have cried. Okay, I did cry. Maybe it was hormonal. Or maybe I already knew how much I wanted to write a story for this collection.

Whatever the reason, I spent maybe the next twenty minutes or so trying to convince myself that my poetry skills weren’t utterly awful and that maybe I could indeed come up with a poem. Alas, I knew that was a lie. So I wrote back that tragically I did not write poetry, but if she needed any short fiction, maybe let me know. Pretty please with a cherry on top? (No, I did not write that part.)

I may have kind of done happy dances around the house when Kathy wrote back that she had accidentally sent me the wrong email. She was actually looking for a short story, not a poem.

The wheels started turning. I came up with an idea that quickly expanded into the novel I’m working on right now (and seriously, I’m so excited about this novel—these characters! if I ever used heart-eye emojis, I would do it here—but that’s beside the point at the moment). So that wouldn’t work for the anthology. Then I came up with a couple other ideas that quickly sputtered out. Then I started writing “Breadcrumbs,” which was originally a lighthearted romance between Gretel and the woodsman from “Snow White.” Ha! Lighthearted romance! Not so much.

As I really began to write into Gretel’s world, I realized her story couldn’t be that light. She was sent (with her brother, of course) into the forest to die of starvation. By her father and stepmother. Then she was held prisoner by a witch who wanted to eat her. And then she killed the witch instead—by pushing her into an oven. Imagine that for a moment. This was not a cheerful tale I was going to write, and no matter how much I wanted Gretel to have a quick, easy romance, she just couldn’t. But she could still have hope.

So I wrote and revised, had to totally rewrite the ending three or four or five hundred times, and finally here we all are, with a shiny new story almost in our hands. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all comes together, and I’m especially excited because I finally got a sneak peek at Ruth Nickle’s artwork in the book. She did the cover, so obviously she’s awesome, but seeing the interior work made my heart so happy. Her little mermaid artwork! Again, I’m not really big on using heart-eye emojis, but I love that piece so much. Her drawings are gorgeous and evocative, and I think they will add a fantastic dimension to the collection.

Stay tuned for my next gushing post in which I introduce you to how much I love Kathy Cowley.

P.S. Pre-order link for the kindle version here! The paperback will be available soon as well.