Less toxic positivity and “Good Vibes Only,” and more learning to harness your mindset to ENJOY the challenges intrinsic to the creative life and pursuing your artistic dreams.
I love this! Yes, rooting yourself back in times you've overcome challenges before is so powerful! Especially with writing, it feels so hard to start anew. But it's a great reminder that you've started with a blank page before and you have everything you need to do tackle it again. Thank you for sharing with us!
The trick, for me, is holding hope tenderly, like a delicate baby bird. It might die, or fly away, or even poop on me, but I want to hold it for as long as I can anyway, without tossing it down cynically, expecting disappointment.
It's hard to hold hope when you hear critical rejections or even simple silence in response to your art. But hope matters, and so does joy. Thank you for the reminder.
Hope is so important! Love this too (and we'll all had our fair share of moments it feels like we're getting pooped on). We have to believe in ourselves before anyone else can. Hope and belief are so entwined. Because sometimes (almost always if you don't give up) that bird flies. Thank you, Dani!
Love this!! So honest and so relevant to what we go through as writers. When I'm caught up in a book I'm working on, the excitement of wanting to tell that story propels me through the ups and downs...but I find myself with a negative mindset when I'm between stories or when I'm (like now) starting something new that hasn't taken a strong hold on me yet. Thanks for sharing your advice!
That momentum is so powerful! But I hear you, it's so easy for the negative thoughts to creep in when we aren't feeling the excitement. Sometimes just recognizing that you are having a negative thought and naming it, and consciously choosing a different/more positive thought instead is enough to get yourself back in the right direction even in those moments of doubt.
We are going to keep breaking down mindset here in the WGC so definitely stay tuned for more. Thank you so much for sharing!
That's a great point, and looking forward to hearing more about mindset from you guys! Coincidentally I started reading Big Magic last week so I'm sure that will help too!
It's so hard to write when the excitement isn't there. That's what I'm struggling with at the moment, trying to finish my second book when I'm just not feeling the same excitement I felt for my first. But it's a good reminder that the excitement ebbs and flows, and we just have to keep going!
I'm sorry you're going through that too! But it's good to know we're not alone. I also think sometimes (for me at least) we look back on the process for our previous books and see it as being more gratifying and thrilling than it actually was...I recently said to my husband, "There must be something wrong with my WIP because I'm not excited about it. When I was writing Like a Mom I was excited the whole time!" And he was like, "No you weren't. You just kept saying it would never be as good as your first book." Lol! So that was a good reminder that it's normal to feel this way--that we've been here before--and that it doesn't mean there's something "wrong."
This is timely for me as I've really been struggling to get into the headspace to write first and foremost because I enjoy it, and feel better when I have written. I struggle greatly with letting perfect be the enemy of good, meaning I'll go many days without writing at all simply because I don't feel organized/inspired/ready enough.
Pursuing publishing (I am agented and have been on submission to editors for 11 months)--the highs are thrilling and the lows are excruciating. The waiting feels truly endless and so much is out of my control. It's a mind-boggling process. Mindset to me means focusing on the things I can decide, have an impact on, and make better. Might be time for a re-read of Big Magic...
Beth - I feel this as I begin to approach a new project myself. It's so hard to jump in again without feeling "ready" but ready is also such a myth, isn't it? The doing it is what makes us ready (I tell myself).
Sub can be incredibly soul sucking (the four of us had varied experiences and got to see first hand how trying it can be) and we are rooting for you!! It is also totally okay to not be productive on submission, it's such a vulnerable time that sometimes it's okay to take breaks too. I am a big proponent of taking time away in different seasons of life, but I know that doesn't work for everyone and sometimes it is better to just push through. A Big Magic re-read may be really helpful! I also love (as does the rest of the group) Dani Shapiro's book Still Writing. It's been a lighthouse for us on the long road to publication and maybe a good one to try for you now too. Good luck!
Oof, I feel this, Beth. I'm also struggling to regain that magical "writing for the love of writing" feeling right now (and you know how much I struggled on sub!) We should meet for coffee sometime and chat about all this!
The best thing I ever did for my mindset as a writer is to lower my expectations! About eleven years ago, I was recovering from a bad flare-up of an autoimmune disease I have and finally started to have the energy to write again after months of being too sick to think about it. I decided to lean into ease instead of pushing myself, which is what my typical mindset would've been. I had zero expectations for the freewriting I was doing, and let one sentence a day be "enough" on certain days. I thought if I could do that for 100 days, I'd be back in action. In this ease-focused/zero-expectations writing stretch, I accidentally found my way into my first novel. It was a complete surprise but also fully validated the power of having the right mindset. If I'd been hard on myself and *tried* to start a novel, it never would've worked. Ease was the answer!! Great post, thank you so much for sharing this!
This is such an important point Kristin! Sometimes taking your foot off the gas and allowing yourself to meet yourself where you are is exactly the mindset shift you need. Thank you for sharing!!
Of course!! I couldn't write about mindset without mentioning your podcast... I've listened to some of those episodes approximately a dozen times... still trying to get your wise words to sink in 😂
These are such insightful comments! Keep them coming...learning so much!
Wise words! Mindset, to me, is about trust. Knowing that I've done hard things before and trusting myself that I can do it again.
I love this! Yes, rooting yourself back in times you've overcome challenges before is so powerful! Especially with writing, it feels so hard to start anew. But it's a great reminder that you've started with a blank page before and you have everything you need to do tackle it again. Thank you for sharing with us!
The trick, for me, is holding hope tenderly, like a delicate baby bird. It might die, or fly away, or even poop on me, but I want to hold it for as long as I can anyway, without tossing it down cynically, expecting disappointment.
It's hard to hold hope when you hear critical rejections or even simple silence in response to your art. But hope matters, and so does joy. Thank you for the reminder.
What an apt metaphor, Dani. Hope matters!! (And this is a reminder I needed this week, so thank you!)
Hope is so important! Love this too (and we'll all had our fair share of moments it feels like we're getting pooped on). We have to believe in ourselves before anyone else can. Hope and belief are so entwined. Because sometimes (almost always if you don't give up) that bird flies. Thank you, Dani!
Love this!! So honest and so relevant to what we go through as writers. When I'm caught up in a book I'm working on, the excitement of wanting to tell that story propels me through the ups and downs...but I find myself with a negative mindset when I'm between stories or when I'm (like now) starting something new that hasn't taken a strong hold on me yet. Thanks for sharing your advice!
That momentum is so powerful! But I hear you, it's so easy for the negative thoughts to creep in when we aren't feeling the excitement. Sometimes just recognizing that you are having a negative thought and naming it, and consciously choosing a different/more positive thought instead is enough to get yourself back in the right direction even in those moments of doubt.
We are going to keep breaking down mindset here in the WGC so definitely stay tuned for more. Thank you so much for sharing!
That's a great point, and looking forward to hearing more about mindset from you guys! Coincidentally I started reading Big Magic last week so I'm sure that will help too!
It's so hard to write when the excitement isn't there. That's what I'm struggling with at the moment, trying to finish my second book when I'm just not feeling the same excitement I felt for my first. But it's a good reminder that the excitement ebbs and flows, and we just have to keep going!
I'm sorry you're going through that too! But it's good to know we're not alone. I also think sometimes (for me at least) we look back on the process for our previous books and see it as being more gratifying and thrilling than it actually was...I recently said to my husband, "There must be something wrong with my WIP because I'm not excited about it. When I was writing Like a Mom I was excited the whole time!" And he was like, "No you weren't. You just kept saying it would never be as good as your first book." Lol! So that was a good reminder that it's normal to feel this way--that we've been here before--and that it doesn't mean there's something "wrong."
This is timely for me as I've really been struggling to get into the headspace to write first and foremost because I enjoy it, and feel better when I have written. I struggle greatly with letting perfect be the enemy of good, meaning I'll go many days without writing at all simply because I don't feel organized/inspired/ready enough.
Pursuing publishing (I am agented and have been on submission to editors for 11 months)--the highs are thrilling and the lows are excruciating. The waiting feels truly endless and so much is out of my control. It's a mind-boggling process. Mindset to me means focusing on the things I can decide, have an impact on, and make better. Might be time for a re-read of Big Magic...
Beth - I feel this as I begin to approach a new project myself. It's so hard to jump in again without feeling "ready" but ready is also such a myth, isn't it? The doing it is what makes us ready (I tell myself).
Sub can be incredibly soul sucking (the four of us had varied experiences and got to see first hand how trying it can be) and we are rooting for you!! It is also totally okay to not be productive on submission, it's such a vulnerable time that sometimes it's okay to take breaks too. I am a big proponent of taking time away in different seasons of life, but I know that doesn't work for everyone and sometimes it is better to just push through. A Big Magic re-read may be really helpful! I also love (as does the rest of the group) Dani Shapiro's book Still Writing. It's been a lighthouse for us on the long road to publication and maybe a good one to try for you now too. Good luck!
Thanks, Amy. I appreciate these words and encouragement a lot. 💜 Will check out Dani's book!
Oof, I feel this, Beth. I'm also struggling to regain that magical "writing for the love of writing" feeling right now (and you know how much I struggled on sub!) We should meet for coffee sometime and chat about all this!
Would love that!♥️
The best thing I ever did for my mindset as a writer is to lower my expectations! About eleven years ago, I was recovering from a bad flare-up of an autoimmune disease I have and finally started to have the energy to write again after months of being too sick to think about it. I decided to lean into ease instead of pushing myself, which is what my typical mindset would've been. I had zero expectations for the freewriting I was doing, and let one sentence a day be "enough" on certain days. I thought if I could do that for 100 days, I'd be back in action. In this ease-focused/zero-expectations writing stretch, I accidentally found my way into my first novel. It was a complete surprise but also fully validated the power of having the right mindset. If I'd been hard on myself and *tried* to start a novel, it never would've worked. Ease was the answer!! Great post, thank you so much for sharing this!
This is such an important point Kristin! Sometimes taking your foot off the gas and allowing yourself to meet yourself where you are is exactly the mindset shift you need. Thank you for sharing!!
Just love this! And thanks for the shout-out, Hadley.
Of course!! I couldn't write about mindset without mentioning your podcast... I've listened to some of those episodes approximately a dozen times... still trying to get your wise words to sink in 😂
🥰