You hit send, and then can’t resist the temptation to take one more—

*GASP* 

Ok, maybe a totally different four letter word just echoed through the room, but say it ain’t so! Right there, staring at you in black and white, is a blaring frickin’ error.

A word repeated twice in the same paragraph. The wrong to, their, or your. Punctuation gone horribly awry. You used a different agent’s name in your query letter, or spelled your comp title wrong. 

Long story short, you screwed up. Makes you cringe just thinking about it, doesn’t it? And I can guarantee every single person reading this has got not so fond memories of one, if not more, of those examples. 

Me? Oh, I’m guilty of every single one of those writing errors on more than one occasion. 

Which is why I’m here to tell you that none of them are the end of the world, and are only as bad as you make them out to be. 

Here’s some things to think about that will take the sting out of writing errors.

Sin #1: Repeat Words

Ugh I get it, and was just guilty of this in a recent Writer Fuel, which inspired this article. Check it out: 

“Not like pig in a tutu weird, but a little lipstick isn’t outside the realm of possibilities. I’d introduce myself, but I’m gonna bet you’ve already figured out that it’s not Gabriela or Lori typing this up.”

Yup, I double loaded on the buts and seriously winced when I read it. Especially since the sentence structure was so similar. 

BUT, you know what? Most readers read for enjoyment. Unless it’s super egregious, most people will cut you some slack over your writing errors. 

Overall, that article got some great feedback, and the only person looking at buts was me.

Ahem.

Which leads me to Sin #2.

Sin #2: The Wrong Word

This one is a straight up groan, and though AI programs are pretty good, not even a computer will catch all of these all the time. And yeah, sure, there are the usual suspects I mentioned above, but what about the sneaky ones like compliment (a polite expression of praise or admiration) vs. complement (a thing that completes or brings to perfection)?

Why yes, that is a super specific example. I wonder how I could have chosen it…

Look, unless you’re swimming in the Mensa side of the gene pool, you can’t expect yourself to know every single in and out of the English language, or any other language for that matter. 

That’s what editors are for, and even they miss stuff, which is why the publishing process goes through so many rounds of revisions.

And I’m gonna bet you’ve picked up a traditionally published book at some point in your life and there’s been an error that snuck through. Speaking of which, let’s check out Sin #3

Sin #3: Punctuation Gone Horribly Awry

Commas, I’m looking at you. True story, the last time I had a full-length manuscript professionally copyedited, it came back with over two-thousand corrected commas. To add insult to injury, I had run it through one of those AI programs before I sent it off.

If a computer is fallible when following specifically programmed algorithms, how can you expect yourself to be perfect every time? 

I mean, I get it. Those stupid little sickles of doom have given me a complex, and quite frankly, I’m so terrified of semicolons I won’t even use them. 

See the above editors / publishers comment and give yourself some grace.

Sin #4: Wrong Names and Misspelling

Using the wrong name on a query letter. Seriously, come on! You’ve researched the living daylights out of this person, agonized over toeing the line between informed and stalker-ish, the tears you’ve shed trying to distill your book into a frickin’ paragraph—

And instead of addressing it to Jack, you spelt it Jac, or called him Karen. 

For the record, at this point, it is entirely acceptable to curl up into a fetal ball of misery. Oh yeah, been there done that. Twice, actually. Repeating the experience doesn’t make it any easier in case you were wondering. And that also goes for misspelling a comp title or author name. 

So how do you deal with it? Well, at some point, you just have to laugh at yourself, and you know what? Agents are people, too. They have good days and bad, and they can tell a carefully crafted query with an oops from some schmuck just whipping out form letters.

In cases like this, you have to trust that the rest of your query will shine. And if the agent isn’t able or willing to look beyond that one flub, I’m gonna bet they’re not someone you want to tie your career to. 

Trust me, especially with the misspelled name thing. I’m kind of an expert with that. I mean what kind of a sadistic parent would saddle their kid with Alysen?

Um, this girl’s.

So, as someone whose family members can’t even spell her name correctly, it really isn’t that big of a deal. People who freak out about it generally have a chip on their shoulder and are best avoided.

Sin #5: Something You Wrote Rubbed Someone the Wrong Way

Are you laughing? I’m laughing. Because um, yeah, I’ve been here too. On numerous occasions and sometimes purposefully. Like, I have Lori scan all of my copy just to make sure I’m not saying something that’s too over the top. 

Look, almost none of us want to be hurtful or upset other people, but it’s inevitable that you’re going to unintentionally put your foot in it with someone at some point. 

And I will be the first to admit that my writing style and voice can sometimes be shocking.

But I like pushing my readers to look at the not so pretty and safe side of things. I write gritty books with edgy characters, and though my editorial prose is much lighter, there’s some bite to the self-deprecation. 

It’s not going to be for everyone, and neither is your work. That’s ok.

For me, writing is about eliciting emotion and making my readers feel something. A lot of the time, I want them to feel like they’re not so alone on this journey, and that they’re definitely not the only one making mistakes. Other times, I want them to question a preconceived notion. And I’ll admit it, sometimes I just want the shock value and a burst of startled laughter. 

That’s not without risks, and I’ve absolutely had people unsubscribe from my mailing list. But again, that’s ok. Not everyone liked you in high school and it doesn’t happen in real life either.

If you didn’t learn your lesson then, I’m here to tell you now: if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one, least of all yourself.

And at the end of the day?

Institute a ritual, and celebrate your writing errors. 

Order nachos, break out the fancy bourbon, and text your BFF about what a bonehead you are. 

Promise yourself you’ll never do that again, knowing full well it isn’t a promise you’ll be able to keep.

You’ll be in good company. I, and every other writer, will be bumbling along right beside you, muttering the immortal words of Homer Simpson: “D’oh!”

AK Nevermore writes science fiction and urban fantasy with spice. She enjoys operating heavy machinery, freebases coffee, and gives up sarcasm for Lent every year. Unable to ignore the voices in her head, and unwilling to become medicated, she writes about dark worlds, perversely irreverent and profound, and always entertaining.

You can find her on her website or follow her on her sadly neglected Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.

The post Take the Sting Out of Writing Errors appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’m one of the math-loving few in the writing community. 

I’ve always been a numbers nerd, and I love looking at data in new ways. Here, I am going to suggest five ways numbers can improve your writing life. I promise there are no complicated equations here (I will not make you relive your algebra days!), and these ideas can help even the most math-averse among us. 

1. Monitoring Time

Time is the currency we all pay to improve our writing skills and share our work, yet many of us do not keep track of it.

Monitoring your time makes you face the reality of how you are spending it. In her book, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, Laura Vanderkam suggests keeping a time diary for one week to assess how you are using your time. 

After keeping a week-long time diary myself, I learned two things.

1. I discovered I was more conscientious about my time when I knew I was keeping a record of my activities. If I had a half hour of unclaimed time, I had to ask myself if I really wanted to include “scrolling through social media” on my time log. I usually made a better choice.

2. I found my days were fuller than I thought. When I first did the time diary exercise, I was caring for my young children. I spent the majority of my time taking care of their needs, playing with them, and making sure they stayed alive. I didn’t have extra time to give without making lifestyle changes. 

Try monitoring your time. A week-long time diary provides an “average” overview. Are you writing as often as you thought? How much time do you spend reading? Do you have extra time to devote to your writing endeavors or are you maxed out? 

2. Tracking Words

Most writers keep track of their word count at some point. If you’ve submitted a short piece to a blog, journal, or newspaper, you’ve adhered to a word count restriction. If you’ve worked on a novel, you’ve learned your market’s word count expectations. Even if you’re new to writing, your high school English teacher likely asked you to write a 500-word essay. 

It’s common to think of word count in the context of a finished product, but you can also use word count to help you with your writing habits. 

1. Do you write more words in the evenings than you do in the mornings? Maybe you write more words when you work in short sprints as opposed to two-hour chunks.

2. Do you have a maximum output level, after which your brain shuts down? Keeping track of your word count (and how you achieved it) can help you identify what works best for you. 

3. Knowing Writing Speed

Writing quickly isn’t inherently better than writing slowly, though as writers, we may be tempted to believe faster is better. Instead, you can use your writing speed as a metric to understand how you work. 

You may be a writer who spends an hour writing 200 thoughtful words, but then you don’t spend as much time in revision afterwards. Or maybe you’re a writer who needs to spit out the first draft as quickly as possible so you crank out 2,000 words per hour. Perhaps fluctuations in your writing speed indicate when you need a break.

If your current writing practices aren’t working or if you find yourself in a rut, experiment with your writing speed and see what changes. 

4. Setting Realistic Goals

Once you monitor your writing time, word count, and writing speed, you can use these metrics to set reasonable goals. 

For instance, suppose you set a goal to write 5,000 words a week. This seems like a reasonable goal to you since your friend writes 2,000 words a day. However, you average 200 words per hour and write five hours a week. You are setting yourself up to fail before you’ve even started working towards your goal. 

Maybe you want to write two hours every morning before your day job begins. You are currently writing for fifteen minutes during your lunch break. Are you prepared to increase your writing time eight times over? Do you write well in the morning? You’d do better to first change either the time of day you write or the amount you write in one session, instead of changing both simultaneously.

Writers fall prey to romantic notions about the writing life. When they cannot live up to their unrealistic expectations, they give up. Don’t let this happen to you simply because you didn’t consider a few important pieces of data. 

5. Motivating with Numbers

Use numbers in your motivation. Knowing you spent 500 hours (nearly 21 days!) writing last year may be the bragging right that helps you do it again this year. Watching your word count climb into the thousands, and then tens of thousands can inspire you to finish your novel. Recording a writing streak becomes more fun when you plan a special celebration for the 100th day. 

Don’t overlook whimsy. You can set quirky goals by playing with numbers. For example, if seven is your favorite number, you could set a goal to write 777 words a day. For the year 2023, you could set the goal to write for 20 minutes a day, 23 days a month. Write one essay in January, two in February, three in March, and so forth until you write twelve in December. The possibilities are endless, but these kinds of goals become more meaningful to you because they are uniquely yours. 

Numbers Don’t Lie…

… but they also don’t tell the full story. An objective measurement forces you to confront it. If you didn’t write any days in February, the ‘0’ written in your monthly log makes you face the truth. However, it’s important to not let the numbers do all the talking. You may not have written in February because your mother was in the hospital and you were caring for her. Acknowledge you didn’t write, but recognize you were dealing with extenuating circumstances, and move forward without guilt. Don’t make excuses or fudge your metrics, but honor the fact that you’re human and not a machine.

Math is for everyone – writers included. Use numbers to your advantage and see where it takes you. If you do, I would love to hear the results!

Sara Gentry is a writer and Author Accelerator certified book coach with a Ph.D. in applied and interdisciplinary mathematics. She uses her problem-solving skills to help writers find the solutions they need to write books they love. Connect with her on Instagram, Twitter, and her website.

The post #5onFri: Five Ways Numbers Can Improve Your Writing Life appeared first on DIY MFA.

A lot of folks claim the answer to overcoming burnout is to keep writing. The grit-your-teeth strategy may work for some people—indeed, there will be plenty of teeth-gritting no matter which path you take—but there’s a better way.

Writers are performers. We’re professionals. We devote a tremendous amount of mental-emotional energy to our craft. It makes no sense to keep that level of devotion constant. By definition, you can’t go 100% all of the time. Ask a professional athlete. Why does LeBron James sit out games even when he’s not hurt? To recover. Why does he take time off in the summer? To recover. This is the natural flow of things. We don’t live in the sweltering heat of summer year-round. There are seasons, and every now and then, there’s an offseason. Even for writing. 

2. Write down your “symptoms”

Below is a starter list of burnout symptoms. Which of these resonate with you? How do you feel about your writing? Are you excited to sit down at the computer?

• Resentment
• Lack of motivation
• Writing losing its luster, becoming shallow/unexciting
• Writing projects taking longer than they used to
• Mild or severe depression
• Irritability
• Lack of energy – “when tiredness becomes fatigue” (phrasing courtesy of Joanna at TheCreativePenn.com)
• Feeling like you’ve been running on sheer willpower

3. Decide if you’re burned out or blocked

Here’s a good rule of thumb. If you’re motivated to write but can’t find the right words, you’re blocked. If you’re not motivated to write, you’re burned out (it doesn’t matter if you’re making progress on your manuscript—consistent lack of motivation is a symptom of burnout no matter how productive you are).

If you’re blocked, I’ll leave you with two of my favorite articles.

• How to Beat Writer’s Block: 36 Surefire Strategies for 2020 (A Definitive Guide) by Bryan Collins – the most comprehensive post I’ve found
• How to Beat Writer’s Block by Maria Konnikova – a fascinating New Yorker story about Yale psychologists vanquishing writer’s block

If you’re burned out, keep reading and we’ll see if we can beat it together.

4. Determine your root cause(s)

Some folks dealing with burnout take a short-term approach. They “tough it out”, or maybe they grant themselves an extra glass of wine during their writing sessions, then another glass, then another. These things might work for a while, but all you’re doing is pruning the top of the burnout weed. If you want to get rid of the thing for good, you have to dig down to the root.

Here’s a list of some common root causes of burnout, broken up into categories. Which ones resonate with you?

Work

• Lack of recognition or reward for doing good work
• Unclear or overly demanding job expectations
  

Life

• Not enough time for socializing or relaxing
• Lack of close, supportive relationships
• Too many responsibilities
• Not enough sleep (or other poor health habits)
  

Personality

• Perfectionism
• Pessimism
• A need to be in control
• High-achieving, type A personality
• A need for harmony (wanting to make everyone happy; not wanting to disappoint anyone)

5. Address your root cause by breaking it into components

Say the root cause of your burnout is a lack of time for socializing and/or relaxing. Break that down into components. Maybe you’re swarmed by the kids as soon as you set foot in the house. Maybe your partner wants to sit down and talk when all you want to do is veg out for an hour.

When we deconstruct your root cause into component causes, you can start taking action. You might not be able to change all of your component causes, but you’ll be surprised by how manageable the challenge can become when broken down in this way.

          a) Deconstruct your root cause into component causes

          b) Pair each component cause with a micro action to protect your creative health

          c) Take at least one micro action per week

6. Alter your habits

If you associate your current routine with a lack of creativity and motivation, shake that association; change the routine.

• Change the place where you write: Are you a café writer? Hop in your car and go find an empty parking lot. Write there instead.
• Change your schedule: Are you a night writer? Try writing during your lunch hour instead. Or wake up in the middle of the night and put in a few hours.
• Change your medium: Do you normally type your stories? Put away your laptop. Get a nice fountain pen and start scribbling.
• Change your form: Do you normally write novels? Try your hand at short stories. Or poetry. Or screenplays. 
• Change your genre: Maybe you write sci-fi. Forget about spaceships for a while and try a Victorian vampire romance.
• Change your outfit: Try dressing business casual for your writing sessions. Or comfy+. Whatever your wardrobe usually is, change it up for a while.

7. Enjoy the process

The number one thing you can do to enjoy your writing is to prioritize a process-orientation over an outcome-orientation. The goal is to disentangle the enjoyment you feel for writing from the success of that writing. Here are some exercises to get you started.

• Focus on how your writing can help others, not how it can help you.
• Accept that writing might not be enjoyable all the time—cultivate a healthy enjoyment of the slog.
• Separate your writer-self from your self-self—know that a failed book does not imply a failed writer.
• Increase your competence—deploying your strengths is more appealing than exposing your weaknesses. So take a writing course or work with an editor, and in the long run, your heightened competence in writing will increase your enjoyment of it.

Conclusion

You don’t have to resign yourself to the rundown and fatigue of burnout. You can renew your passion for the craft and reignite your creative spark with the above seven steps.

But maybe these “steps” seem more like mountains. After all, if you’re burned out, how can you expect to muster the motivation and discipline needed to take these action steps? Isn’t that the whole challenge of burnout: not being consistent? Not being able to act?

Well I have some good news for you. You don’t need iron-clad discipline to make these positive changes for your writing. You don’t need superhuman willpower. You just need the right system.

What system, you ask?

It’s a FREE course to supercharge your creativity. You can apply by clicking here.

Mason Engel is the Amazon-bestselling author of 2084, the director of bookish documentaries for public television, and the founder of ClimbWrite.com. ClimbWrite’s video courses are designed for fiction writers who are looking to supercharge their creativity and pen the next bestseller.
You can find him on his website or follow him on Instagram.

The post How to Beat Your Writer’s Burnout: A 7-Step Guide to Tuning Up Your Creative Engine appeared first on DIY MFA.

“WTAF?” is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately. What’s the point of crying, of protesting, of sharing my feelings online? What’s the point of trying to make my voice heard when it’s clear no one is interested in hearing it? 

With everything—and I mean, everything—going on in the world lately, it’s easy to wonder what the point is…and even easier to struggle coming up with an answer. This is especially true with our writing.

Why Do I Write?

Last month, I celebrated the two-year anniversary of my debut novel, Inconvenient Daughter, while chipping away at my second novel—still unnamed and still unfinished. As I alternated staring at a copy of ID and the blinking cursor of my work in progress, I asked myself, “Why? Why do I do this?”

As a beginning writer, I wrote because I thought I had something to say. I wrote to be seen, to be heard. Part of me wrote to settle scores and prove people wrong. Another part of me wrote so others would bear witness to my pain. 

It wasn’t until after Inconvenient Daughter hit shelves I realized writing is about connecting.

I don’t know you, but…

After ID dropped, I received probably fifty emails that began with this phrase. 

“I don’t know you, but I wanted to thank you for writing this book.” 

“I don’t know you, but after reading this book I feel like I finally know myself.” 

“I don’t know you, but this is the book I needed when I was a young adoptee.”

Adoptees from all locations, ages, and situations reached out to let me know they felt seen by the book, that a voice had been given to their grief, pain, and anger…that they gave the book to someone they loved in the hope of coming to a better understanding and healing.

The act of writing may be solitary, but the act of reading, of relating, is communal. We may write to understand who we are, and the things that have happened to us, but we read for the same reasons. 

It is in reading that we find community, and community is everything.

One Is the Loneliest Number

As an adoptee, I’ve always heard the same thing: I was given a better life. It was as if, by adopting me, my parents had spared me some unimaginable suffering. It was impressed upon me as gospel, and I developed a sense of obligatory gratitude. I was convinced I had to repay my parents for the life I’d been with loyalty, with being a good student, etc.

But as I came of age, I began to wonder about my birth mother, about why she relinquished me, about why she had never come looking for me…and I was angry. I was angry all the time. My rage burned through me like a fever I could never seem to cool down from. 

My brother, who is also adopted, didn’t seem to have the questions I did. Neither did the boy down the block, a domestic infant adoptee. And neither did the two girls my mom’s friend had adopted from South America. And so, I thought something must be wrong with me. There must be something different about me. I must somehow be defective.

Worse than rage, pain, and anger is loneliness. 

In these times of uncertainty and threat, we must continue to write. We must continue to share. We must continue to make our voices heard…for we don’t know what hope, what comfort, and what strength we give to others by doing so.

Lauren J. Sharkey is a writer, teacher, and transracial adoptee. Inconvenient Daughter is her debut novel, and loosely based on her experience as a Korean adoptee. You can follow her at ljsharks.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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If you’ve had a difficult time figuring out how to juggle your writing life with your parenting life, might I suggest you try weaving the two together? In my experience, kids enjoy coming along for the journey, and writing is much more accessible to kids than other professions and hobbies.

So before you put your writing on hold for the rest of the summer, here are five tips to help you include your children in your writing life. You’ll be able to spend time with your kids while working towards your writing goals, and you just might have fun doing it.

1. Share the Joy of Reading

Create a family culture that values reading. Bedtime stories are standard in many homes, but brainstorm other ways to enjoy stories together. 

My kids and I enjoy listening to audiobooks during lunchtime, and I appreciate the bonus of less bickering. You might build a reading fort in your home or pitch a reading tent in the yard. Watch a movie based on a book, then compare it with the book.

Share book recommendations with one another. Talk about what you’ve enjoyed reading and why. Don’t shame your kids for their book choices. Parents often get uptight about their kids’ summer reading, which isn’t fair. (How many adults fill their summer reading exclusively with weighty literature?)

If you set summer reading goals, make reading the prize. Visit your local bookstore and let everyone purchase a book. It’s a prize that builds each child’s personal library.

When we value reading in our homes, we respect writing. Your kids may also start writing as they aspire to be like their favorite authors.

2. Show Your Work

Kids are naturally inquisitive, so why not teach them about your work? If your material is not suitable for young people, instead share about the writing life, the publishing process, or how to generate story ideas.

If you are researching for a project, teach your kids how to use the library and online resources to uncover information. Show them how you organize your facts and data. Teach them best practices, including how to find reliable sources. Encourage them to work on their own research project, and you can work side by side.

When age-appropriate, try pitching your story ideas to your kids. This has a double benefit: it will require you to be clear and brief, which is required in a pitch, and kids are honest and they will tell you if it stinks!

Above all, be transparent about the challenges you face. Tell your kids how frustrating it is when you receive rejections. Let them see the arduous revision process, complete with messy markups. Show them how you keep writing, even when—especially when—you’re not sure how it’s all going to turn out.

Kids rarely get to see the process that goes into good writing. They can become discouraged when their writing isn’t perfect on the first try. You are giving them a gift when you show creativity is hard work.

3. Interact with the Writing Community

Be good literary citizens and support writers. Leave a positive book review, or leave one on behalf of your child who is too young to post it. Promote other people’s work on social media platforms. My kids love it when the author likes our post or leaves a comment for us.

Send fan mail. Most writers I know love hearing their work has impacted others. They may reply, and it is a thrill to hear from a favorite author.

Go to local bookstores, library story times, book fairs, and literary festivals. Attend an author event or local book signing. These events help you network, and they show your kids that authors are real people.

4. Establish a Daily Time to Create

Set aside time every day to create. It doesn’t have to be the same time every day, so long as it happens every day.

Your family’s creative time should be enjoyable—not a chore. Let each person pick their preferred activity. Make sure everyone has what they need, set a timer, and create!

Younger children may need short blocks of time (10-15 minutes). Depending on the activity, you may need to sit next to them to troubleshoot, but promote independence as much as possible.

Use this block of time to write. Your child might want to paint, construct something with blocks, or make a movie. The point is to make creativity a treasured and respected process.

5. Respect Everyone’s Creative Output

If you take away only one tip, make it this one: affirm what everyone has made. Compliment the good. Praise the effort that went into it. Encourage them to keep creating.

LISTEN to your kids when they tell you about the new thing they made. Stop scrolling and give them your undivided attention while they talk about what they’ve made. Show them how we listen while others share their work.

Respect and courtesy go a long way. Give your kids time and space to follow their passions and expect them to do the same for you.

A Word on Expectations

It would be disingenuous of me to treat these tips as a checklist for creating an idyllic life where writing and parenting live in perfect harmony. I think we are most discontent when we believe perfection is something within our grasp, but no such life exists.

We feel better about our accomplishments when our expectations honor reality. Set yourself up for success by setting goals that are based on your life right now, not anyone else’s.

Create. Teach your kids to create. It will require effort and time to establish these habits, but if you play the long game, you’ll reap incredible benefits while simultaneously raising the next generation of creatives.

Tell us in the comments: Which of these ideas will you be trying with your kids this summer?

Sara Gentry has a Ph.D. in Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics and is a writer, homeschooling mom, and Author Accelerator certified book coach. Sara uses her analytical and logical brain to help writers corral their ideas into a cohesive and compelling narrative. She works with many types of writers, but has a soft spot for coaching mom writers who are juggling all the things.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The post #5onFri: Five Ways to Include Your Children in Your Writing Life This Summer appeared first on DIY MFA.

One of my favorites is attributed to the 30th President of the U.S., Calvin Coolidge. The gist of it is that nothing in the world can take the place of persistence—not talent, not genius, not education. The quote ends with: “Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” 

His words may have been written in the early 20th century, more than one hundred years ago, but are still valid, especially for writers. 

The tips I outline below grew out of Coolidge’s philosophy.

1. Welcome rejection. 

I’ve read about “clubs” among writers in which they challenge colleagues to aim for 100 rejections from publications during a single calendar year. 

Although I don’t officially belong to any of these groups, I also strive for 100 rejections. 

This isn’t to say that I submit haphazardly to any and all publications, throw pasta on the wall to see what sticks. I do my research and determine which journals and/or publications might be a good fit for my essays, stories, essay collections, or book chapters, and then act accordingly. And of course, I thoroughly review and edit my writing before I submit it. 

But I don’t let the fear of rejection hold me back when deciding when/where/how many pieces to submit. 

I take risks. 

I believe that if you only submit a dozen or so times a year, each rejection is that much more painful, and carries that much more weight. That’s not to say that I look forward to rejections, but I’m not devastated when one arrives in my email queue (or via snail mail) because I have other pieces out in the world that I’m equally proud of. 

Following a rejection, I then make a note of the journal in question, as well as the submission that was rejected. If an editor had any constructive comments, I make note of those also, and thank him or her. I may review my submission yet again at that point to make sure I didn’t miss any inconsistencies or errors. 

My point, though, is that it’s not the end of the world when I receive a rejection since I’ve sent out a healthy number; that way each submission isn’t quite so precious.

2. Ignore unkind comments. 

Once in a long long while, I’ll receive a rejection that seems personal, even though submissions are anonymous. Maybe they’re tired of reading about COVID, or dysfunctional families, or the plight of single parents, etc. Something strikes a discordant note, and a journal staffer might have harsh words for me, the writer. 

Again, this is very rare, but when it happens I try to take it in stride and, ideally, tell myself that the editor or reader was just having a bad day when she wrote that “any idiot knows such and such” about one of the sentences in my piece. Or maybe he/she was just sick of whatever the topic of my essay or story was. 

Lastly, maybe there was a kernel of truth in the criticism, once I excavate it from the sender’s harshness; I look for that kernel.

3. Don’t be in a hurry. 

I once submitted an essay to a publication and they accepted it a year after I submitted it. I don’t know if it was lost in the slush pile and then rescued by a new editor, or if they reevaluated its merit. I didn’t ask, and was just happy they wanted to publish it. 

In all the cases I’m familiar with, journals are run by hard-working volunteer staff and, even if they are paid, it’s not much, so I try to adopt an attitude of gratitude and patience while waiting to hear back about my submissions.

4. Don’t obsess about your age (especially if you’re a certain age). 

I’m a Baby Boomer and some (thankfully, not all) people erroneously think that those of us past a certain age should be otherwise engaged: sitting in rocking chairs, knitting booties, watching television nonstop, having lunch out with friends regularly, frittering away our days on mindless activities. 

Fortunately, it’s a rare attitude, but it does happen. 

Regardless, that’s not me. That will never be me. I have a husband, children, and grandchildren I adore, and hobbies I enjoy, but I also am a full-time writer. 

A corollary to this rule is that those who think you need decades under your belt to reach a certain level in a career—say, writing—are mistaken. Do what you want with your life while you can; spend your time doing what you enjoy. 

For me, writing is one of those things. In my case, I had a fulfilling and long career as a translator and linguist, working with more than a dozen languages, and traveling all over the world, but I always wanted to be a writer, too, and did it unofficially for decades. But, when the time was right, writing became my principal vocation. 

My point is that only you know your background, and only you can decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.

5. Don’t automatically expect your work to be received with constant or far-reaching accolades, but always work towards that goal. 

Your hard work, waiting, and persistence might not yield the Pulitzer Prize or the National Book Award, but hopefully, that’s not the reason you write. 

Another of my favorite quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson sums it up: “The reward of a job well done is to have done it.” 

Usually, that’s enough impetus for me. I have essays I’ve worked on for hours, days, months, and they’re languishing in my drawer (or on my computer), not yet picked up by anyone for publication. But I know in my heart they’re good. I view them as my foster children; they have so many wonderful traits and I just have to keep trying to find the right home for them. In the meantime, they haven’t lost their luster just because the New York Times isn’t knocking down my door to publish them.

The bottom line for me continues to be: “If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Or, to quote the rallying cry adopted by feminists in 2017 after Mitch McConnell used it to describe Senator Elizabeth Warren’s unwillingness to be silenced: “Nevertheless, she persisted.” I know I wouldn’t have accomplished half of what I’ve achieved—in writing and with other lifetime endeavors—if I hadn’t been persistent.

Tell us in the comments: What words of encouragement help you?

Linda Murphy Marshall is a multi-linguist and writer with a PhD in Hispanic languages and literature, a master’s in Spanish, and an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review, Maryland Literary Review, the Ocotillo Review, Chestnut Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Bacopa Literary Review, PopMatters, Storgy [UK], The Bark Magazine, Catamaran Literary Reader, and Critical Read. She was featured in American Writers Review, where she was an Honorable Mention for the 2019 Fiction Contest. She was long-listed in Strands Publishers’s 2021 International Flash Fiction Contest, and was a finalist in the 2020 Annual Adelaide Literary Contest for one of her essays. In addition, she is currently a reader for Fourth Genre and a translation editor for the Los Angeles Review. Her sketches and paintings have been featured in art shows and galleries. She lives in Columbia, MD.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook.

The post #5onFri: Five Words of Encouragement for Writers appeared first on DIY MFA.

In this post, I’m going to show you three ways that the Enneagram can help you develop complex, relatable characters that the reader cares about. 

1. Use the Enneagram’s basic desire and/or basic fear for a personality type to develop your character(s).

As a quick review, there are nine primary personality types in the Enneagram, each of which is assigned a number, one through nine. 

Each of these types is motivated by a unique basic desire and a unique basic fear—that’s what distinguishes the types from one another: motivation. 

This is important to understand: it’s not that a certain behavior or set of behaviors defines the number someone is, but that the motivation behind the behavior is unique. 

An Enneagram One and an Enneagram Nine, for example, could both be a serial killer, U.S. president, or a gentle grandma—but the Enneagram One grandma is going to be motivated differently than the Enneagram Nine grandma.

Starting with these basic desires and fears is a great way to develop characters given that so much of storytelling is about what someone wants or is afraid of. 

Here are the basic desires and fears of each Enneagram Type:

1—Basic desire: to be good or perfect | Basic fear: of being bad or defective

2—Basic desire: to feel loved | Basic fear: of being unwanted

3—Basic desire: to feel valuable | Basic fear: of being worthless

4—Basic desire: to find a true identity | Basic fear: of not having significance 

5—Basic desire: to be capable and competent | Basic fear: of being helpless 

6—Basic desire: to be secure| Basic fear: of being without critical support

7—Basic desire: to feel content | Basic fear: of being trapped or deprived

8—Basic desire: to control their world | Basic fear: of being powerless

9—Basic desire: to have inner peace | Basic fear: of being separated

(Source: Take from or inspired by The Enneagram Institute’s website)

You might be thinking, “But wait—don’t we want all of these things? To be loved and wanted and valuable, etc.? And not to be bad or unwanted or worthless?” 

Yes…but we aren’t primarily motivated by all of these things. We’re primarily motivated by one thing. And that’s our number. 

If you figure out (or discover, or determine—however your process of creating fictional characters works) a character’s Enneagram number, you’ve unlocked a world to explore around that character’s desire and fear landscapes. 

For example, in my most recent novel, Palm Beach, Rebecca, the main character, is an Enneagram One: the Reformer (also sometimes called the Perfectionist). She wants, more than anything, to be a good person. A vegan, an environmentalist, an activist, she holds herself to standards that most people don’t. She is hard on herself…and also others, whom she judges. She’s so afraid of being “bad” that she can come across as, well, annoying. 

Stayja, a character in my second novel, Privilege, is an Enneagram Three: she wants, more than anything, to feel valued by the world. She’s from a poor family and wants to break out, so she’s a hustler, working constantly to battle her way through college so she can be somebody. She sees her value as being what’s impressive or admirable in the world’s eyes. More than anything, she doesn’t want to be poor anymore.

Now, an important aspect of the Enneagram is within each type/number, there’s a healthiness scale. Your character will fall somewhere on this scale, and that will dramatically affect how their motivation manifests—whether it’s in healthy or unhealthy ways. 

You can read more about the healthiness levels for each type here. 

The importance of healthiness levels can’t be overstated—my husband, for example, is an Enneagram Eight. When he found this out, he was appalled, because dictators are Eights. Saddam Hussein? Eight. 

Yikes.

But a healthy Eight is very different from an unhealthy Eight, and this is a critical difference. 

Here’s the difference between a healthy Eight and an unhealthy Eight, according to the Enneagram Institute (the primary authority): 

Healthiest Eights: Become self-restrained and magnanimous, merciful and forbearing, mastering self through their self-surrender to a higher authority. Courageous, willing to put self in serious jeopardy to achieve their vision and have a lasting influence. May achieve true heroism and historical greatness.

Unhealthiest Eights: If they get in danger, they may brutally destroy everything that has not conformed to their will rather than surrender to anyone else. Vengeful, barbaric, murderous. Sociopathic tendencies. Generally corresponds to the Antisocial Personality Disorder.

So…PRETTY DIFFERENT.

What does this mean for you in terms of creating fictional characters? 

Well, there are 9 levels of healthiness for each type. Your character, I’d recommend, should fall on the lower half of the spectrum of healthiness…simply for storytelling purposes. 

We want a character to have room to grow. 

Yes, we all have room to grow. But a good story shows serious growth—growth that isn’t optional but is necessary, that feels high-stakes. And that’s more likely to exist for a character who falls on the bottom half of their Enneagram number’s healthiness scale. 

You can read about healthiness levels on any Enneagram site, but, again, I like the Enneagram Institute. 

2. Use the Enneagram’s stress lines to figure out your character’s go-to stress responses.

As we all (probably) know, in any story, it’s really important to allow your characters to experience tension. 

Tension is what stretches them, which leads them to suffer a bit, which leads to a perspective shift…and that makes the story. 

A story is a perspective shift. 

But how do they suffer? Because we all suffer differently, which is to say, we all respond to stress differently. 

For example, I: 

1. Eat CheezIts
2. Get very bossy
3. Let laundry pile up 
4. Decide that a dramatic life decision like moving will fix all my problems 
5. All of the above 

Bingo, it’s (e), all of the above!

But my husband doesn’t do any of these things. To tell you what he does, I want to return to the Enneagram, because it can also help us create our characters’ stress responses! 

For each number on the Enneagram, there’s a stress line—a corresponding number that that person is likely to act more like when they get stressed out. 

Here are the numbers and what other number we act like when we get stressed out (again, in terms of healthiness, you’re looking at how the average or unhealthy version of that number behaves): 

An average to unhealthy stressed out 1 acts like an average 4  

An average to unhealthy stressed out 2 acts like an average 8  

An average to unhealthy stressed out 3 acts like an average 9  

An average to unhealthy stressed out 4 acts like an average 2  

An average to unhealthy stressed out 5 acts like an average 7  

An average to unhealthy stressed out 6 acts like an average 3

An average to unhealthy stressed out 7 acts like an average 1

An average to unhealthy stressed out 8 acts like an average 5

An average to unhealthy stressed out 9 acts like an average 6

If you’re thinking, “WHAT?! This just turned into calculus!”…don’t worry, it’s not that complicated. You can read about the average numbers here, and it’ll really help you flesh out how your character, whose Enneagram number you’ve already decided, acts when they’re stressed. 

So to get back to my husband as an example, who is an Enneagram Eight…Eights, when they are stressed out, sometimes exhibit behaviors of Average Fives. 

Here’s how the Enneagram Institute describes an Average Five: 

Increasingly detached as they become involved with complicated ideas or imaginary worlds. Become preoccupied with their visions and interpretations rather than reality. Are fascinated by off-beat, esoteric subjects, even those involving dark and disturbing elements. Detached from the practical world, a “disembodied mind,” although high-strung and intense.

One important note before we wrap up stress lines—stress lines are not necessarily a bad thing. These are just how we cope. 

Not all characters are going to possess the same degree of self-awareness, just like characters will have different coping mechanisms, different habits and vices, and different baggage they’re carrying around from childhood. A more self-aware character could use their line of stress to navigate to the healthier end of the spectrum.  

But, again—generally speaking, the healthier the character, the harder it’s going to be to maintain an internal tension, which is essential to story. I still recommend looking at the average to unhealthy character descriptions in the Enneagram, because we want our characters to have room to grow emotionally, and that gives them the biggest possible range of growth.

3. Use the Enneagram’s passions and virtues to chart your characters’ emotional growth.

The Enneagram, once you get into it, is a complex system, if you haven’t inferred that yet. But there’s one more aspect of it I want to touch on that can be useful to you when creating fictional characters: the passions and virtues. 

Each Type has a unique passion and a unique virtue. 

The passions are our emotional habits, our kneejerk responses. 

The virtues are the states of being that allow us to experience our true essence and transcend those emotional habits. 

Here are the passions and virtues for the nine types:  

One—Passion: Anger | Virtue: Serenity

Two—Passion: Pride | Virtue: Humility

Three—Passion: Deceit | Virtue: Authenticity

Four—Passion: Envy | Virtue: Equanimity

Five—Passion: Avarice | Virtue: Non-Attachment

Six—Passion: Fear | Virtue: Courage

Seven—Passion: Gluttony | Virtue: Sobriety

Eight—Passion: Lust | Virtue: Innocence

Nine—Passion: Sloth | Virtue: Action

You can read more about the passions and virtues here. 

The cool thing about the passion-to-virtue trajectory is that this can make a powerful internal emotional arc for any character—given that these get to the root of what we struggle with, overcoming our past coping mechanisms that no longer serve us, you could consider letting the passion-to-virtue arc for your character’s Enneagram number guide their process of self-discovery through your story. 

Of course, it’s up to you to do the writing that leads them to that self-discovery—you must allow them to suffer, and thus struggle, and thus come to a fresh perspective. 

There’s more where this came from…

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use the Enneagram to develop your characters, you can sign up for my email list here. I am putting together a much more robust Enneagram training for writers and can’t wait to share it with you, but you’ll need to be on my email list to find out about it! 

Tell us in the comments: What Enneagram type is your character? How is that affecting your storytelling?

Mary Adkins is the author of the novels When You Read This (Indie Next Pick, “Best Book of 2019” by Good Housekeeping and Real Simple), Privilege (Today.com Best Summer Read), and Palm Beach (New York Post “Best Book of 2021,” and “like a sandy beach, equal parts beautiful and uncomfortable” according to the Associated Press). Her books have been published in 13 countries, and her essays and reporting have appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, and more. A graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University, she teaches storytelling for The Moth worldwide and runs The Book Incubator, a program for aspiring authors.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The post How to Use the Enneagram to Create Fictional Characters appeared first on DIY MFA.

The advice I’ve heard across all writing groups is to write each day with a small goal to get back in sync. Shane Doan, captain of the NHL Coyotes, was unexpectedly told he would no longer play for the team. He got through the following difficult days by sticking to his routine of making his bed every morning. No matter what else happened, he knew he accomplished one thing each day.

I teach Yang style Tai Chi with 24 forms, which are groupings of steps. If I taught all 24 forms at once, my students would feel frustrated and lost. Instead, I teach one form at a time, breaking each step into moving the arms and the feet. When I see that my students feel confident in one form, I move on to the next. It takes time, but with these small steps everyone progresses in learning the entire sequence.

I look to nature to avoid FOMO (Fear of Missing Out” with writing projects. Trees start as a seed, then send up shoots as a sapling. Layer by layer, they build strong trunks. Branches and leaves grow in proportion to the trunk and roots at the tree’s pace. 

Hummingbirds don’t think of all the pollinators they need to visit each day for nutrients. They only focus on the flight to the next flower they have memorized on their route.

Here are my approaches for getting your writing back on track:

Build a Creative Scene One Brick at a Time

Composer Eric Whitacre uses a creative process in songwriting called the golden brick. Eric felt he had something really important to express but couldn’t get there when thinking of a full score. Looking at the entire composition paralyzed his process. 

So he intentionally chose only five notes to compose a phrase. Solving the puzzle with this constraint opened the door to the next step. He then created a new brick of just five notes, building each brick until he had an entire composition.

Try writing a description with a limited number of words. This could be the characteristics of a creature, details of an important clue, or features of a historical object. The key is to keep it small. 

Draw a Picture Grid

As an artist, I like to use a picture grid when drawing a complex object. This exercise helps you take in the small details right in front of you. You only look at the one detail in the one square.

It is easy to do, even if you don’t think of yourself as an artist.

1. Choose an organic shape to draw. For this exercise, I chose a leaf.
2. Draw a grid of even-sized squares.
3. Match each section of the grid with what you see in that same section of your object. Only look at that one section. Draw what you see in one square.
4. Fill in one section at a time until the drawing is complete.

This is a great exercise for anyone overwhelmed with world-building. Instead of trying to draw the entire map, focus on just one square. Is there a forest there? A desert? A path? When you’ve filled in that square, start an adjacent one. In time, you will fill in the complete picture.

Create a Timed Soundtrack

Part of DIY MFA’s virtual writer’s retreat included themed soundtracks. Each soundtrack was timed to be exactly 30 minutes. Initially, I was drawn to the ambiance of the background sounds. Later, I found that I was more productive during that time constraint.

While listening to an ambient track, I know I have a limited amount of time. My focus sharpens and I get right to the point. Time flies by and I have to remind myself that when the music stops, it’s time to take a break.

Create a timed soundtrack that works for you, whether songs or ambient sounds. 

Or set a timer if you work better in silence. 

The important thing is to give yourself that time limit to stay focused while honoring the parameters of your well-being.

An Inspirational Book about Getting Back on Track

One of my favorite inspirational books is The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. This charming winner of the John Burroughs Medal grew from the author’s observation of a snail on a violet plant while bedridden with illness. 

With her heightened senses she could not tolerate anything above a whisper. But she could hear the snail eating, and from her bed she could track what the snail did each day, matching her pace of living.

One snail led to more snails, reference books on snails, and eventually the book she wrote about snails. It was a sequence of small events that led to a new creative path for her. 

If you want to listen to the sound of a snail eating a carrot compared to the sound of the author eating a carrot, visit Elisabeth’s website.

Be patient with yourself. And kind. You will get there, one brick, square, or soundtrack at a time.

Tell us in the comments: How do you get your writing back on track?

Ambre Dawn Leffler is a Tai Chi instructor, gardener, and weather geek who writes about vegetables, seasons, communing with nature, and the interconnections of mind/body. She loves trees and cherishes time in their presence. Learn more about her tree time, garden residents, and wellness practices at her website ambredawnleffler.com and seasonal inspiration from her newsletter Sky Earth Water. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The post Three Small Steps to Get Your Writing Back on Track appeared first on DIY MFA.

I find myself reading writers’ memoirs, pen in hand, underlining something on most pages. Ones that are especially useful, I go back through with a notebook and take down notes of the things I’ve underlined for quick reference later on.

For this #5onFri I’ve listed my five favorite writers’ memoirs and explained what I love about each. A quick note about the order. They are listed in alphabetical order of author’s last name, not in the order I read them or the order of preference. I find that in lists, alphabetical order is the most democratic.

1. Bukowski in a Sundress by Kim Addonizio

This memoir was so entertaining that it was like meeting a gal pal for endless martinis and swapping insane story after insane story. Addonizio’s memoir is really about the perseverance it takes to carve out a career as a writer, in particular as a poet.

There are a ton of great anecdotes about her adventures on the road at writing conferences and readings, as well as lessons about juggling real life and writing. She approaches it all with humor and grit—which are two crucial characteristics you need to be a writer.

This collection is definitely not for the faint of heart. Language and sexploits abound in this wild romp. But, for me, it was a super accessible memoir in that nothing was sugar-coated.

2. I Came All This Way to Meet You by Jami Attenberg

This is the most recently published of these writers’ memoirs. One of the blurbs on the back sums it up quite nicely: “A love letter to work and to friendship.” A lot of the book is grounded in road trips Attenberg took to promote one book or another and how grueling they were, but also the sights she saw and the things she learned about herself on the way.

She talks about books she wrote that didn’t do well and how she didn’t understand why, and I really appreciated that kind of honesty. This whole writing and publishing thing is a fickle mistress, which is why we really should just focus on the bit we can control, the writing.

This one made me realize that as hard as it all is, if you love the work (and surely you must, otherwise why do it?), it really is worth it. 

Plus, who doesn’t love a good road trip book?

3. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

I loved this memoir in essays. It is so poetic and beautiful. This book is a manifesto on the interconnectedness of life, art, and politics. Good writing encapsulates all three.

Chee does a wonderful job of balancing writing about his life and how that informed his development as a writer. Just when you think you’re reading an essay about writing, you realize that it’s also about life. And when you think you’re reading about Chee’s political activism, you also catch glimpses of writing advice.

I think I heard that he has another collection of essays coming out and I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us. He’s also the guest editor of this year’s Best American Essays, out in the fall.

4. On Writing by Stephen King

This was the first writers’ memoir I read cover to cover and I read it when I wasn’t really into Stephen King’s novels. This volume is broken into three parts: C.V., Toolbox, and On Writing, plus a couple of recommended reading lists.

In C.V., King presents his curriculum vitae, his bona fides, his path to writing. He delves into his childhood spent shuffling around and living with various relatives and how he eventually discovered he kind of liked this thing called writing. 

He is really honest about his struggles with and recovery from addiction and how it has shown up in his writing. Plus, he reveals how writing brought him back to life after his near-fatal accident in 1999.

This one provides another glimpse at the level of dedication it takes to become a master of the craft of writing. It is entertaining and inspiring.

5. Just Kids by Patti Smith

When I first saw this memoir, I had no idea who Patti Smith was, but I saw this memoir EVERYWHERE, so I eventually broke down and bought it. Naturally.

This is a love story by Patti Smith about her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. They lived together when they were struggling artists in New York City in the late 1960s and early 70s. Smith does an amazing job of exploring the depth of that relationship. 

But she also writes a beautiful account of the devotional aspect of being an artist. And that’s my biggest takeaway from this memoir—the importance of truly living your art.

You’ll have to excuse me for not writing much of a conclusion to this post. I am struggling to decide which of these writers’ memoirs I’m going to revisit first!

Tell us in the comments: What are your favorite writers’ memoirs?

Lori Walker is the Operations Maven at DIY MFA. Though she’s fallen off the wagon as a writer, she’s hoping to return to writing essays (perhaps even a novel!) through her involvement with DIY MFA. She is also Launch Manager, Web Editor, and Podcast Producer for DIY MFA and a Book Coach. She resides in Smalltown, Oklahoma, with her husband and their cat, Joan Didion. You can follow her on Instagram at @LoriTheWriter.

The post #5onFri: Five Writers’ Memoirs You Should Check Out appeared first on DIY MFA.

Plus, as a writer, it’s pretty much your job to turn concepts into plots and an internal image or vision into a rich character or compelling narrative. This gives you a bit of a cheat code to tarot reading!

So let’s put this hidden skill you didn’t even know you had into action by using a custom tarot spread to develop the skeleton of a manuscript outline.

Tarot Cards for Storytellers 101

As a reminder, in Part 1, we learned that a tarot deck consists of 78 cards, each with its own meaning and symbolism. They’re often used for divination, but have many more uses, too! Including as a creative writing tool. You might use them to get quick inspiration when you’re feeling stuck, use mini spreads (aka a sequence of multiple cards in a row) to build a character, or research the meaning behind tarot cards to inspire a story or setting.

But you can also leverage complex spreads to get more specific and granular while plotting. Let’s take a look at a custom spread to see how the random fall of the cards can lead to creative ideas and interesting storylines.

Your DIVINE Spread

First, let’s review the spread I’ve designed just for you! This spread consists of six slots, each with its own purpose in building out your novel outline.

This spread uses six tarot cards, and is designed to help you determine the why, who, and what of your story. We’ll start with our why and who first, and with that taken care of, we’ll let the cards figure out what sort of chaos we’ll put them through in the beginning, middle, and end of their journey.

D – What does your protagonist desire? 

I – What is an important factor to your character’s identity? 

V – Who or what is the villain of the story? 

I – What is the inciting incident of this story? 

N – What causes the nadir, or the low point, for your protagonist? 

E – How does your protagonist change by the end? 

So let’s give our deck a little shuffle, and see what pops up! 

And in case you’re wondering, there’s no “right way” to shuffle tarot cards. It’s what feels right to you! I like to shuffle at least four times to really mix things up. If I’m feeling really crazy, I ask my cat to rub her head on my cards as my personal, fluffy muse.

I’ll be using The Star Child Tarot deck, which has stunning multimedia images and really reflects my own writing brand of mystical, contemporary fantasy. But you can use whatever tarot or oracle card deck you’d prefer.

Now let’s get divining.

DIVINE Plotting

Alright, the cards have been laid, and here’s what I got. Let’s pretend I’ll be using this spread to come up with the concept for my next contemporary fantasy novel.

Card 1: What does my protagonist desire?

Answer: Three of Cups.

The cupeth is fulleth! When I look at this card I get a sense of supreme, emotional and intuitive power. Waterfalls are running into cups, the moon is full, the sky is alight with stars and colorful galaxies. It all aligns directly to an ancient pyramid.

Translated to character desire? To me, it feels like an abundant, joyful life. My character wants to be happy, and surrounded by people that make her feel alive and aligned. Of course, we’re not going to make it easy for her. That wouldn’t be a fun novel at all.

Card 2: What is an important factor to my character’s identity?

Answer: Eight of Cups

A prettily dressed woman is surrounded by cups, looking out upon the beach as if waiting for her crew to show up.

My girl likes to party. She likes to be at the center of a crowd. She loves fashion and looking cute, and being told she’s cute. She is the consummate hostess. Perhaps she’s even built a brand around this? Maybe she’s an event planner. Whatever the case, she does not like to be alone, and has designed her life to avoid having to spend too much time navel-gazing.

Because she comes from a long line of psychics and mediums, and she’s seen how little indulging in that family trait has gotten them. She’s decided that being happy means being as normal as possible.

Card 3: Who or what is the villain of the story?

Answer: The Wheel of Fortune

The name of this card says it all for me.

Times they are a-changin’. I’m starting to get the feeling that my character is meant to be maturing out of her party-heavy twenty-something life as she enters her thirties, but has been very resistant to this maturation. Meanwhile, all her friends are getting married and having babies or moving to the suburbs, leaving her her least favorite thing: alone.

So the villain here is time itself, something that cannot be fought, only lived. And she’s been fighting the power of time and the messages hidden within it her entire life.

Card 4: What is the inciting incident of the story?

Answer: Page of Cups

The page of cups loosely holds a goblet. So immediately my head goes to “party.” Which is fitting!

I’m picturing this: it’s a work happy hour and my protagonist (let’s call her Miranda) has had a few too many glasses of Pinot Grigio. She drinks to drown out the visions she sometimes gets when she’s overstimulated. 

She’s at the point of being drunk where she thinks she is hilarious and bold, but really she’s embarrassing and stupid. She gets it on her mind to jump on the bar and show off her old dance team moves she learned in high school…and then she falls off. And then she gets kicked out of the bar in front of all her co-workers.

Miranda realizes that it’s time to grow up and learn how to control her powers. But where to even begin?

Card 5: What causes the nadir for your protagonist?

Answer: Akashic Records

The Akashic Records is an esoteric concept in which everything that has ever or will ever happen to us is recorded in a mystical book we can tap into via meditation and spiritual journeying.

This feels super out there. A moment in which Miranda is forced to reckon with her gift…or else. Perhaps she develops a new power that overwhelms her just when she thought she had a handle on her first one. And it overwhelms her to the point of passing out at work.

When Miranda comes to, she’s had a vision about the future of the company. Her boss, thinking Miranda is drunk on the job, fires her.

Card 6: How does your protagonist change by the end?

Answer: Five of Swords

A winged woman stands in the desert, hands outstretched. She is surrounded by swords, all at the ready but none in use. She is like a valkyrie, waiting for the call to battle.

Near the end of the story, Miranda finally convinces her boss that she wasn’t drunk. And that they need to listen to her or risk the company going under. She finally gets to use her clairvoyant power in public, and save the company and community she loves from certain ruin.

Miranda realizes that she’s been hiding from her real purpose her whole life. She’s finally ready to follow her destiny. Because she can’t be happy until she feels whole. And she can’t be whole until she embraces her powers and uses them for good.

Now It’s Your Turn

So there you have it: six cards, one story. We took Miranda from party girl to professional psychic…with a bit of tumult and heartbreak mixed in for good measure.

And now it’s your turn. Get your deck, give it a shuffle, and see what stories the tarot cards want YOU to tell.

Tell us in the comments: What kind of outline did your tarot cards create for your novel?

Ashley Christiano is a fantasy writer, experienced tarot reader, and professional astrologer. As The Novel Mystic, she combines the power of astrology, tarot, and creative writing to empower women, educate the Astro-curious, and inspire her own storytelling. 

You can find her on her website or follow her on Twitter or Instagram to learn more or get your own reading.

The post Tarot Cards for Storytellers, Part 2: From Tarot Spread to Novel Outline appeared first on DIY MFA.