(Author’s note: Below is an excerpt of the blog I provided to my $5/month Patreon subscribers. Each month, I provide a column or video on writing and a steamy short story to those who subscribe at the five-dollar level. Those who subscribe at the $3/month level get access to a new steamy short story every month, as well as all the stories I’ve provided in previous months.)
Turning over a new leaf for me has rarely happened on January 1.
My birthday coincides with the beginning of the school year, so for the first couple of decades of my life, the “new me” happened in September. Then, as a published author, the start of the 100,000-word odyssey of a new book was when I literally and figuratively began with a clean page.
This year, it just so happens that the beginning of the new year is paired with the beginning of a new book, the third book in the Milagro Street series. Since this is my sixth published book, I would love to tell you that I’ve perfected my system for book creation. I haven’t. You, dear hyperromantic author, can take both comfort and horror from that. Comfort because I’ve come to understand that my process is constantly changing and there is no one “right” way. Horror because the shifting sands beneath my feet – and yours -- may end up feeling like they’re always shifting.
That’s okay. We’ll breathe through it.
For 2023, I’m making five simple writing resolutions that might also help you daily get the words on the page.
#1 - I resolve to tell the truth
I’m stealing this one from the amazing Grant Faulkner, the head of the organization that runs NaNoWriMo and an astonishing writer in his own right. In his January 1 newsletter on Substack, he talks about how much bravery it takes to write your “truth.” He quotes Anne Lamont: “Good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that wants and needs to know who we are.”
My “truth” is that I believe women are fiercely powerful. Because we live in a society where women’s power has been historically undermined, I want to write heroines who are fierce the instant they show up on the page. I want to write women who make mistakes. I want to show women making their heroine’s journey to a place of integrity, peace, and joy. But many modern-day romance readers don’t want to see that journey – they want a woman to show up on the page in a way that they’re used, a way that makes them comfortable in its familiarity. They want to “like” her from go, without analyzing the unintentional bias they’ve absorbed to prevent them from liking her. But fierce female heroines are my truth, and I will continue to write them, even if that means taking some knocks from readers and reviewers.
What is your truth? What is the perhaps uncomfortable thing you want to say about women, men, people, relationships, loves, life, the world? I encourage you to say it. Your truth is unique, made of every day you’ve lived and every thought you’ve had, and will help lift your authorial voice above the din.
#2 - I resolve to reserve my most creative time for writing
I’ve talked about this one before. I will talk about it again. Mostly because, while it is the easiest and best tool for me to get to the end of a 100,000-word book, I still can ignore this tenet: I will guard my most creative time and do nothing but write during it.
My most creative time is from the instant I wake up until about 1 p.m. If I sit down to write as soon as I’ve exercised and washed my face, then the words are relatively easy to find, the big ideas of a book come to me, dialogue flows, and the puzzle pieces of a book fit together. At about 1 p.m., those connections start becoming fuzzy. My brain just doesn’t work as well. I can get a second writing wind at about 4 p.m., but at that point, afternoon meetings and family life begin to intrude.
For years now, I’ve known that morning writing works best for me, and yet I’m still so often tempted to work on social media in the morning. To schedule meetings during that time. To write a little article for Patreon. Even with proven success, I still screw with this.
Discover your most creative writing time – it could be first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night – and as often as you can, keep this time sacrosanct for your writing. Getting successful words on the page will plant the seeds for more successful words on the page.