Rachael Herron

(R.H. Herron)

Archives for March 2017

Ep. 041: Sheree L. Greer

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, Sheree L. Greer founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of ancestor, elder, and contemporary women writers of color. The author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms, and the short story collection, Once and Future lovers, Sheree recently published a writing guide for student writers, Stop Writing Wack Essays. She is a VONA alumn with work featured on Very Smart Brothas, AutoStraddle, Ms. Fit Magazine, and Hypertext. Sheree teaches composition, creative writing, fiction workshop, and African American literature at St. Petersburg College in Florida.

Craft Tip: Journal as your character–become your character–whether you use it or not.

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This is how Sheree Greer gets herself out of sticky writing situations - listen for more tips! How Do You Write Podcast

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This is What Makes You Worthy

Hi makers,

I wrote this for my writer’s list this week, but it applies to all makers, not just writers.

I had a bad virus this past week. Okay, I say bad, but it wasn’t the stomach flu, and it didn’t come with a high, terrible fever.

It just enervated me, leaving me spent and mostly useless. I lay around like a Victorian damsel on a fainting couch. I groaned intermittently, pleased with the hoarseness of my voice. I sighed a lot and blew my nose like the trumpets at the gates of Zion.

Then, when I started to feel better, I stayed down. (Okay, this is a lie. Friday night, I went to see Kate Tempest at a club and passed out after mainlining Gobstoppers, my first processed sugar in 3 months. Seriously. I didn’t even have a drink. Just. Passed. Out. I have to tell you, fainting is not as cool as it’s cracked up to be. In a moment that is funny in retrospect, I knew it was coming and apparently told my wife I thought I was going to faint — I barely remember this — so she had time to tell a stranger “Here, hold my drink,” as she caught me, which is why she still had her Manhattan after they carted me outside for air.)

So for the weekend, I kept resting.

Even though I felt guilty about it.

 

This is What Makes You Worthy of Being a Writer

You see, I measure my life by the Things I Do.

You might feel me on this one.

On Saturday, while resting, I made great cheese (coconut cheese that is healthy and tastes like the best/worst kind of nacho cheese ever – it is AMAZING) and terrible muffins, and besides that, I stayed in bed and watched The Americans on my phone.

It was okay that I stayed in bed, because I could look to an accomplishment. I had cooked. I had baked. That made me worthwhile, as a person.

On Sunday, I was almost better. I could have powered through almost anything, given the right dose of DayQuil and liberal distribution of hoarse groans.

But instead, I didn’t.

I just stayed down. I watched TV on my phone. I read. I napped a bit. I groaned pleasantly and petted the animals that piled happily on top of me.

I got NOTHING done. Not one single thing.

I was feeling awful about this, until I saw a tweet in my timeline. Bethany D. Lipka said, “If all you do today is take care of yourself, your day has been productive.”

This blew my mind.

Did she mean that lying in bed was actually a Thing To Do? A thing I could be proud of?

Yes, she certainly did.

So it got me thinking. Everyone is inherently worthy, with or without being productive.

This is something I’ve always believed.

Except about myself.

For me to be worthy, I have to make. (Many creative people feel this way. You might.) I have to sew a dress or bake bread or write a book or make a podcast.

Otherwise, how will my worth be tangible? How will I prove it?

This is what I realized this weekend: I need to work on loosening my grasp on this belief.

I am worthy when I write books.

I am also equally worthy when I do absolutely nothing.

We could dive into the field-lying-fallow metaphor, but that one has always rung hollow to me. Yo, have you met me? I AM NEVER GOING TO LET A FIELD LIE FALLOW. I will add fertilizer (organic!) to that shit (get it?) and get back in there as soon as possible.

So let’s use the sleep metaphor. Our brains and bodies need sleep. We have to rest. And sometimes, we need more rest than we’re used to giving ourselves.

I’m my own boss. (As of one year today! Today is my first anniversary of self-employment! This is a huge, happy, exciting thing to me!)

And I’m also my only full-time employee.

I’ve got to take care of the boss and the employee residing in this body. Sometimes I need a vacation even without going out of town. Sometimes I need an extra hour of sleep, or a whole weekend in bed.

Sometimes accomplishing nothing is the absolute best thing for me To Do.

I am worthy, no matter what I make or don’t make. No matter what I do or don’t accomplish. No matter what I write or don’t write.

So are you.

If you’re beating yourself up, stop it. You’re already worthy of being a writer. You ARE a writer. Write a little bit.

Rest, if you need it.

Then rest some more.

(Of course, ask yourself honestly if you’re resting or procrastinating. You’ll know the answer, deep in your heart. And depression is a different beast entirely. Good lord, if you’re fighting depressing and taking care of yourself by resting? GOOD FOR YOU. Don’t have a second of regret about that.)

If all you do today is take care of yourself, you’re being productive.

I believe this. And I’m going to try to remember it, too.

Take care of yourselves, dear ones.

love,

Rachael

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PS – There will be no writer’s email next weekend – it’s my eleven-year wedding anniversary, and we’re leaving the dogs with a sitter and going up the coast. To rest. And to soak in the hot tub. To read books and dance by moonlight and celebrate each other.

PPS – The weeks after that might be sporadic, too, since I’ll be in Venice for two weeks, on retreat. OH YEAH. That will be less restful, since I’m leading the retreat, but I’ve built in time afterward for a retreat of my own, in which there will be much writing and even more napping.

Ep. 040: Antonia Crane


Antonia Crane is a writer, Moth Slam winner, and writing instructor in Los Angeles. She is the author of the memoir, Spent (Barnacle Books, Rare Bird, 2014). She has written for The New York Times, Quartz: Atlantic Media, The Toast, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Salon,  and lots of other places. Her screenplay, “The Lusty” co-written with Silas Howard about the Exotic Dancers Union is a recipient of the San Francisco Film Society/ Kenneth Rainin Foundation Screenwriter’s Grant, 2015.  She is at work on an essay collection and a memoir.

Craft Tip:When you learn how to be a writer who reads, you’ve reached a different level.

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Sign up for Rachael’s FREE weekly email in which she encourages you to do the thing you want most in the world. You’ll also get her Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use now to get some writing done (free).

Ep. 039: Gigi Pandian


USA Today bestselling author Gigi Pandian spent her childhood being dragged around the world by her cultural anthropologist parents, and now lives outside San Francisco with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the garden. A cancer diagnosis in her thirties taught her that life’s too short to waste a single moment. Gigi writes the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mysteries, the Accidental Alchemist mysteries, and locked-room mystery short stories. Her fiction has been awarded the Malice Domestic Grant and Lefty Awards, and short-listed for Macavity and Agatha Awards.

Craft Tip: When you’re stuck, move the medium in which you’re writing.

Listen above or subscribe on:

iTunes | Stitcher | Youtube | Facebook

Sign up for Rachael’s FREE weekly email in which she encourages you to do the thing you want most in the world. You’ll also get her Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use now to get some writing done (free).

Ep. 038: Jason Gurley


Jason Gurley is the author of Greatfall, The Man Who Ended the World, and other novels and stories. His bestselling self-published novel Eleanor was acquired by Crown Publishing and reissued in 2016. His work has appeared in Lightspeed Magazine and numerous anthologies. He lives and writes in Oregon.

Craft Tip:  Learn how to keep an idea folder.

 

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Jason Gurley talks about his writing process with Rachael Herron on How Do You Write?

 

Sign up for Rachael’s FREE weekly email in which she encourages you to do the thing you want most in the world. You’ll also get her Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use now to get some writing done (free).

This Is What We Get Wrong About Writing

I just finished writing a Patreon essay. You may have heard me talking about them on my podcast. I love writing them so much though they’re not easy to write (is anything?).

Image that says This is What We Get Wrong About Writing with typewriter

In this latest Patreon essay, I write about how bad we are, as humans, at predicting what will actually make us happy. I won’t go into the science of it here, but this is the main takeaway: We guess wildly at what will make us happy, and then we get it wrong, over and over again. It’s human nature, and it’s part of the way we work.

It might sound familiar to you.

We dream of the totally free Saturday afternoon when the spouse has the kids, and you have the cafe. You know exactly how it will go. You’ll get there, grab your favorite chair by the outlet, and you’ll proceed to write the brilliant prose you know you’re capable of. It will be everything you’ve been waiting for.

Fact is, it doesn’t go like that, does it? Even when the seat is open, and your computer is plugged in, and your latte is perfect, something isn’t quite right. It’s your brain. It won’t settle. It won’t do what you need it to do which is to get some goddamn words on the page that don’t suck all the suckitude of suckery sucktown.

We predict what will make us happy (or sad) and we are wrong, over and over again.

It helps me to know this.

Nothing is going to go the exact way I imagine it, either for the good or the bad, and that kind of lets me off the worry hook.

Brain science shows us that the thing you fear the most won’t be as bad as you think it will be. It also shows us that the fantasy–the lottery win, the subsequent small-island purchase–also won’t be as good as we think it will.

That means all you have is now. This imperfect, perfect moment you’re sitting in right now.

Now is all.

Don’t wait for after retirement. Or next weekend. Or when the kids are in grade school. Whatever you’re waiting for, it’s not enough.

If you’re waiting for a future time, when you’ll be a better writer with more discipline and courage and creativity?

The only way you’re going to be one is to write messily, sloppily, and badly NOW.

Go write something. Anything. A blog post. A letter to your aunt who would die of shock if she got something in the mail from you. A love letter. A letter to the editor. A Facebook post that says something instead just a status update. The first chapter of your book (it will be terrible! It’s supposed to be, I promise!).

You have right now. And it’s better than okay–it’s all you need.

Onward!

xo, Rachael

PS – Curious about the longform essay on this which includes things like the way I use my ADHD for my writing benefit? You can read it (or listen to the MP3) here for as little as a buck.