Ep. 175: Mini-Episode – How to Keep Going

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael

[00:00:15] Well, hello writers! Welcome to episode #175 of “How do you Write?” So glad that you’re here with me today. I’m sorry that I missed a week last week. It’s just been a rough time all around, hasn’t it? I’ve been fighting some brain stuff and some medical stuff. So I am here today to talk to you a little bit more about going easy on ourselves in these times. That does not mean letting go of creativity and I just wanted to reassure you that if you are feeling shell-shocked, if you are really having a hard time getting to the page, that is okay. You’re not doing anything wrong. I just sent out a Patreon essay, a couple of days ago and it was about using creativity in very small pieces where we can fit them into our lives to increase and better our, our mental health. I realized this a long time ago when I was battling some depression, the stories in the Patreon essay, one of the stories in there, and basically I ended up painting a small coffee table. I painted the top blue. I didn’t even paint the legs. I just painted the top blue. It was the very least I could do. And I- I did it because I can’t remember how I made myself do it really. But when I was doing it, as the paint was going onto the top of the table, I started feeling better and it was such a momentous occasion, me noticing that putting blue paint on a correctly thrift store table actually made me feel better for a little while, was something that affects my every day now. Putting blue paint on a crappy table is not going to fix depression. There are a lot of things that you have to do if you’re depressed and isn’t that the worst thing ever, that you have to do things while you’re depressed. That’s the hard part. 

[00:02:20] So of course, you know, being creative will not fix depression. We need to talk about therapy. We need to talk about perhaps medication. If you’re a person for whom that works, which I am, but being creative and bringing it into our lives and letting it out in really little ways, is helping me a great deal right now. And when I say little ways, I mean little ways. I don’t mean working on your Magnum Opus. I mean, preparing beans in a brand new way. Cooking that broccoli, a little bit differently. Getting out an old knitting project that you’ve neglected for years. Deciding to paint the garage, things that we can do at home, things that might only took, take a couple of minutes to do the increase. How we feel about the world around us in a really positive way. So if you’d like that essay for just a buck, you can go get that over at www.patreon.com/rachael R A C H A E L, that helped me to write because I have been looking to find my own inner creativity. In the essay I talk, I talk about picking up the guitar, which if you’re on the video, you can kind of see behind me.

[00:03:35] Writing books is my job, and I just do my job. I just go to work. But I really like to have creative outlets and that are not writing, that are not writing, that are total totally different from and feel different. So the guitar has been great for me right now that has been helping me. So I just wanna encourage you to think about little ways that you can help yourself by doing something maybe a tiny bit fun, even if it is just a 5-minute break for fun. Perhaps you were having a fantastic time, in your house. Doing all the things, and I hope that you are, but if you’re struggling just a little bit, try a little five minute, make something that didn’t exist before, or put things together in a way that only you can compile them, curate them, collage them. I don’t care, do something like that. 

[00:04:25] Moving forward, today’s episode is a little mini episode because honestly, I have been too busy on deadline. And when I’m not busy on deadline I’m busy in my bed watching Real Housewives, cause it’s, it’s hard out there, to even go out and get podcast guests. I have a couple in the can for the later when their books come out. But this is just going to be a mini episode and a reminder of what a mini episode is. It is me answering questions that you all have sent to me. If you are a Patron at the level of $5 or more, you get to ask me absolutely anything you want. I am at the end of my questions here, people. So I am going to read my last one in the can right now and that’s from Alex W. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Next week I will either have a guest or we’ll do something from one of my books, but I want to encourage you, if you have questions about any part of creativity or writing or really anything else, I’m very qualified to speak about, cadre pre-mix. Little bit qualified to talk about Tarot. I’m quite qualified to talk about how cute my dogs are. So just, you know, ask me anything and that’s what we’ll do. 

[00:05:41] But let’s get to Alex’s excellent question right now that has been sitting here for a long time. Sorry, Alex. But it was, it’s a nice big long one. So I wanted to spend time on it. Alex says, “I’m plotting a story out, and I had a question about romance series in particular; How to extend the story beyond one book and still keep it in the romance genre? I know that it can be done successfully by starting in one book with two characters and then with the next book, making two supporting characters into the main characters of that book. So the romance series might follow the romances of a family of siblings, all the firefighters in a firehouse, et cetera. But what if you want to stick with this same main characters through a trilogy or longer, can the first book end in a happily for now, they’re dating, yay. And then the second book increases the commitment, they’re getting married, and then the third book increases the intimacy. Perhaps they’re having a baby adopting a kid or building a house together. Would that satisfy reader expectations for the genre or would it be out on a limb? Are there other ways of doing it? I’ve seen several examples of series with romance subplots that extend the romantic tension, particularly a romantic triangle over several books, but I’m not familiar with any books or movies with romance main plot that do this successfully. Is this a thing in romance? Are there any success examples of successful romance? Main plot series that keeps the focus on the two or three main characters.”

[00:07:09] This is such a great answer- a question. I wish that I had a great answer for you. It is not something that we generally see on a regular basis within romance itself as a category. It does exist. I’m not that well educated about it and I’m hoping that listeners will come over to www.howdoyouwrite.net and maybe leave you a few better answers at, as to where you could find that one great way to find more of that would be writing to the ripped bodice. If you look up their website. I bet they would be happy to answer that and perhaps sell you, one or two of those kinds of books in which they exist. The ones that are coming to mind for me, really aren’t romance, they are more mystery/suspense. They are the JD Robb, In Death Series. There’s a lot of, that couple staying together. Even Eve and Roarke, I believe his name is. It’s been 15 years since I read one of those, but those are great. She’s still going with that couple. But there is other tension they are solving things in the future, right? So, they’ve got other bad guys. Romance itself is hard to write because our really powerful love interests need to be each other’s antagonists in a very real way, but still be good enough to, for your reader to believe that they can be forever together. So, it’s a lot easier when you have an exterior antagonist. What’s her name? The funny, funny one. Oh, you know, Stephanie Plum, the Stephanie Plum books. She has a romantic triangle like you mentioned, and she’s always trying to figure out which guys who’s gonna go forward at the end of the book, and it changes from book to book. I kind of thought that got a little old in my way. I actually preferred the even workbooks where we are following one couple through this kind of intensifying relationship and it happens just like you’re talking about. It gets more intense. The thing to think about with trilogies or more is you’re doing exactly the right thing when you talked about upping the stakes as a book goes on, oftentimes in fantasy or science fiction, the first book is about the character learning about herself and really saving herself. The second book is about her helping to save her community. And the third book in a trilogy is often hers helping to save the world that’s simplified, but it is a trope that we see over series. So what would that look like in a romance for you? How do our main characters save themselves with each other’s help? Probably. In the next book, how do they move apart but still save their community, perhaps and then in the third book, they might not be saving the world if this is a contemporary romance, but what else, can really, really push them apart really far apart. I like your ideas of having a kid, adopting a kid, building a house. Those things would push people really far apart. How do you bring them back together? The challenge in romance is always to have that bringing back together, be new and unique. You don’t want them to solve each other’s heartaches and burdens the same way every time, which to be honest, is what people in long-term relationships do a lot. I have been married 14 years as of yesterday, and, I kind of know the process of helping my wife through her hard times and she knows the process of helping me through hard times. God knows something could change tomorrow and we’ll have to help each other out as something that we have no idea how to handle. But when we break apart, we break apart in a really- our, our way, and we know that way, and then we get to gather again in our way. So I find that really interesting, but to deepen it and broaden it and make it bigger, for your books as they go on, will be a challenge. And also, I think you can absolutely do it and it can be riveting.

[00:11:26] So I would encourage people who know more about some books that do this than I do, come over to www.howdoyouwrite.net leave Alex a comment. Alex, I also wanted to mention the, don’t laugh. The Ethan Hawke slash what’s her name? Vehicles before sunrise, before sunset, and before midnight, I think is the last one. If you have not seen those, if any listener has not seen those basically two kids meet in Europe, they’re my age. They’re super gen X, so I really love these movies. But they meet in, you know, while they’re traveling, backpacking around Europe. And the first movie is about them talking until dawn and kind of falling in love, and then we see them again 10 years later in the next movie, and again, 10 years after that – ish, in the third movie, and it’s always the same two characters, and it’s still their relationship that these stories are about what- I’m getting goosebumps I want to watch all three of them all over again. I think they’re beautiful and they’re beautifully, beautifully done. And they look at relationships from totally different angles as people are becoming themselves and changing. So I would recommend that. I hope that helps. 

[00:12:37] Please, people who are in the Patreon group, $5 and above send me questions to answer. I really love doing these little mini episodes and thanks for forgiving me for not being around last week ‘cause I was not around for anybody. I was struggling with migraine and some tummy stuff and some body stuff and definitely some mental can’t-get-out-of-bed stuff. So the world’s going to hell, which is, you know, a phase, and it goes away an hour later, we’re riding these waves. I saw somebody call it the dip, earlier this week where she’s writing, writing, writing, doing her work, doing her work. Everything’s okay. She’s holding it together, and then she hits the dip and the dip means everything is bad, everything is wrong, we’re all doomed. And just knowing that that’s part of the dip and then getting out of it and doing what we do every day, taking care of our families and loving each other the best we can and being as kind as humanly possible, sharing resources and information and excitement and hope and joy, and also sharing our fears and anxieties. All of that stuff are these waves that we are riding right now. So, welcome to your surfing lesson, you’ll be surfing with me. Definitely a person who is not good at surfing, but when this is a little bit lessened, when we can go out again and do things, I’m going to take surfing lessons because I’ve always said I would, I learned how to swim in order to take surfing lessons and it’s ticking me off right now that I can’t just go and learn.

[00:14:17] So, yeah, that’s my, that’s my goal for when things calm down a bit in this world.  I would like to thank really quickly new Patrons, Clarence Chroma. Hello, Clarence! I know why you signed up. You were in a class of mine, and I told you to, you didn’t need to pay. You can always unpay now, but, thank you. So nice that you’re there. Sasha White. Hello, Sasha. May Marrow, pretty name and Leah Stevenson. Hi, Leah! So, thanks to those new patrons. Thank you to everyone who supports me on www.patreon.com/rachael.  Right now, that is giving me some peace of mind. I know that I have Patreon as a buffer, we’re all really scared about finances as we move forward. Most of us are, a lot of us are. Perhaps you weren’t, and I hope you’re not. But those of us who live as a freelance writer’s, definitely, definitely worried, so Patreon is something that really helps me sleep better at night, and I thank all of you for that. So I hope that you will get a little bit of writing done, and if it’s not writing, that feeds your creative soul right now, I hope you do something else that feeds you, even if it’s just for a few minutes and makes your brain relax and remember, “Oh yes, I am a person” To whom creation is important, and I believe that you are that person. So please do something for your creative soul. It can help save your life. I do not think I overstate this at this time. So, take care of yourself. Take care of your lovies. Stay warm and healthy, and we will talk to you next week. Bye.

[00:15:59] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.