Rachael Herron

(R.H. Herron)

Rachael

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.

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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. 

Ep. 037: Kate Maruyama


Kate Maruyama’s novel Harrowgate was published by 47North. Her short work has appeared in Arcadia, Stoneboat and Controlled Burn and is now featured in two new anthologies, Phantasma: Stories and Winter Horror Tales as well as on The Rumpus, Salon and The Citron Review among other journals. She teaches at Antioch University Los Angeles in the BA and MFA Programs and for inspiration2publication.com as well as for Writing Workshops Los Angeles. She writes, teaches, cooks and eats in Los Angeles where she lives with her family.

Women Who Submit, Saying Yes While Afraid

Craft Tip: Imagine who in your book or story is telling the story, who they are telling the story to, how long ago the story happened, and why they are telling it now.

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Ep. 036: Anna Doogan


Anna Doogan is a writer, dancer, and mother of three. Her writing has also appeared in Hip Mama, The Literary Kitchen, and Arcadia Magazine’s Online Sundries. She was the winner of the 2015 Hip Mama Uncensored/Unchaste Readers Writing Contest for her short story, “Fires.” She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Craft Tip: I often make playlists of songs that feel like the piece I’m working on, and even if I can’t be writing, I can be hearing the music that’s inspiring me.

Listen above or subscribe on:

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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. 035: Adrienne Bell


Adrienne Bell is a wife and a mother of two. She’s lived her whole life in Northern California. She has a deep, abiding love of all things Disneyland and Supernatural, and is the author of One Lucky Night, as well as the Second Service and The Sinner Saints series. Hook, her new book from the Exiles of the Realm just came out on Feb 14th, 2017.

Craft Tip: Luck can come into the story into the first act, but after that, luck has to go away. Every action has to be because of a decision.

 

 

Listen above or subscribe on:

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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).

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