Ep. 149: Adrienne Bell on Writing Hella Words in 2020

Adrienne Bell is the author of over a dozen action-packed romantic comedies. Her love of story structure led her to create Plot MD, a system for crafting compelling stories. She also is the co-host of the weekly podcast, The Misfit’s Guide to Writing Indie Romance, with Eliza Peake. Adrienne lives with her family on the far edge of the San Francisco Bay Area where she spends her downtime reading, watching nerdy television, and scrolling through Disneyland fan sites.

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Transcript

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you, Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:16] Well, hello writers! Welcome to episode number 149 of “How do you, Write?” I’m Rachel Herron. So thrilled that you’re here with me as I record, it is November 7th, which means its NaNoWriMo. Oh, we’ll talk about that. Uh, speaking of writing a lot of words today, my interview is with Adrienne Bell. She has been on the show before. She’s a friend of mine, and she’s so fabulous and so inspiring and believe it when I tell you that she is that inspiring in person.

So I am very grateful that Adrienne is on my team. She is doing something new for 2020 and you are invited to participate it. In it for free. I know I am. It’s going to help me write a lot of words, so definitely keep listening for that. As I stutter my way along, um, it is November. Let’s go back to that delicious fact.

Ooh, November, November, November. So it’s NaNoWriMo. I am writing a book. I am not editing or revising anything for anyone, which is what I’ve been doing so much off for the last few months. And as I talked to Jay about on the writers, well, my other podcast the other day, it just feels so good to be into the work.

I will tell you I’m behind. I am usually behind a NaNoWriMo. It is something that I am kind of proud of that. Then I normally, if I, if I win, if I’m actually trying to win and I win, I usually pull it off at the last moment. So, that’s definitely gonna happen this time too. But you’re welcome to buddy me over there. I’m Rachael Herron over there. I believe you can buy me and watch me, uh, continually be behind in my words, but it feels so good. I am just writing for fun today. This morning when I was doing my words, I was looking down and it was one of those moments again where I thought to myself, no one would believe how bad these are. My competitive spirit rises, and I think nobody can write this badly. There’s nobody. So I, I’m a little proud of how badly I’m writing. I have to remember every single time that this is my process, I write an obscenely ugly book. It is literally impossible to read, and later I fix it and that is my favorite part.

So that is where I get to shine. But instead of hating first drafts, I don’t do that anymore. I have chosen not to hate first drafts. I have chosen to love first drafts, and so far the first week of November, which is always the best week of NaNoWriMo, has gone wonderfully. Although I’m behind. Second and the third week are always a little bit iffy, you’re getting your muscles but your muscles are sore from writing so much and so little time. I know a lot of you listeners are doing NaNoWriMo. If you are, I would love it if you just tweeted me https://twitter.com/RachaelHerron or drop me an email to tell me how it’s going. Is it your first time? The first time nano? Ah, some beautiful magic, but I swear to you, Nano sparkle doesn’t go away. It just keeps sparkling. So that is what I’ve been doing and it’s fantastic. I love being back at my desk. I love being right here. I would like to say thanks on some new patreons over on https://www.patreon.com/rachael and I haven’t mentioned anybody.

This goes back more than months, so quite a list of names here to whom I am very, very, very grateful that you help keep me in the seat and keep doing this podcast. And even more importantly, keep writing those essays, which I love to write. The last one that came out was about a mattress. It was a story of a mattress and I’ve gotten really good response for it.

If you’d like to join, you can always go read all the essays over there, but thanks to Sam Rory, Kathleen Sullivan, Lisa A. Young, Judith A. Allison, Ivan H, it’s Shawnee Sen edited their pledge up. Thank you very much Shawnee. Jeff and Will, you know, Jeff and Will of the big gay fiction podcast and the big gay fiction writers podcast. I may have gotten the words wrong on the writers one, uh, but I’m soon to be on it, so I’m very pleased about that. They edited their pledge up also, and thank you boys. Let’s see, Lefty, darling Lefty Albay edited her pledge up and thank you to Corey Whitmore and Tammy L. Breitweiser. Hi Tammy!

Thank you. Thank you, all of you so much for helping to support me. Um, I will mention really briefly that the people who upped their pledge this month might’ve done it because I’m starting a new thing. I mentioned it last week, it’s going into effect next week, the mini podcast. I’m going to try to have a mini podcast every week or every other week where I answer people’s questions, who pledge at the $5 level and up.

Basically, I’m your mini coach. You can use me for as many questions as you want and I will answer them on the podcast. Yes. That means that everybody who listens gets the benefit of your questions. However, I will be answering you in particular and you can always ask me anything you want about the creative life, about writing, about depression, about anything that I like talking about, which is basically everything. You get to do that at the $5 level over at https://www.patreon.com/rachael. The reason I am doing that new level, and the reason I’d love you to support me at that level is that I stopped coaching and I’ve lost quite a bit of money from that. I really, really need to have that energy though to continue writing a lot of words in a couple of different projects that I’m working with. So I stopped the Patreon coaching, which pretty much cut my Patreon in half. So if you were moved to pop up to the $5 level, I’d love to be your mini coach and no matter what, you will get the podcasts and thank you to everyone supporting on patreon, it really means the world to me. 

So with no further ado, let us jump into the interview with Adrienne and her new project, which might be your new project, and which case will be in the same slack channel talking about that new project. So onward, happy Nano, happy November. Even if you’re not doing Nano, and I hope you get some fun writing done, I’ll talk to you soon.

Rachael Herron: [00:06:58] Well, I could not be more pleased today to welcome to the show, my friend Adrienne Bell. Hello Adrienne! 

Adrienne Bell: [00:07:05] Hello Rachael, how are you? 

Rachael Herron: [00:07:08] I’m so glad to see you. You’ve been on the show before. You are a friend of how do you write, and a very good friend of mine, so I’m thrilled to see you and you are doing something new and different that we’re going to be talking about because I think my listeners will be very interested in it. But first, let me remember to move the microphone closer to my mouth and give you an intro at the same time. So people all over the country are turning down their volume. Uh, Adrienne Bell is the author of over a dozen action packed romantic comedies. Her love of story structure led her to create plot MD, a system for creating compelling stories. She is also the cohost of the fabulous weekly podcast, the misfits guide to writing indie romance with Eliza Peak, which if you write romance, you should be listening to. Adrienne lives with her family on the far edge of the San Francisco Bay area where she spends her downtime reading, watching nerdy television and scrolling through Disneyland fan sites. Hello! 

Adrienne Bell: [00:08:06] Hello friend!

Rachael Herron: [00:08:08] You do so much plus you have two kids and all of this, and now you’re taking on this new creative endeavor. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:08:15] Yes! 

Rachael Herron: [00:08:16] Recently we were in, um, we were getting a burger together and you mentioned this idea and I, and the friends around us basically freaked the hell out. And will you please tell us about what you’re doing in 2020? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:08:31] Sure. So, uh, what I personally am doing in 2020 is, it is my year to write half a million words. 

Rachael Herron: [00:08:39] Damn. Can you tell us where that comes from? Where does this motivation come from?

Adrienne Bell: [00:08:44] Yeah. Okay, so this came from the fact that, my 2019 has not been a good year for me writing wise.

Rachael Herron: [00:08:54] And you are very prolific. So this is a little bit anomalous.

Adrienne Bell: [00:08:57] Yeah. It’s, uh, I’ve never been as prolific as I’ve wanted to be. Um, which, you know, will go into a little bit later. That’s part of the problem. Um, and I really just had a very bad writing year. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to get done. Um, I stalled out in the middle of projects. I had a hard time getting things going and off the ground.

It seemed like I had a lot of energy, but that energy didn’t know where it wanted to go or end up where it was going to land. So, I’ve always been a big fan of halves. I don’t know why. I just, whole things scare me, but halves don’t. So I thought I can’t write a million words because I know that there are authors, the two that I’m going to write a million words this year, um, that was not doable to me. And in my mind, I knew that I could not achieve that. So I thought I will do a half a million words. And then I thought, there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this on my own. Right? I will do that thing that I did this year where I get going and I start, and then I sputter out. So I started thinking about how I wanted to do it and what I wanted to do with it. And one of the first things that came up, is that, the way things are sort of geared right now. When you start writing projects, there’s a lot of stuff out there for do it now, do it faster, get it done, have it out, and that wasn’t working with me. That was one of the things that just wasn’t working.

I could not – I could not sustain that for a long period of time. I could get about a week, maybe a week and a half in there of doing, you know, 4,000 words a day. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:10:55] And then it was just empty. Everything inside me was just empty and I would spend a week taking a week off. 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:03] Yeah. For me, I feel like when I do that kind of prolonged, crazy, headlong rush, this gate goes up on my brain and it says, no, the ideas are closed.

Adrienne Bell: [00:11:14] Yes!

Rachael Herron: [00:11:15] You must go rest or get a migraine. Like you. You ha- we’re not giving you any more ideas. You don’t have any. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:11:21] Yes, exactly. And I think we’re really geared right now as sort of a culture to get things done now. Get it faster. And if you’re not busy, then you’re somehow losing out 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:35] Yes

Adrienne Bell: [00:11:36] And you’re not doing it right. And you’re going to fall behind and you’re not winning, you know? So that led me to think in that way and trying to find resources for that sort of thinking. I was having a hard time finding them in the writing world, so I decided if I can’t find it, I might as well make it. Because I can’t be the only one. Right? 

Rachael Herron: [00:11:59] You are obviously not the only one. Yeah.

Adrienne Bell: [00:12:02] So I got this idea about, you know, the tortoise and the hare. Everything right now is very hare focused. It’s go, go, go till you crash. 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:12] If you don’t write a book every month, then you are, you might as well quit? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:12:16] Exactly. Yeah. 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:17] Yeah. That is the hare, that is a really skinny, stressed out, cracked out hare.

Adrienne Bell: [00:12:22] Exactly. So I decided that’s not what I want to focus on in 2020, I want to focus on taking that hare mindset that’s, you know, sort of been put on me and changing it into a tortoise mindset, which is incremental change that builds over a long period of time. So putting that with the 50, you know, the, I’m sorry, the half a million words. I’m stuck in Nano, I’m like 50,000 words 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:52] And to be – and to be honest, what you’re talking about is 10 Nanos over the course of a year. So that’s still sounds like a lot to me. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:13:00] Well, the thing is, that’s what I’m doing. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:03] Right, right, right. Explain, explain more about this. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:13:07] So that’s where the seed came from. But when I was talking to you and our friend Shannon, and our friend Sophie about it, we started to think about other ways to put that, because there’s a lot of people out there that don’t want to write half a million words, and that’s totally fine. And so we came up with the concept of you know, it’s your year to write hella words.

Rachael Herron: [00:13:36] A lot of that! Hella is a word from the Bay from where we live. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:13:43] It is. And it’s incredibly malleable. You can use it to describe so many things. My hella is not your hella. Hella is usually upbeat. It’s usually very positive. It’s something that’s happening. It’s got a lot of energy in it, but it’s very malleable. You can use hella to mean whatever you want it to mean, and I can use it to mean whatever I want it to mean, because my situation as a professional writer, someone who, this is my day job, my days are going to look very different than someone who has to go work a nine to five and then come home.

Rachael Herron: [00:14:20] Yes

Adrienne Bell: [00:14:21] Or someone who works in retail and has odd hours and then has to come home and write

Rachael Herron: [00:14:25] um, Oh, sorry. I have students that have nine to fives and they’ve never written before, and to them, hella words in a year would be 25,000 and that would be amazing. Right?

Adrienne Bell: [00:14:35] Exactly. And it’s wonderful. So it’s taking the time that you have, making it a very realistic plan of what it is. What can you write? Can you write 500 words Monday through Friday and then a thousand words every weekend? If you do that, you come out with over 200,000 words in a year. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:58] Wow. More than two bucks. More than three bucks. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:15:03] That is hella words. And so it’s this idea that it doesn’t have to be right the second right now, take all of your insides and pour them out. And if you’re not doing that, then you’re losing it. It’s taking this tortoise-like steps. It’s about showing up every day. It’s about learning to trust yourself. It’s about learning to be patient with yourself. It’s about learning to believe in yourself and your own value and your own worth, and that sort of what it’s morphed into. It’s become so much bigger than just this idea of half a million words, but that – through taking these little incremental steps, things build and they build, and then all of a sudden, what you have a few months in, or a few hundred thousand words, and you know, after that, at the end of the year, you can have, you can have half a million words. You can have 250,000 words. You can have 100,000 words. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:01] What is this going to? What is your math look like for this, for you personally, Adrienne Bell, what are you going to write every day? Um, what is your word goal for this? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:16:11] I am going to write every day, but only for one year. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:16] Alright. That sounds crazy. Number one, only for one year. I’m going to write every day that, uh, and the reason, the reason I react like this and you know this, is that I am incredibly diligent when I’m writing a first draft, but when I’m just kind of screwing around, trying things, I can go for days or weeks, and I’m not proud to say this, but I’m a full time writer and I won’t write first draft. I just, it nothing will come out of me. So the, the idea of writing every day is something I am so attracted, attracted to and I’ve never been able to pull it off. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:16:49] Yes. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:49] So tell me how you are going to approach that and this, does this start January 1st? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:16:54] It does start January 1st but honestly, I started in October with practicing and I’m treating NaNoWriMo sort of as a bootcamp.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:04] I love that. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:17:06] Because the NaNoWriMo daily goal is larger than my daily goal will be for my hella words project. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:14] What is your daily goal over that year? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:17:16] 1370 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:17] That sounds completely doable to me. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:17:19] Exactly 1370 a day. That’s all I have to do, so I’m not thinking of it as, you know, I will do 1370 every day for a year.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:30] Okay. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:17:31] It’s that I have to wake up on January 1st and do 1370. Then once I go to bed that night, I have to wake up on January 2nd and I have to do 1370. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:39] It’s just, it’s like one day at a time 

Adrienne Bell: [00:17:42] It is. Just like one day at a time.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:44] I have never quit drinking. I have only quit drinking for today. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:17:48] Exactly.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:49] Because if I thought about doing it for the next year, I would stab myself in the eye. Yeah.

Adrienne Bell: [00:17:52] And that’s what happens to me on these big, get-it-done-all-at-once projects, it becomes too big. So I’m not looking at that. I’m looking at smaller chunks and just saying, I just have to do this much today. So, um, we’ve – there’s actually a slack channel that’s involved in this, and it’s come up a couple of times in the conversation, which is nice, which is, you know, you sort of have to know what kind of writer you are and you can use this prep time to figure it out. Because I’m very focused on just naturally on first drafts. I write sort of clean first drafts, but they take me a long time to write. 1370 will take me about three to three and half hours a day to write. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:37] Okay. See, and I can do that in like 45 minutes. And it’s the ugliest-

Adrienne Bell: [00:18:42] Yeah

Rachael Herron: [00:18:43] Like there’s no sentence in there. There’s barely any periods. It’s just, you know, it takes a long time to, to fix later. So that’s really interesting. Everybody is going to vary.  

Adrienne Bell: [00:18:53] Exactly. So what is, what words are you going for? Are you going for clean words by the end of the year, or are you going for first draft words? Um, so for me, it’s, my words come at start out cleaner, but they take a long time. So my plan is to do my 1370 in the mornings and then do revisions on another project for a few hours at in the afternoon. And then there will be some time put aside for the marketing of my career. But then I also plan to be done by six o’clock and that is a big deal for me because I have not been able to strike that balance.

And so far in practicing, I’ve been able to do it. So I’ve been able to craft, which I haven’t been able to do for a long time. I’ve been able to read, you know, it’s little things like that, but that’s really what I wanted to get out of this with some sense of balance and I couldn’t get that with the frantic, do everything now, be everything to everyone. So switching to that turtle mindset that tortoise mindset has really helped. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:58] Oh, this is so attractive to me. My problem when I’m writing on a really regular basis, like, you know, 1500 words a day or a thousand words a day or whatever, and keeping it going is that, every once in a while I have to stop and replot because my plot has gone completely off the rails.

You know, I started in New York and now I’m in Baja and I don’t know how I got there. Um, talk to me about your- your process for working on that because you are doing a little bit of pre-gaming on that too, right? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:20:30] I am. That’s why I’m starting now. I will be, I’m planning on writing a outline for everything is that I’m going to write in 2020 and I’m planning to have all of those outlines done by January 1^st.

Rachael Herron: [00:20:45] Oh, that must feel really good.

Adrienne Bell: [00:20:50] I did see plans.

So, okay. I’m going to try to make that happen, and that means that when I wake up in the morning, I will know what I’m going to write that day. Huge. But it’s only 50 50 because just like you, I get there and it, it doesn’t quite work, but at least then I have a roadmap and hopefully that’ll help. But you know, I’m sure so many things are gonna go wrong and not to plan during this year, which is why I’m keeping a blog about it. And we’ll see what happens and what pitfalls happen along the way. And hopefully, you know, I believe in honesty in this sort of stuff because we’re all in this together and sugarcoating it does no one any good.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:36] So will you allow yourself in your roles to right words in advance or to catch up on words if you miss them, or do you just. Like, pick up clean and say, all right, 1300 more words today, or…

Adrienne Bell: [00:21:51] No, for me it’s going to be 1370 every day. Um, and I, it’s fine. If anybody else how anyone else structures their year is, is fine. What I really want people is to be strategic and to think about their own needs instead of someone else’s needs.

That’s- It’s weird, but that really what makes me happy when people, um, really figure out what they need for themselves and start to put down their flag for that. For me, it’s about learning to show up.

Um, a lot. I think I’ve missed out on a lot of things in life because I haven’t shown up for them. And to me, this is about showing up every day. So one of the things that I’m going to do is on January 1st I’m putting a pushpin in my wall. And a paper clip and every single day when I finished my 1370 I will put another paper clip on the chain and my entire job for all of 2020 my only job is to never break that chain. That’s my one job.

Rachael Herron: [00:23:00] That makes me kind of want to cry, like that’s so beautiful. It really, it really does. And I’m very moved by you saying this about showing up because I have, I’m really good at not showing up. I’m, yeah, I’m excellent at it. I love to take weekends off. Um, that is one of the things that I’ve always put a flag in as a full time writer, I take weekends off. However,

Adrienne Bell: [00:23:20] Yeah, and that’s fine.

Rachael Herron: [00:23:21] It’s fine, and I believe that. I love that. However, it makes me very capable on a random Tuesday when there’s just a lot of stuff coming into my email to say, Oh, this is another day I don’t write. And the next Thursday, Oh, this is another day I don’t write. And I’m very attracted and scared of, but still attracted by this idea of copying you and not, not necessarily in terms of words

Adrienne Bell: [00:23:44] Yeah, no.

Rachael Herron: [00:23:44] I haven’t done my math or something like that, but to try to write every day, even if my goal was to write a certain number of words five days a week. But to also write some words on the weekend, even if it’s just 50 words, because I really feel like not showing up to something that hurts me in my regular life and not nobody else. I’m always speaking about me. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:24:05] And that’s a hard thing for, let’s face it, women and especially women in the arts to do. Because when we say we don’t show up, what we’re saying is we don’t show up for ourselves. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:15] Yes

Adrienne Bell: [00:24:16] We show up for everybody else. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:17] Absolutely. I always show up for everybody else. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:24:19] Exactly. I will show up for everyone else and that’s where my writing time was going. Um. Of course there are things in my life that I, I will always show up for other people. I have a family. I have children. I will always show up for my family. I will always show up for my children. But one thing that I can do to teach my children their own words is to say when you want to create something, if you want to make something, you have to believe in it and you have to carve out the time believing in that you have to believe in yourself. And you have to show your kids that you can do that. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:57] Yeah

Adrienne Bell: [00:25:59] You know? And that there are things that are important and that what’s inside of them is important. And the only way you can do that is by showing them that what’s inside of you personally as a parent is important.

Rachael Herron: [00:25:08] That’s gorgeous. And I, I don’t have kids, so I don’t have that, but I just kind of extrapolated it to a much less, um, romantic or poetic idea that if somebody, you know, like an old boss of mine, if it was in my job description to write 1300 words a day, I wouldn’t even think about it. It would just, it would happen every single day without fail, and I would not resent it. I have not dread it. I just, that’s just part of my day. I brush my teeth because it’s required in society and in my mouth. It doesn’t, I don’t resent it. So I might just kind of trying to change my thinking around this. Oh, this is why I wanted to talk to you about it. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:25:49] They’re big ideas and- but there, they’re not sexy. Like you can’t, it’s, it’s hard to be like, you know

Rachael Herron: [00:25:54] I find them sexy, 

Adrienne Bell: [00:25:56] incremental, and sustainable growth. When do we want it? Over a period of months and years! You know, it’s- 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:04] I would be in that rally.

Adrienne Bell: [00:26:06] It’s hard to rally around, but I think in the long term it’s sustainable. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:11] So talk to me about the Slack channel because I only just joined, so I haven’t actually had too much time to poke around in there. Is that going to be, and so I, first of all. Um, people know from listening to my podcast, but I’m a huge fan of Slack channels. It’s kind of taking over the space where Facebook groups used to be, and I just hate Facebook as a concept and I don’t go there enough even if I, yeah, I have a Facebook group over there and I’m completely abandoned them for the sake of the Slack channel.

Um, so what have you found with the Slack channel? What do you like about it? What’s, what’s working? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:26:42] What’s nice is we have a, uh, a fun group of people that are over there now. So what you do is you go to the website, which is right, hellawords.com, and there’s, there’s a button there that says join Slack channel. And, all you have to do is tell me a little bit about yourself, not, not crazy, just enough so that, we make sure that the channel stays for writers. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:08] Not spambots.

Adrienne Bell: [00:27:09] Yeah, exactly. Um, and then once you’re in the Slack channel, it’s a lot of people that are talking about, what they’re writing today, what their word camp goals are, how they’re prepping. Um, there are different channels on their different threads for if you need encouragement, if you want to celebrate your successes. Different ones for plotters and for pancers. The only rules that I have are very simple there; Don’t be a jerk. Um, 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:42] I love that rule box that you had in there. And, and tell us what you compared yourself to.

Adrienne Bell: [00:27:47] Oh, uh, yeah. I’m the yard duty of this playground, so I don’t want to have to blow my whistle. So just don’t make me blow my whistle. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:58] I do not F with the yard duty woman. No, I never did. I never will. If she tells me what to do, I will do it. And I love that. But what you’re doing in that too is you’re presenting a safe space. People know the rules; they know that you’re going to protect them if anything pops up. But honestly, in all of my writing groups, knock wood, have never had a problem with jerks in there. And I predicted that you will not either, but, but you have those rules in place.

Adrienne Bell: [00:28:21] Exactly. Just don’t, just don’t be a jerk. And if you can be not a jerk, then you’re welcome to play on our playground and figure out if this is for you and how you know to make best and productive use of your 2020 

Rachael Herron: [00:28:38] Do you think that people will come in and use the Slack channel? Every day is like an accountability thing. Like I did my words. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:28:44] Some people have. Some people have, and some people have only poked their heads in a few times. It’s exactly what’s nice is it’s an ever changing thing, so it can be whatever you want it to be. Um, and people are using it to their needs and they’re adapting it just like they’re adapting their word counts. And so that’s the part that I’ve really enjoyed about it, is that people are going there and they’re not afraid to say, this is what I need from this. Um, and then those that can give it are giving it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:15] And it’s just starting, like, we are recording this in November. Uh, if listener, so say, say this, if listeners want to practice during Nano, but they didn’t even sign up for Nano, they can still jump on board, right? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:29:27] Of course, you can jump on and onboard and anytime. Let’s say you find this video and it is March of 2020 and you’re a brand new onto this idea and you’re like, Hey, did I miss the terrain? No, you’re fine. Jump on board at any time. Um, these are just random goalposts. You are the one that’s in charge. You can make it start and stop whenever you want to get off. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:52] What I really love about this is the whole idea of us showing up for ourselves. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:30:04] Yeah. 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:05] That’s just seeing it like that is so inspiring to me. You know? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:30:06] Yeah. And a little scary. I will admit, I’m still practicing saying that to myself. I’m like, I am doing these words, not because I have to, but because I want to because this is who I am, and that’s really hard to say. Even after what, 10 years of- of writing. Yeah. It’s very difficult. 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:27] That is fascinating. Okay. So, um, I am on board to write hella words. Uh, let’s tell people again where we can go, write hellawords.com is where it all kicks off, right? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:30:36] Exactly. And into write hellawords.com, and you can read more about it and you can join the Slack channel thing here. 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:42] And is that where the blog is also? 

Adrienne Bell: [00:30:44] That is where the blog is and where all updates will happen. 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:49] Can I make a suggestion already?

Adrienne Bell: [00:30:51] Of course you can.

Rachael Herron: [00:30:52] ‘Cause I will, I will never remember to go to a blog ever, ever, ever. But I go, I look at Slack every day, all day, basically. And maybe you could do a blog channel and double post them over on the site to grab people and also in Slack so we can read them in there. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:31:06] Oh yeah, 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:08] I know right, Rachael did not ask for your advice 

Adrienne Bell: [00:31:13] We will be giving notifications in there, but I haven’t been

Rachael Herron: [00:31:15] Oh, notifications work too. Notifications work too so I can always click over, because what I really want to do is to follow your process as well and follow what’s in your head, and I knew we’re friends, we’re going to hang out and you’re going to tell me about it, but I also just kind of want to see how you’re doing this. I find you always so inspiring and in this really, really, really inspiring. And I appreciate it because I feel like this is something that I have really needed for myself. And you’re providing a container for that. 

Adrienne Bell: [00:31:43] Thank you so much for giving me the space to tell other people about it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:46] Yes. So please, listeners, come on over introduce yourselves, and um, let’s play. Let’s do this. Let’s make 2020. Very surprisingly awesome.

Adrienne Bell: [00:31:56]. Yes, exactly.

Rachael Herron: [00:31:57] Thanks Adrianne. Thank you so much. We will be talking soon. Bye! 

Adrienne Bell: [00:32:03] Bye!

Rachael Herron: [00:32:05] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you, Write?” You can reach me on Twitter https://twitter.com/RachaelHerronor at my website, 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 https://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 http://rachaelherron.com/write/. Now, go to your desk and create your own process. Get to writing my friends.