Ep. 213: Melissa Storm on Writing with OCD

Melissa Storm is a New York Times and multiple USA Today bestselling author of Women’s Fiction, Inspirational Romance, and Cozy Mysteries. Despite an intense, lifelong desire to tell stories for a living, Melissa was “too pragmatic” to choose English as a major in college. Instead, she obtained her master’s degree in Sociology & Survey Methodology—then went straight back to slinging words a year after graduation anyway. She loves books so much, in fact, that she married fellow author Falcon Storm. Between the two of them, there are always plenty of imaginative, awe-inspiring stories to share. Melissa and Falcon also run a number of book-related businesses together, including LitRing, Sweet Promise Press, Novel Publicity, and Your Author Engine. When she’s not reading, writing, or child-rearing, Melissa spends time relaxing at her home in the Michigan woods, where she is kept company by a seemingly unending quantity of dogs and two very demanding Maine Coon rescues. She also writes under the names of Molly Fitz and Mila Riggs.

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing. 

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

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 #213 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. Thrilled that you are here with me today because I’m talking to Melissa Storm. Melissa is a force of nature in the amount of things she does and the sheer number of books she writes plus, she runs these incredible writing surfaces for authors, which I have personally used and loved. So it was really, really fun to get to talk to her and, I know you’re going to get a lot from listening to her. She’s one of those people that I just kind of glommed onto as a side effect of being obsessed and infatuated with Becca Syme, you know how I am and, yeah, it was a great interview so please hang out for that. 

[00:01:05] What’s been going on around here? Well, gosh a lot, I guess. I won NaNoWriMo which was incredible. I don’t think I won last year. I don’t think I won the year before that, I normally participate in some form or fashion, but this year I was doing it a little bit differently and I know that I was talking through this as November went through, but, I wasn’t aiming for 1,667 words a day. There really wasn’t. I was aiming for whatever I got in an hour to an hour and a half of just sitting down and writing. And when I was writing the whole NaNoWriMo, all of those words were written on the Alpha Smart Neo2. And I know that some of you might be rolling your eyes and saying that is a ridiculous old, archaic machine that you can get for 50 bucks or 60 bucks on eBay. I realized what it is that, that little machine has unlocked for me. You can only see the four lines of text at any time that you’re writing, that’s the key. Not only can I do nothing else on it, it’s not connected to the internet, obviously, it is just a keyboard emulator, which then you can plug into any other computer and dump the words in but the fact that it keeps me from looking back at what I’ve just written, I did not know how much my brain is doing when I’m writing on the computer on the laptop. While I’m writing a sentence, my eyes naturally, and have always done this for as long as I can remember, I guess, that I’ve been on computers. My eyes are always going backwards to see what the paragraph set up there. Am I answering the question? Did I ask a question in dialogue? Do I need to answer it here? Am I doing that? What a, there’s a part of my brain that is processing 9, you know, 7 sentences ago. Is that the best way to say that? We need to go back and make that more clear on the Alpha Smart you can’t do that.

[00:03:05] You just have to keep pushing forward. And what that means is I have a lot of sentences in my draft that I have no idea if I’ve answered what was asked. I am not, I am not closing those tiny mini loops that we’re always opening when we’re writing books and it doesn’t matter. It’s going to be a crap-tastic first draft. Like, a lot of times when I’m writing a first draft of a book, I will allow myself to go back the next day and massage and make things a little bit better for the previous day’s work. Before I move ahead, I haven’t been doing that. I haven’t been writing as linearly as I normally do as I am always writing forward. I never go back and revise. But when I have an idea of something that should have happened 9 scenes ago, 12 chapters ago, I just write it real-quick on the Alpha Smart. And I put a little insert where this belongs, and then I go on back to what I was writing and it might be very hard to under, I remember what I was writing because I’m on the Alpha Smart. I can’t scroll back and look, I mean, I could scroll back, but it would take a long time. And that is not the point. That’s not why we do it. 

[00:04:17] So allowing my brain to kind of relax has made the experience, our first drafting field, very, very playful. In fact, I tried to, get some words done on the computer because Scrivener was open and I think I was on zoom, I was in RachaelSaysWrite and I thought, I’ll just write in the, in the document itself, how much different could it be from doing the Alpha smart? It was totally different. And that is when I realized for the first time that my eyes do this. I’d never known that they do that, but my eyes flick up and up and up. I write a sentence, but my eyes are still looking three sentences back and removing that from my first draft process has been extraordinary. So, even though I took two days off for Thanksgiving, which was followed then by a two-and-a-half-day migraine, probably from all of the crap that I ate was very, very fun. We just let ourselves have a free day in our home. And we ate everything that we wanted in my body. The next said, they said, screw you, we’re staying in bed for two days and I couldn’t sit up. 

[00:05:19] So then I’m four days behind, but because I’d been sitting down for an hour or an hour and a half every day to write on the Alpha Smart, I’d generally been doing between 2 and 3000 words a day, I had been pretty far ahead. So even losing, what is that? Even, even losing those four days, 7,000-ish words, I was still able to catch up and win on the last day, I had to do a couple of, I didn’t have to do a 4,000-word day and another 3,500-word day, but I caught up in one. It’s a completely arbitrary goal. It doesn’t matter, right. NaNoWriMo is a little bit silly, but it is a lot magical. And, I have continued to continue, I’ve continued to write on this book. It is now, this is only the third as I record this, but I have written every day since NaNo too, keeping this book moving forward. My goal is to finish this first crappy crap-tastic draft by the end of December. So I’m kind of continuing NaNo as, as we roll forward, continuing on the Alpha Smart and just playing, remembering, I’m trying to remember not to complicate my book too much and just go into the fun. As my friend, J Wells says, go where the juice is, follow that, and it’s been awesome. 

[00:06:36] And also, I can’t help but think over and over again, that I’m writing something that I can revise cause you know, I love to revise. Speaking of revising and writing, my 90 day classes just finished up at the end on December 1st, we had our last meeting for 90 days to done in 90-day revision and I’m just so bloody proud of all of the work that they did. People finish their books for the first time, they finished their, they learned how to revise in the revision class and they finished revisions and even went into like the next round of revisions because people, when you write a book and then revise it, you can’t just revise it once. It’s going to take several passes, shall we say, many passes through to make this into a product which you can then take to either an agent or an editor to help you move further. But they did such amazing work and I almost gave myself a migraine from emotions in that last class. So it seems like all of this stuff was happening so close together, and it’s been a very busy week and a very enjoyable one. I’m really kind of sinking down into the doing of things and it feels pretty great. It really, really does. I am grateful for it. Speaking of the doing of things, I’m kind of thinking about, I’m toying with the idea of starting a new podcast. I know I’m tran- channeling my darling J Thorn here, but I have been thinking about blogging. 

[00:08:11] I’m thinking, it has been all, it’s been 18 years since I started my blog. I started in 2002. Damn, that’s crazy. I mean, that is wild. I don’t mean to say crazy. Sorry about that. It’s wild that I started that 18 years ago and I regret that for the last three or four, five years, I really haven’t been blogging. Why? Because I’ve been writing my ass off. It might go back as far as 10 years. There’s generally, you know, 10 or so entries a year. I think in the last year there might’ve only been two or three entries. And when I go back into 2008 or 2010, 2012, I can see the progression of my life. I use it, I fact checked it, I fact check things using my blog. The vet needed to know how old our dog was and our cats. I can go back to the blog and say, well, this is when we got them. We got them on this date. And, I miss having those memories captured somewhere that aren’t just in a journal or, a private diary form that’s handwritten and impossible to search on a whim and also misspeaking those kind of personal private things onto a page and sharing them. It’s kind of like, really, really rapid fire memoir, right? Rapid fire creative non-fiction. So I’ve been wanting to get more into blogging, but who reads blogs anymore? We’re all audio now. I know I am ever since Google killed Google reader, RIP, I haven’t read blogs, but I do listen to podcasts. So I am thinking about combining the form and perhaps having a podcast that, two or three times a week. 

[00:09:54] There’s a little short five-minute vignette that is also posted as a blog on to Yeeoldy Bloggy at RachaelHerron.com/blog. I just put up the first one and I just recorded the first one. So maybe when I’m saying that I’m thinking about starting a new podcast, it’s possible that I am. I just can’t direct you to one yet because I haven’t put it together into a place where I can feed it out, but it’s going to be called ‘You’re Already Ready’ because this is kind of a reminder and an inspiration to myself that I’m already ready. I always have been ready. You are ready. We don’t have to wait to become ready to do the things that matter the most to us. And while my wife and I are getting ready to make this huge and terrifying move to New Zealand, I need this reminder that I’m ready. So I think I’m going to do this little audio diary thing, and if no one listens to it, it doesn’t matter. It really, really doesn’t, but I’ll have it and it will be on the blog. So I will let you know when that is live and where you can find it. And it will be more personal than if you’re gonna imagine, it’ll be more personal than this particular show where I do honestly, try to keep it mostly to writing, and things about writing, except when I can’t help, but veer into politics because, America. So I will keep you posted on that.

[00:11:15] I would also like very much, if you will forgive me, you’re going to hear some typing. Oh, it’s going to sound so real Patreon pledge because I have not thanked new patreon supporters in maybe more than a month, so there is a, oh, no, not since the beginning of October. So there’s a bumper crop of people that I need to thank for supporting me and allowing me to do my creative work. And I thank you, thank you so much. And here are the people I would like to thank, Amy Colibri, that’s such a pretty name. Lamar Dixon, thank you, Liza Laird and Julie Lee, hello, Julie! Erica Hughes, who’s a student of mine, thanks Erica. Jessica Green, Tamiko, thanks Tamiko. Karen Olagodo, a beautiful name.  Jackie Farren, hi Jackie! Mary Elena Carr, Krista Parkinson, who has also been part of Rachael Says Write, and that’s been really fun, Alan Tansley who is at the level at which he gets me as a mini coach and can ask me any questions and I answered a question for him and this last mini episode, Darren Blake, Jeff Elkins, hi Jeff! And Suzanne Burns, Kelly Gammon, Janelle Hardacre. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for all of your support. It really does mean the difference to me. It makes me, it allows me to sit in this chair and most importantly, it allows me to write those long essays, the long creative nonfiction essays of my heart that I love to do so much. So thank you. If you ever want to support me over there, you can go to patreon.com/Rachael, and I believe that’s all the news I have for you and all the, all the stuff I have to tell you. So let’s jump into this fantastic interview with Melissa Storm. I know you will enjoy it. I hope you are getting your own writing done. Email me anytime and tell me how it’s going Rachael, at RachaelHerron.com. I always love to know. So get some work done and have fun doing it, if possible. And we’ll talk soon. 

[00:13:25] Hey, is resistance keeping you from writing? Are you looking for an actual writing community in which you can make a calls and be held accountable for them? Join RachaelSaysWrite, like twice weekly, two hour writing session on zoom. You can bop in and out of the writing room as your schedule needs, but for just $39 a month, you can write up to 4 hours a week. With our wonderful little community, in which you’ll actually get to know your writing peers. We write from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM on Tuesdays and 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Thursdays and that’s US Pacific Standard Time. Go to RachaelHerron.com/Write to find out more.

Rachael Herron: [00:14:06] Okay, well I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show today, Melissa Storm. Hello Melissa!

Melissa Storm: [00:14:12] Hello.

Rachael Herron: [00:14:14] I am so excited because you and I have met through Becca Syme’s classes and we share a lot of strengths in common and, just, just knowing you around the block a little bit, I, I was like, I want to get to know her more. So, why waste time doing that offline, where everyone can get to know you. Let me give you a little, your bio here so people can know you if they don’t already. Melissa Storm is a New York Times and multiple USA Today bestselling author of Women’s Fiction, Inspirational Romance, and Cozy Mysteries. Despite an intense, lifelong desire to tell stories for a living, Melissa was “too pragmatic” to choose English as a major in college. Instead, she obtained her master’s degree in Sociology & Survey Methodology, I don’t even know what that is, maybe I can ask about that, and then went straight back to slinging words a year after graduation anyway. She loves books so much, in fact, that she married fellow author Falcon Storm. Between the two of them, there are always plenty of imaginative, awe-inspiring stories to share. Melissa and Falcon also run a number of book-related businesses together, including Lit Ring, Sweet Promise Press, Novel Publicity, and Your Author Engine, which I can recommend. When she’s not reading, writing, or child-rearing, Melissa spends time relaxing at her home in the Michigan woods, where she is kept company by a seemingly unending quantity of dogs and two very demanding Maine Coon rescues. She also writes under the names of Molly Fitz and Mila Riggs. Is it Mila or Myla? 

Melissa Storm: [00:15:42] Mila, the name for one of our dogs. I don’t know if you can hear in the background, but my Chihuahua was upset that I’m paying attention to you and not her, so she’s chicken scratching. 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:52] I can’t hear it at all, but I, I, we used to have a long haired Chihuahua, and I know that little sound. So how many kids do you have?

Melissa Storm: [00:16:02] One daughter, she just turned seven. Her name is Phoenix. My husband, I have, how do I do this, a matching Phoenix tattoo. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:08] Oh, beautiful. 

Melissa Storm: [00:16:10] For her. That was my way of overcoming my fear of needles is finally getting a tattoo and I almost threw up twice and I almost passed out multiple times. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:20] Did it work to help with the phobia?

Melissa Storm: [00:16:22] It did until I got chronic anemia and had to get regular transfusions cause I’m a really difficult draw. Now I’m terrified again, but I have the tattoo so I can say that I’m tough. So that’s, what’s important.

Rachael Herron: [00:16:37] And it’s, what an amazing tattoo it is also like the Phoenix is everything. Have you read, have you read, T- oh God, what’s his name? TJ McClune? McClure? 

Melissa Storm: [00:16:50] Yeah. The, the, 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:51] the house of the 

Melissa Storm: [00:16:52] House By the Cerulean Sea. So good. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:55] Gorgeous phoenix imagery in that book. I love that book. 

Melissa Storm: [00:16:58] Yeah. Yeah, I love that book too. 

Rachael Herron: [00:17:00] He’s so good. He’s so good. Okay, but we’re speaking of you and how great you are. Will you tell us a little bit about your writing process? Because this is, I am obsessed with process and I’m always looking for the magic bullet, even though I know it doesn’t exist. And you are prolific as well as running all these other businesses and having 47 dogs and cats and the kids.

Melissa Storm: [00:17:21] It’s currently just seven dogs.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:24] Just seven dogs. 

Melissa Storm: [00:17:25] That’s why we updated my bio to just say seemingly unending, because we got, my assistant’s like, I’m not going to change it again, as you keep adopting animals, I’m not changing this bio, kid.

Rachael Herron: [00:17:35] I, you know, what I hate is reducing the number. Like we’ve lost a dog this year. And one of our dogs is really sick and I’m like, I refuse to put a number down because I won’t take the number down and they’ll find, they’ll find us, they’ll come to us. So how do you get it done? 

Melissa Storm: [00:17:50] Well, sometimes it’s a struggle, so I always go based on how I feel that day, like my emotional and creative energy. Because I do a lot of business stuff and that’s easier with, if I’m feeling down, I have obsessive compulsive disorder, so I really have to pay attention to the anxiety levels. So this past week and a half, there wasn’t writing. There’s just like, well, if I force it, it’s going to be awful and it’s going to hurt me and I just know. So today I’m writing again, my happy, my happy story about OCD and cancer, but I’ve worked through it. Sometimes books are really difficult like that. I will switch to dictation, but I hate dragging because apparently I have a thick Minnesota accent, even though I’ve never been there for Michigan and we’re moving to Nova Scotia, this coming summer, but apparently I have a Minnesota accent. So it always makes so many mistakes that drives me bonkers. So I have it transcribed when I dictate. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:54] Yeah. Do you do one of those services or do you have a person who does it? Like an electronic service or

Melissa Storm: [00:18:59] No, I have one of my assistants do it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:01] Oh, rad. 

Melissa Storm: [00:19:03] Yeah, got a staff. I’m very posh. But so that’s just like, that’s when things are really bad, I’ll go, I’ll do that. If I have to either emotionally distance myself, so I feel like I’m an actor delivering a monologue rather than typing out my feelings or if I’m just having like a lot of, when I was really battling with my chronic anemia and I didn’t have the energy, sometimes that would be easier cause I could lay in bed and do it. Normally I prefer typing it out. I do what I call a scaffolding method, which is kind of, I write just whatever pops into my head immediately and then the second draft, I add transitions and description and flesh it out more and I tend to do that overlapping. So right now I’m writing a 50 chapter book for my next trad contract. And, I have a note, like once I get 12 chapters done, then I need to go back and do the second draft and make sure I have the right amount of words because I like my chapters to all be kind of the same length too. It’s another OCD tick. 

Melissa Storm: [00:20:07] But it helps me plan. I write in Ulysses, unless I’m doing a co-author project, I’ll write in word, Ulysses is a Mac.

Rachael Herron: [00:20:14] What is Ulysses?

Melissa Storm: [00:20:15] It’s a Mac app. That’s kind of like Scrivener, but it’s a lot better. I switched from Scrivener to Ulysses. And, 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:25] What do you like about it? 

Melissa Storm: [00:20:27] can I share my screen and show you? Like, is that possible? 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:30] No, because the, some people will watch on YouTube, but the vast majority listen on, on podcasts. So can you describe what’s better?

Melissa Storm: [00:20:40] Yes, I think. So, Ulysses, I have different folders with multiple projects and cute little icons. So I have each pen name has its own folder with different projects and I can set the overall goal, as well as the goal for each chapter, which I love, because like I said, I like them to be the same length. I also have a section for notes, like if I’m reading a book and I want to copy something over that I like, or blog posts, I want to read later, or add copy, I can keep that all there and it automatically syncs. So, if I want to switch to my iPad pro with my little keyboard thing, or I can, I don’t have to do any, like moving files around, it’s just ready.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:25] And there’s none of that Scrivener problem where that sometimes overwrites the wrong thing, which is what I’m terrified of. 

Melissa Storm: [00:21:32] Yeah. 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:34] Really. I’m going to have to look into this. 

Melissa Storm: [00:21:35] Scrivener always like made me feel bad when I missed my deadline, which is most of the time I’ll miss it by a few days. Scrivener was like really mad at you and you have to write 30,000 words today and Ulysses doesn’t do that to me, which I appreciate.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:50] Oh, that’s wonderful. 

Melissa Storm: [00:21:53] And they have little circles. So each chapter, like by say, it’s going to be 1500 words and I’ve written a thousand words. It will show a circle, two thirds done, and then it will turn green when I hit my goal. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:04] That sounds beautiful. I’m going to try it. 

Melissa Storm: [00:22:06] I love it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:08] Because one of the things about Scrivener I’ve used it for so long, but, but it’s just not user-friendly even for the long-time user. There are things that I can never really figure out how to do what, like, you know, exporting a document without weird glitches showing up. So, 

Melissa Storm: [00:22:24] Yeah, the exporting was a lot easier. And what else do I like about, I like that I don’t have to have all these files backed up because Scrivener always bothered me about that I needed multiple files and it would be like, location does not exist, but it’s saving. Why are you saying it doesn’t exist? But Ulysses, it’s just all in Ulysses. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:42] So multiple projects, multiple pen names, all, all within Ulysses.

Melissa Storm: [00:22:45] Yeah. My research, notes from classes I’m taking, books, I’m reading, like just everything. So I can do it on my iPad, my phone or my Mac book since I have all Apple products and it just automatically synchronizes. So when I dictate, I also like to do use, I think it’s called memo, whatever the default voice recording app is for record or whatever it is, on this thing, and then I like to have that sync across devices, so it’s easier to then email it out. So, 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:22] Okay, that is so cool. On a day where you have all the spoons kinda, it’s a, it’s a day where you can focus and sink into writing, what is your, what are you usually trying to do? Do you have a word count goal or a time goal? 

Melissa Storm: [00:23:35] I, I tend to look at it more at sessions. Like I like to do top of the hour, like, okay, it’s noon. So I have to right now, and I can stop when I’ve finished the chapter is usually what it is. So I write thousand words and then I get the rest of that hour to work on other stuff. So, that, like when I’m in peak productivity, I’ll do that, at the top of every hour, from 10 to 4. Also, I have a writing discord as part of the patreon I have with Alana Terry called the Writing Cave, and we do a power hour, at 2:00 PM, every weekday, a bunch of us will gather to write at the same time so we really enjoy doing that. And there’s a bot on this server, so you can say here’s my goal for today, here’s how much I just wrote and it will keep, keep you going and your friends can encourage you. And that helps a lot because I am not a consistent person, when it comes to writing every day, but I can do 12,000 word days. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:34] Holy crap. 

Melissa Storm: [00:24:36] I have high focus. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:39] Yes, apparently you do. I have low focus. 

Melissa Storm: [00:24:41] Yeah. 

Rachael Herron: [00:24:42] Wow. 

Melissa Storm: [00:24:43] I have low consistency, so like for the longest time during the pandemic, I was like, I’m just gonna write a thousand words a day, that’s all I need. It’s so easy. I could not do it. For months I didn’t write, but once I switched to discord, where I could alternate my goals. I’d wake up and say, how do I feel today? How do I emotionally feel? What’s my energy like? What’s my schedule like? Okay, this is a 3000 word day. Okay. This is a six and I can count my environment, as well as the place I’m at in the project, because I know that the ins are going to come faster for me. So I can write more words if I’m finishing a project than if I’m in the middle of it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:21] That is really, really knowing yourself. Do you know off the top of your head, how many books you’ve written?

Melissa Storm: [00:25:28] I have no idea. 

Rachael Herron: [00:25:30] Is it more than, more than or less than is it like, cause you must be like, you must be more than like 50. 

Melissa Storm: [00:25:42] It’s really tough because you know there’s a thousand words and some people write, you know, 80,000 word books. Some of my books are that long. And then there’s like box sets and then there’s things that have been retitled. So if I have to think, I know under my cozy name for individual books, stories, I have 15 there. And then for Melissa Storm, I have, I don’t know, at least 20. And then I have a bunch of kids’ books that are unpublished now, 12 of those. Then I have my co-author stuff I have four, 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:28] That’s a hell of a lot that you get done with this particular process and I love seeing that. I love hearing from people that don’t say, well, I show up at the desk and I do 1500 words every day, every single day, because that’s just not reasonable for so many of us.

Melissa Storm: [00:26:41] I’m a huge advocate for just mental health and knowing yourself and that’s why we met Becca Syme because I do coaching with her every week and it has been so tremendously helpful and I tend to be a paranoid person about like, you know, I have OCD, so it’s hard for me to trust somebody, because I can see the flaws, somebody who’s supposed to be like a counselor. So I get therapy with Becca. I’m like, I know that’s not what you are, but you’re my therapist. And I feel comfortable with that because I trust you. And that’s so hard for me to find. 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:14] What’s the most important thing that you have learned from Becca?

Melissa Storm: [00:27:20] I, I think the most important thing is really understanding my husband’s strengths because, 

Rachael Herron: [00:27:25] Oh, interesting

Melissa Storm: [00:27:26] He’s a writer too. When we met, he was an aspiring writer and I was already kind of crushing it, not to the level of today, but doing really well in 2012. And, he hasn’t finished a full novel ever in all our time together, but he’s going to finish one like tomorrow. He’s almost at the end. He had wrote a novella really fast and he’s just like, talking with Becca unlocked his productivity, because as a number one achiever, I’m just like, I’m going to make you this list and I’m going to, I’m going to pull, here’s your schedule. He doesn’t like that for some reason. But when, when Becca came in and helped him understand his strengths and helped me understand his strengths, I can be a much better supportive partner now.

Rachael Herron: [00:28:13] Yes. 

Melissa Storm: [00:28:15] And then like, she’s helped me a lot with the emotional side, because I, because I do have high anxiety, so I really have to be in tune with that to be productive. So finding her help me break through the six month pandemic lock, she helped me, me and Falcon determined that we’re ready to rod, and she really helps with these decisions and explains them in a way that makes sense to me, that I feel good about. So, I mean, so many things. I need a whole hour of my love of Becca Syme. I love aside,  

Rachael Herron: [00:28:44] That is amazing. Yeah, I am. I have drunk the Kool-Aid and I am there and, and for me, she’s really unlocked the, the input of intellection pair cause my number one and number two and my achiever and activator pair. 

Melissa Storm: [00:29:01] That’s the best one. 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:03] Oh my God. I love it. I love it. It doesn’t matter the discipline is like number 74 on a list of you know, 34 but, because I still get stuff done because of that achiever activator.

Melissa Storm: [00:29:13] I am a number one achiever, number three activator, which is power pair then a number two learner, number four input, which is another power pair. And pretty much everything I have is dialed into that achiever, like focused maximizer, strategic, it all feeds that. And I told Becca that I only have eight top strengths. I’ve decided not to own its intellection. So I said, we’ll just cut it off there. And she’s like, that’s so cute that you think you can do that.

Rachael Herron: [00:29:42] You can do that, exactly. No, unfortunately you do have to think hard about things, but like everything else moves so fast and like understanding, especially activator and significance has helped me so, so much. That is amazing. So if anybody is listening and don’t be,

Melissa Storm: [00:29:57] I think we might be frozen.

Rachael Herron: [00:29:58] I, I can hear you so your voice is still coming through. Hopefully that’ll be coming, but, for those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about, go back and listen to the interview that I did with Becca Syme, probably a month or two ago, so, oh, you’re back now.

Melissa Storm: [00:30:13] You’re back too.

Rachael Herron: [00:30:14] Yay. Perfect. I was just telling people while you were frozen that, they can go back and listen to the interview with Becca Syme, which was super, super fun to do as I basically like prostrated myself in front of her and just said, take my life. Okay. So can you share a craft tip of any sort with us?

Melissa Storm: [00:30:33] My tip, which I’ve already said is I really liked my chapters to be the same length because it keeps a very smooth flowing story where something’s always happening. And at first I know my traditional editor thought it was a weird, but then she’s like, you’re right, this works. I’m like it doesn’t have to be the exact same word count. But if like, let’s say it has to be between 1,200 and 1350, I usually have a range like that. 

Rachael Herron: [00:30:59] That’s nice and tight and snappy. And do you call a scene than a chapter? In my books they’re the same. They’re interchangeable for me. 

Melissa Storm: [00:31:08] Yeah, unless I’m doing dual point of view romance, but usually I do, single point of view. 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:14] Yeah. 

Melissa Storm: [00:31:15] The women’s fiction or cozy, and depending on the book that will affect the chapter length, but I really like, like between a thousand and a fifteen hundred is my sweet spot kind of, regardless of genre

Rachael Herron: [00:31:25] That’s my, that’s my sweet spot in terms of writing and reading, like, but, but for me, I usually write 2,000 to 2,500 words for a scene. And then I’ve got to like cut it back because there’s just so much, you know, blabbering going on. Are you a plotter? 

Melissa Storm: [00:31:41] like intellection 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:42] What’s that?

Melissa Storm: [00:31:44] That’s why I don’t like intellection. 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:45] I know. It is intellection. It is all intellection’s fault, all of it. Are you a plotter or a planner? 

Melissa Storm: [00:31:52] I use to, 

Rachael Herron: [00:31:53] I mean a plotter or a pantser, it’s the same thing.

Melissa Storm: [00:31:55] It’s like, I know what you are. I used to plot things out like near cards and such, but actually that’s another thing that I learned from Becca is that I’m going to be happier and go harder if I’m not plotting it out. So now it’s kind of a compromise where I’ll have a sentence per chapter for the next five chapters. And then I, today, my character’s father had a heart attack. I didn’t know that was going to happen, but it’s a pretty significant plot point in the book now. So, gotta go with it. 

Rachael Herron: [00:32:27] That’s kind of exactly the way I write. I love that way. And Becca really upset me by saying that I needed to let go of trying to, because I always wanted to plan everything and she was like, you’re not, you’re not going to be able to your, your strategic is plotting for you. Go with your intuition. 

Melissa Storm: [00:32:40] Exactly. And my husband’s a number one input, number two strategic and then he has adaptability somewhere up there. 

Rachael Herron: [00:32:46] Wow.

Melissa Storm: [00:32:48] And like you do the, cause he does big outlines. Like he would do 10,000 plus word outlines and she’s like, you feel like you’ve already written the story, so you’re done. She’s like, don’t do that. And that’s, that’s everything. Plus me unders- that I can achieve for all over him that it helps nothing. 

Rachael Herron: [00:33:05] I have, I have number, I think it’s number three or four achiever and my wife’s achiever is like, 32. And it has helped our relationship so much to understand that as soon as I put something for her to achieve, she will, you know, kick it out to the curb. It,

Melissa Storm: [00:33:21] Yeah.

Rachael Herron: [00:33:22] It doesn’t.

Rachael Herron: [00:33:23] Yeah. That’s, in terms of relationship, amazing. What thing in your life affects your writing in a surprising way? 

Melissa Storm: [00:33:32] Well were to talk to about my anxiety. 

Rachael Herron: [00:33:34] Yeah. How else does the OCD play? I was actually just curious about this. How else does OCD show up for you and your writing either helpfully or unhelpfully?

Melissa Storm: [00:33:49] Well, it’s really interesting because I’m writing my own voices, OCD story right now.

Rachael Herron: [00:33:53] Oh, fabulous.

Melissa Storm: [00:33:54] Diving really deep into it, and I actually did went and cussed out Rebecca. I’m like, well, why do I know the characters’ strengths inside out cause I’m writing about how I handle anxiety. So things like, like there are certain things I have to be really cognizant of and careful that I don’t go down that rabbit hole because the form of OCD I have, I want to research everything to death. Like, I’m a number two. We we’re talking about strengths and, I will read about a subject until like, I can be a professor of the subjects and that can really derail me. So I have to know to look quick enough or something else I do is if I want to keep moving the story, I’ll put, ask Falcon to fill in details and then I’ll tell my number one input husband. Okay. I need a big grand romantic gesture that incorporates these things. 

Rachael Herron: [00:34:47] What a great idea. 

Melissa Storm: [00:34:49] It’s so helpful. Like, cause he’s number one input, number three ideation like, I’ve always understood like that, he’s the idea guy. He’s the out of the box guy. So if I spent, I’m pausing to think about something, I’ll put that placeholder in and when I can, I have him, because otherwise I’ll go so deep down that rabbit hole. 

Rachael Herron: [00:35:10] That is brilliant. And that is again, really knowing your writing process and what works for you best and that is gorgeous. I love that you have that in him. My wife is not a writer, but she is, she understands story structure. She’s a graphic artist and she’s deeply into genre fiction. So she, she, she’s also got high ideation so I bounce stuff off of her and that’s really beautiful. 

Melissa Storm: [00:35:32] That’s,

Rachael Herron: [00:35:33] It’s the best, it’s the best. Speaking of the best, what is the best book you’ve read recently? And why did you love it? 

Melissa Storm: [00:35:40] Okay. I just binge read a series and I looked it up so that I would have the author’s name, right. It’s called The Naturals by Purlin Barnes. And it came to me via BookBub and I used to always find my books like organically, but now I switched to Kobo. Didn’t even know I was moving to Canada when I did that, but the transition so much easier. Now I’m a kobo reader. 

Rachael Herron: [00:36:03] Totally. 

Melissa Storm: [00:32:04] Cause I read like over a hundred books a year, so it’s important to me, but I’ll look through the BookBub newsletter as a way of finding books now that I’m a Kobo reader, cause it’s a lot harder. There’s not as much choice. And this came across my feed and it’s about, teenagers who are naturally skilled at different FBI things like a human lie detector or profiler, or, you know, identic memory all the time.

Rachael Herron: [00:36:31] What a great

Melissa Storm: [00:36:31] And they work on serial killer crimes and it’s super cool. Like, I really enjoyed it because I like dark stuff, but I haven’t been able to read it this year. Like I’m like, no psych thrillers, no Stephen King. I had to step away from that stuff, but this was the darkness I craved, but it was young adults. So the stakes are not as high, I guess. Like, you know, they’re not going to kill off a teen. 

Rachael Herron: [00:36:57] Yeah. Yeah. That is, that sounds awesome. And I’m going to put that on my list. That sounds exactly like something I would want. And I also love that you’re moving to Nova Scotia. Are you, are you from there or are you just making the leap?

Melissa Storm: [00:37:10] Well, making the leap, we were, we wanted just a place to raise our daughter with, with our values and things. 

Rachael Herron: [00:37:18] Yeah. I have a friend who lives in Nova Scotia and it’s always, a writer friends. So if you want me to hook you up, I can, we are moving to New Zealand. That’s our next step is, is a New Zealand jump. So we will, 

Melissa Storm: [00:37:30] Oh, that’s where, like, that was our first choice cause I, like, we found it life-changing, a month abroad, I was in Australia and New Zealand with my husband and daughter. Not this pandemic summer, but the summer before cause I got invited to do keynote speeches at both conferences. So we made a month of it and it was like, it feels more like home than home does. But New Zealand is so cool, it’s going to be close for a while and we want to move sooner than later. So Nova Scotia felt New Zealandy.

Rachael Herron: [00:37:59] It really does, it really, I completely agree with that. I’ve, I’ve, I’ve spent time in both places. I’m a New Zealand citizen as well so I spent a lot of time there, but only a little bit in Nova Scotia, but it’s the same. 

Melissa Storm: [00:38:10] New Zealand, I love Australia too but, the heat and,

Rachael Herron: [00:38:15] Australia wants to kill me. Everything there is dangerous. 

Melissa Storm: [00:38:18] I don’t wanna kill my Chihuahua, yeah. Like, I’m the crazy, grabbing her from my legs to show you. 

Rachael Herron: [00:38:25] I wanna see, I wanna see.

Melissa Storm: [00:38:27] This is my princess.

Rachael Herron: [00:38:29] Oh my god, she’s beautiful. Look at that face. 

Melissa Storm: [00:38:33] So she is, she’s actually my emotional support dog. Like she’s not officially, but she is because, like, I was really upset earlier this week, over some family stuff. And she’s usually sitting on my legs all day. She’s always with me, but when I get really anxious, she’ll come and she’ll sit right on my chest. So I have to stop working and pet her and hug her. And she just knows, like, she knows how to, to help treat that anxiety. She senses it and it’s, it’s amazing. And we also have her mom because we adopted Sky first. And then her mom needed a new home. And I said, oh my gosh, give me my dogs, mom.

Rachael Herron: [00:39:12] Oh. 

Melissa Storm: [00:39:13] So this is Mila.

Rachael Herron: [00:39:14] Oh. Is she a corgi mix? 

Melissa Storm: [00:39:16] No, she, that’s what we thought, so we actually had her DNA tested. She is half Chihuahua and the other half is two-thirds, fractions, two thirds of the Shit Zhu and the other third Pomeranian, but she does look like a little corgi.

Rachael Herron: [00:39:33] She looks like a tiny corgi.

Melissa Storm: [00:39:35] Hun, will you bring Michael biscuit?

Rachael Herron: [00:39:38] Michael biscuit? I would really like to see Michael biscuit. How did Michael biscuit get his name?

Melissa Storm: [00:39:45] My daughter, she’s, now I think she was five, nearly five at the time, so she named him your basic Michael, because she really likes the good place, and then biscuit like she, she named Sky Princess also when she was little.  

Rachael Herron: [00:39:59] Sky Princess is such a good name. Our Chihuahua was named Miss Idaho. Names are important. Okay. So Michael biscuit, that’s a, that’s a corgi.

Melissa Storm: [00:40:13] This is a corgi.

Rachael Herron: [00:40:14] Okay. Oh, he’s so beautiful. I we- you know what, anybody who wants to go to the YouTube to see these gorgeous animals? I mean, hello Falcon too thank you for bringing dogs to show-and-tell.

Melissa Storm: [00:40:28] I mean, do you want to see the others? They’re still

Rachael Herron: [00:40:31] No, that’s probably not the best for podcasting, but, yeah. And mine is asleep, but, okay. So now would you mind telling us about your most recent release, what it’s about and where we can find you?

Melissa Storm: [00:40:46] Yes. My most recent release is about, that I organized for my publishing house, Sweet Promise Press, made the USA today bestsellers list, which was cool. 

Rachael Herron: [00:40:55] Congratulations. 

Melissa Storm: [00:40:56] Thank you. A week before that, I had the first in a new series come out, which for hire by Molly Fitz, and it’s called, it’s the paranormal temp agency series where there’s a normal human who’s temporarily fulfilling all these magical roles.

Rachael Herron: [00:41:11] Oh my gosh.

Melissa Storm: [00:41:12] So that’s, psychic for hire, then I have vampire, shifter, reaper and angel.

Rachael Herron: [00:41:17] Again, like, what a premise. What a freaking premise. I love that.

Melissa Storm: [00:41:22] It’s really weird like, with every new thing I published from Molly Fitz, I go, how weird can I make this and still have people want to buy it? So I have one on preorder, called my colorful conundrum, which is, I think I pushed the weird line too far, but it’s an artist whose drawings come to life, but only she can see them. And they’re like Lisa Frank style drawings, so I like, I like playing with mental health in my writing. 

Rachael Herron: [00:41:48] Yeah. Yeah. And also, my goodness, you just, you have this box set, plus you have a book that came out a week before, plus you have a book on pre-order. How, how frequently are you publishing? 

Melissa Storm: [00:42:01] Well, it’s hard to say because for a while I just had the one pen name.

Rachael Herron: [00:42:05] Yeah. 

Melissa Storm: [00:42:06] Then I decided to go trad with that pen name, which I don’t regret at all in with Kensington, I love it. It’s a book I’m writing right now the OCD owned voices. So then I started, 

Rachael Herron: [00:42:18] Who is your editor there? 

Melissa Storm: [00:42:20] Alicia Condon. 

Rachael Herron: [00:42:21] Oh, fabulous. I love her. 

Melissa Storm: [00:42:25] I do too.

Rachael Herron: [00:42:26] She’s so freaking smart.

Melissa Storm: [00:42:28] They treat me very well over there. 

Rachael Herron: [00:42:30] Good.

Melissa Storm: [00:42:31] I love it, but I think, it was only like two months before I was like, well, I’m starting a new pen names because I love being trapped, but I still also love having control of some things. So my cozy pen name just, it took off like a shot. My first one came out March, 2019. The Pet Whisperer PI series and I was putting out one a month, but then I got,

Rachael Herron: [00:42:52] Holy cow.

Melissa Storm: [00:42:54] Well, there’s 30,000 words. 

Rachael Herron: [00:42:56] Oh, okay. Okay. 

Melissa Storm: [00:42:58] But my chronic anemia really interfered and then pandemic and my anxiety, like I hadn’t really had panic attacks since I was 19 and I had a panic attack that basically lasted two weeks.

Rachael Herron: [00:43:08] Holy shit. I’m so sorry that happened to you 

Melissa Storm: [00:43:11] At the beginning of the pandemic, so I’ve really had to up my game on dealing with anxiety. So I’m good now but that changed things. I had to cancel all my pre-orders and I didn’t write for many months. Now, ideally, when I’m not dealing with major drama of any sort, I can write a hundred thousand a month fairly easily because I write a shorter first draft and then expand upon it rather than editing down.

Rachael Herron: [00:43:40] Yeah. 

Melissa Storm: [00:43:41] That’s the difference maker.

Rachael Herron: [00:43:42] That, I really believe is a smarter way to go than what I do. I waste a lot of time and I know that that’s part of my process. Yeah.

Melissa Storm: [00:43:51] Yeah. So, I don’t remember what the question was. I write a lot though. I just, I also just last week or the week before had another co-author book come out where my co-author does the first draft and then I expand it and maximize it, and then it comes out, I have four pre-orders up for Molly Fitz. I don’t do pre-orders for any of the other pen names though. For Molly Fitz, I have raised, that’s going to be at least 20 books and so far 12 are out. And then The Paranormal Temp Agency is going to be six books, but after all that, I’m going to be doing three book trilogies, and then have those all plan and I have the book ones all up and I’m making a New York times run with the one that comes last. That’s called Secrets of the Spectrum. That’s coming out next October and I’m already pushing it hard. 

Rachael Herron: [00:44:43] That’s awesome. 

Melissa Storm: [00:44:45] And then for whichever won do the best, they’ll get a second trilogy next year. So, 

Rachael Herron: [00:44:50] What a good way to do that, to test the races, to test the market for that? 

Melissa Storm: [00:44:55] Yeah. And like, so I said the one I think I pushed too far with, but basically the schizophrenia artists, I dunno, it’s too weird for cozy. It’s getting pre-orders, but at half the rate of my others. I’m like, this is going to be a standalone and if it does well, I’ll expand it. So now I can put another series starter up. 

Rachael Herron: [00:45:16] You are amazing. I find you amazing and inspiring and it makes me want to just like hang up and write really hard for an hour. So, I’m so glad that we have met and that we have gotten to know each other a little tiny bit, and I want to kind of keep, watching, what, what you do. 

Melissa Storm: [00:45:35] Cool and inspiring friends. 

Rachael Herron: [00:45:37] Hey, me too. Where can we find you online? 

Melissa Storm: [00:45:43] Well, I’m everywhere. 

Rachael Herron: [00:45:45] You’re at many places. 

Melissa Storm: [00:43:47] Melissa Storm and Molly Fitz are my primary entities. I’ve got the website, MelStorm.com  for Melissa also on Facebook (MeetTheStorms)  

Rachael Herron: [00:45:57] Will you tell us a little bit about your, your writers, your, your tools for authors too well, while we have you, and this is a captive audience. 

Melissa Storm: [00:46:05] Yup. And then, Molly Fitz is MollyMysteries.com Facebook (MollyFitzMysteries) primarily there. Basically I really hang out on discord, but I pop into Facebook every now and then. For my tools for authors, I do a group called the Book Marketing Route by Melissa Storm Lit Ring and more so you can search Melissa Storm and look under groups and you’ll find it. I have Lit Ring is group promo, so LitRing.com as a group premise, most of which you can join for 25 bucks. We also have book launches, but we’re currently revamping that program. Novel publicity is my first business that I started in early 2011. It’s consulting, marketing ads. It’s really like become a PA program platform where my different staff have different specialties and we work out a program. You can hire us for Amazon ads, which I don’t do cause I hate them, but somebody better than me does or Facebook ads, which I do. I wanted to make a more cost-effective way for people to have me run their ads because I fill up really fast and I tend to charge a lot and I always have a waiting list.

Rachael Herron: [00:47:10] As you should.

Melissa Storm: [00:47:12] But the PA program, is a really cost-effective way to be able to work with me. And I do detailed reports. Authors can take over their own ads or we can keep doing them. So that’s the newest thing that I’m excited about and it’s going really well. We have, what other businesses do I have, so we have Sweet Promise Press, which I said, I would never start a publisher. I’d sooner dive and start a publisher. And then I had a Kendall World. They, Amazon had licensed one of my series, The First Street Church Romances and When Can the World Shut Down? They told all the people who were the rights owners, figure out what you want to do there. So then I started a publishing house, and it’s, it’s Sweet Promise Press, it’s mostly cozy mystery and sweet romance, that’s either contemporary, Oracle or suspense. So we have that. What else?

Rachael Herron: [00:48:05] How do you divvy up your day? And then I swear, this is the last question. How do you decide when you’re going to write and when you’re going to work on all of that other stuff that you’re doing? 

Melissa Storm: [00:48:15] Well, as a person who is a number one achiever with obsessive compulsive disorder, I must tend to my email first. Like there’s kind of an unwritten rule. If I have more than five emails in my inbox, I cannot function, like it must be handled. And I’ll get stressed, like when I’m was back to back and like the emails accumulate and I log in and I see 900 emails, so that’s, usually I do that and I check all my ads for myself and my clients, first thing, cause those are the most important. And then I see if there’s any like situations I have to handle, because my staff, I have two full timers, two part-timers is that it right now? Those are my main, like marketing staff is two full-time.

Rachael Herron: [00:48:58] That’s amazing.

Melissa Storm: [00:49:00] Like they’re each at 20 hours. So I’ll see if they need stuff from me. And then usually, by 10 or 11 I’m writing and that’s more of my focus. Some days I’ll really have to focus on other things like working on new ad clients set ups or doing a newsletter auto responder or whatever. But one thing that really helped with my schedule, just don’t tell people what time this was recorded, okay?  

Rachael Herron: [00:49:30] I will not. And it won’t come out for weeks. 

Melissa Storm: [00:49:32] I’m just kidding. I usually will not meet with anybody for any reason, unless it’s 4:00 PM in my time zone because when I have meetings midday, it will throw the rest of my day because even though like, people tend to think I’m an extrovert because I’m good at extroverting like in the best of a bad situation, like, I’ll be like sweating buckets and so anxious after doing calls.

Rachael Herron: [00:49:57] Yeah.

Melissa Storm: [00:49:58] I really tried to put that at the back of the day so I can be done because it can be hard to detach from that. So, yeah, almost with no exceptions, I meet people at 4:00 PM. The exceptions are if they are from Australia or New Zealand, and really, but sometimes I can meet them at that time too, but it’s harder to the schedule. 

Rachael Herron: [00:50:20] We’re almost at four, let’s say that we met at four. We’ll just tell people that we met at four.

Melissa Storm: [00:50:21] Okay. No, it’s okay. 

Rachael Herron: [00:50:23] But, I will say that usually, like I also don’t meet people until the afternoon because I’m keeping that, and I made the exception with YouTube cause I’m like, I’ve got to talk to her. 

Melissa Storm: [00:50:30] And that was part of the reason to kept having to reschedule on you. And that’s the other exception is if I’ve been difficult to get in touch with, or if somebody’s gonna have to wait so long, sometimes there’s a person I’m really excited about working with so I’ll just break my own rules because I’m going to be hyper anyway. But meetings also, they’re, they’re going to make me anxious or hyper it’ll be one or the other thing. And if I get really good news in a day, I’m like, well, there goes the whole day, cause I’m drunk on achievement. 

Rachael Herron: [00:50:58] Right? Yes, that is. I have literally spiraled my way into, I have chronic migraines and, I’m spiraled my way into migraine from being happy from good news. You know, bodies are rude. 

Melissa Storm: [00:51:13] For sure. The last thing I have is your author engine and it’s 50% off right now for any of the classes I have, Facebook ads, BookBub ads, wide retailer strategy, KU. My most popular course is writing and marketing the cozy mystery, and then there’s other courses too. 

Rachael Herron: [00:51:30] That’s cool. I’m going to go over there and look at some stuff. I actually use your, oh, sorry. I actually used your service for, Facebook ads and I met with Evelyn, one of your people and she was just, she just explained Facebook ads to me in a way that made total sense and I had never understood it before. It’s truly amazing what you’re doing. So thank you.

Melissa Storm: [00:51:55] I love that shade of lipstick on you. 

Rachael Herron: [00:51:56] Well, thank you. It’s a double shade of lipstick and I got to tell you, it will not wear off all day. It’s one of those that you stain, and then you have to just keep reapplying that like petroleum jelly, and then it lasts. So thank you, my friend, 

Melissa Storm: [00:52:10] I, you’re talking to me about something else. I’m like, by the way nice lipstick. 

Rachael Herron: [00:52:14] Basically, that’s what I want, like to hear every day. I really care about my lipstick. I’m so mad at that.

Melissa Storm: [00:52:21] Like that too. So when we go to conferences together, she’s lips and I’m eyes. So I’ll do a lot of work making up my eyes. 

Rachael Herron: [00:52:27] Oh yes. I love, I love that. Oh, I miss the world, but I also love being at home. So it has been a joy talking to you. Thank you so much for fitting me into your schedule. And I will, I’m trying to be on the discord over in Becca’s group. I’m not good at discord, but I’m learning. I’m a big Slack person. So to have both is kind of weird, but, but I will be there and I will see you. 

Melissa Storm: [00:52:53] I will see you.

Rachael Herron: [00:52:54] Thank you so much. Bye Melissa.

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.