Newsletter #3: The ReBuild Continues
Mental health focus - Pushing through the frustrations, remembering we all go through it, and finding inspiration.
A few graphs on Mental Health and the Creative Community
May is ending. Today. And May was Mental Health Awareness Month. But that doesn’t mean mental health can be put on the shelf for a year, especially for writers and other creatives, who, according to studies, are eight times more likely to deal with mental health issues than less creative people. Alex Simmons and I spoke about this at length on our podcast, Tell The Damn Story. You can listen to that episode here:
Look for these guys:
And if you want to see us at work, here’s a link to our YouTube channel for our latest episode, all about finding your readers.
You may have noticed the above episode is number 261. That’s true. We’ve been trying to be of service to writers and emerging creatives for a while now. We hope you find something useful in the show, on either format.
We all struggle
We do the podcast because we know firsthand that every writer and every creator struggles. Imposter syndrome. Rejection. Social media posts that seem to show everyone else doing so much better. Poorly thought-out comments from a patron at a convention. Cruel comments. Crueler reviews. Yeah, it can get brutal out there.
But “out there” can also be a supportive, encouraging, lifesaving community. Don’t be hesitant to block the jerks and/or mute the rude. And if you are tempted to take a negative comment to heart, I sincerely urge you to give yourself a chance to balance the jerk with your writing community. Talk about your frustration and you will see how many are out there ready to take your back.
And if you don’t think you have a writing community, curate one. About three years ago, I completely changed my Twitter follows and followers to mostly writers and readers. Got rid of the politics and complainers and those I didn’t know or who were always posting the hard sell. As weird as Twitter has gotten under the new “leadership”, the people I’ve met and interacted with there have made the experience rewarding. If and when I switch to another platform, I will seek to cultivate the same community. I hope you do, too. if you want to start with me, I’m on there as chrisryanwrites. Corny, I know, but it’ll do for now.
The Rebuild Continues
In previous newsletters, I’ve spoken about a complete rebuild of my writing career since Covid forced us all to take a good long look at what the hell we were doing. For me, it meant hiring new editors and rewriting my original, independently published novels, even the award winners. They are now the best versions of those stories I can offer and will serve as my rebooted backlog. The first of them is out now. You can check it out here:
Here’s the cover:
Other parts of The Rebuild continue, including setting up my first-ever email service, a new website, and the next novel Reboot. Stay tuned.
Inspiration is everywhere
While we struggle with this profession at times, we learn that trying to cover all our bases can be overwhelming. The one thing we should never do is lose sight of why we are here. We’re writers. We’re creatives. And the very best way to get through all the other challenges is to make sure we keep that sacred. We need to make time to do what we love every day. It is the calling that makes everything else worth the effort.
We’re not talking eight-hour writing marathons. You do what you can. But make sure you give yourself that gift. Every day. You deserve it. Don’t worry about writing the next classic, or stressing yourself about whether it will sell, or listening to that foul editor on your shoulder. This is your time, whether you write during a few stops on the subway, or however long you have before collapsing after the kids are finally asleep. If you get a paragraph done, that’s more than you had, and it’s your paragraph. If you get a page written, great, a couple thousand words, fantastic. The length doesn’t matter as much as the act of writing does.
Give yourself that gift. You’ll be glad you did.
How do you get there?
Some might say it can’t be done, but I did it waiting for a parade to start on Memorial Day. I just dictated some words into my phone’s memo app. That became a Substack post. Yeah, I know it didn’t get a lot of hits, but I’m new at all this. Have faith. I do. I even added a promise to publish the story that came from that note. You can find that story on a follow-up post, called Keep Promises. You can view it here:
If people are still doubting that they can find the time, I’ll use this as an example. I wrote the first paragraph at the parade, let it simmer as I watched, dictated a few more notes, wrote some other ideas on index cards, and then wrote the story (and then rewrote it) during my 5amWritersClub sessions. The what? The 5amWritersClub is just an “@” used to get people writing early. It works for me. Find what works for you. You’ll feel better.
FUEL
Things that kept me going creatively this week:
MUSIC -
I struggled with the blues this week, feeling down because professional progress isn’t happening as I smoothly and quickly as I would like them to, and opportunities are slamming into each other instead of cooperating in harmony to help me ascend to Legend (lol). So, I leaned into them blues with a little help from a real legend:
I agreed, and this collection of the first two Allman Brothers Band albums kept my stereo and me alive most of the week.
But while writing this issue, I needed something else. I turned to Tom…
MOVIES -
My wife Glorious and I were home alone this weekend as the fellas went down the Shore, so we piled up a bunch of old married couple events and created a menu of fun food (I gained three pounds). We got some sun and exercise with the dog, checked out the Harry Potter exhibit in Manhattan (Glorious was enchanted), but somehow, we also managed to watched all or some of the following films:
Die Hard
Die Hard II
Die Hard with a Vengeance
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America: Civil War
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: End Game
Ghost
Air
Casablanca
and several episodes of The West Wing
Yes, it was mostly pop culture. Okay, some of you might criticize the list for not having horror, or deep thought, or whatever. With respect, I don’t care. Me and Glorious, we had us a lotta fun. What else are holiday weekends for? (And yes, I did get writing in every day. Glorious sleeps later than I do, so I was done before she made her morning coffee.)
My point is, sometimes you need to give yourself a vacation, even if it really just a staycation, especially when the grind is getting to you.
It is all part of selfcare, folks, and that is important. Take care of yourselves, please.
The Substack Newsletter Planning Committee hard at work on this issue. Please let us know in the comments how we did.