Episode 111: The Not-So-Sexy Side of Your Writer Life

On the podcast this week, we’re chatting about the CEO/Admin tasks that come with your writing life. 

You’re a writer. If you haven’t claimed this identity for yourself, I’d love to hop on a call and dig into what’s standing in your way. I offer this invitation because it took me a long time to finally say “I’m a Writer” and I wish I’d gotten there sooner. I’ve been wanting to write my contemporary romance novels since 7th grade when I was hanging out at the barn with my horse. So, if I can help you find your way to owning your Writer identity sooner, I’d love to support you. You can get on my calendar here: https://calendly.com/oswaldphd/thirty-with-stephanie

As a writer, you’re an entrepreneur of books. Has anyone ever said this to you?

I heard it recently and it stuck with me. It’s a powerful thought to have for yourself. Your book is your business. Every book you write is part of your business. You’re the CEO of your Writer life. Even if you traditionally publish your book, you’re still in charge of making sure your book gets in the hands of readers. Sometimes, as a creative thinker, those small organization tasks or the planning of your content calendar are just not top of mind. This week’s episode will help you get into your CEO mindset. 

And, if you’re looking for time to jumpstart getting those business tasks done, we have another Virtual Writer’s Retreat coming up April 17-19. You can save your seat here: https://inspired-writer-collective.kit.com/263e86245e

 Welcome to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. If you've ever felt the pull to write your truth, to shape the chaos of real life into something meaningful and to share your journey with the world, you're in the right place. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie, writers, coaches, and entrepreneurs who believe in you and know how important it is to find a writing community to guide you on your path to self-publishing.

You’re invited to connect with us by joining our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week. Whether you’re working on a memoir, a novel, or journaling for yourself, this is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.   

Join our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox each week. This is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.   

If you missed this year's Memoir Summit, we recorded it! You can purchase the replays and get instant access to over 4 hours of memoir-specific content from Elizabeth and our amazing panelists of published memoir authors, indie presses, editors, and industry professionals!

Work 1:1 with Memoir Coach Elizabeth Wilson. Book a session here.

If you prefer to watch our conversations, you can find all of them on our YouTube channel.

You can find us on Instagram.

Transcript

Elizabeth Wilson 0:05

Welcome back writers to another episode of the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. I am your host, Elizabeth, and I'm joined here today with my co-host Stephanie. And we're gonna be starting off with a bit of an update about our writing, 'cause we haven't really done that in a minute. Um, Stephanie, why don't you kick us off, tell us what you've been working on, what that's looked like, and kind of what your current goals are for it.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 0:32

Yeah, so I've mentioned it a few times, but haven't really dug in to talking about the 90 day sprint that I've been

Elizabeth Wilson 0:39

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 0:41

To get my manuscript to its, uh, final first draft. And writer, let me tell you that messy, but it's happening and I am pushing forward I'm digging in and using my time to just keep going where I left off. It's really hard for me because if you've been listening for a while, you know that I like to go back and look at what I've done and made a lot of, I kept making a lot of changes to the beginnings, and now I am. In this space, we're like, no, I just have to keep moving forward. And so, yeah, so I'm, I'm getting there. I have made a lot of progress and the end of this month, the end of April, is my goal to have that messy draft done so that then I can go back and. Essentially fix. I know I have to fix parts at the beginning because I know there are parts in the beginning that don't at all connect to what's come later, but I've resisted going back because I need to get this done because one of my goals is to query and. Pitch it, uh, this summer at the Romance Writers of America Conference in New Mexico, and that's in July. And so that's giving me, uh, you know, a hard deadline to look ahead to, which is really helpful because it's reminding me why I am showing up to what I'm doing, aside from the fact that I've grown to love my characters, love my story. and so I'm super excited and I. wanna get it out there. I, I do want to do the traditional publishing, so it may be a little bit longer road. Uh, but I am excited about going down that path and yeah, getting, getting it in the hands of readers eventually.

Elizabeth Wilson 2:36

Are you like tackling the writing as like a daily set aside writing time, or is it more like, I wanna get this scene done today, or how are you like benchmarking, like your progress through the messy first draft?

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 2:49

Um, so it hasn't been

Elizabeth Wilson 2:51

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 2:53

I've tried, but that doesn't always work. But it, it's been more so recently, probably towards the end of this sprint that it's been every day because I've had a little bit more time in my schedule to, to fit in an everyday time. So what I've done is I have blocked off time in my schedule for. because when that alert comes up on my phone in advance to let me know, it's in my schedule. It's like, oh yes, that's what I'm doing. And taken myself to coffee shops because I

Elizabeth Wilson 3:24

Hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 3:24

well with the energy of other people on their laptops and. It allows me to dig in and focus. So yeah, it's, and it's been ra like, it hasn't always been the same thing all the time. It's either, it's okay, I know I wanna do this scene or it's, I'm just gonna see, you know, how far I can go from where I left off. Um. And I have to say it, sometimes the scenes haven't always been in order, uh, because sometimes, you know, I'll work, I'll finish one, but then think like, oh, this p you know, I'll think of another piece that's later. And so then I'll go there and then I go back. So it's a little bit all over the place, which. Is logical with

Elizabeth Wilson 4:08

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 4:08

A DHD brain that I kind of go where the shiny object of the moment, um, is taking

Elizabeth Wilson 4:13

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 4:14

or where the character is taking me, because honestly, some of it I haven't even known. What's gonna happen on the page until it's happening? And that's been an interesting part of the fiction writing journey because of course, in all the nonfiction I've written, or even when I'm writing about myself, of course I know what's happening or I know what happened and I know the information. And then this has become like, oh, that's where the character's taking it. All right, I guess we're going that way. So it's been, yeah, it's been really interesting.

Elizabeth Wilson 4:46

Yeah, for me, oh, I've hit some big milestones. So. I'm publishing my book this summer. June 22nd will be the release for Lonely Girl and. I've gotten my line and copy edits back from Allison. She helped me remove, I think, close to 7,000 words, which was the whole purpose, intention behind doing the, the line and copy edits. I know line edits are one that, especially self-published authors tend to skip over and save the cost on. Um, but I really felt like I needed to do it because. After developmental edits, my word count was still around like 118,000 words, which is quite long for a memoir and certainly wouldn't be accepted in like traditionally published realm. But as a self publisher, I've talked about this before, like what that means is cost. Cost to print it, right? It means a bigger book, it means a more expensive book to print, which means. You know, less, less of the income is profit, more of it goes to printing costs. So it was worth it to me. Um, also knowing that it was going to increase the quality of the reading experience, um, by removing any redundancies, by simplifying and clarifying the language, making the concepts a little bit more concise. And so that's what I spent last weekend doing. Along with filtering through my beta reader feedback, which has come in, and I've got a whole episode next week that I recorded with our guest, Jared Glenn, that we dig into receiving feedback and, and processing that. So if that, if that's of interest to you writers, like check out that episode next week. Um. But yeah, so that's been where I'm at in the process. So the next stage I, I did send it to my formatter this week and the next stage is recruiting art readers. So finding those people who, you know, use their Instagram accounts or tiktoks or whatever, who enjoy reading memoir, who hopefully fall within the, the target audience or readership of this book, and reaching out to them to see if they'd be interested in a digital copy. In order to do the advanced reading and hopefully get some drum up, some interest, get some early reviews and things like that. So it feels like a lot of really tedious steps. I mean, to be honest, I kind of wish I was just still in the writing or editing stage. Um, and it's not that I'm not enjoying it, but it's like there's no more writing left. It's just a whole bunch of emails. Um. So I don't know. Maybe that's a perfect segue though into our like actual conversation topic for this week, which is like the really

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 7:38

absolutely.

Elizabeth Wilson 7:40

admin stuff we have to do as authors. Whether you are self-publishing, indie publishing, hybrid publishing, or traditionally publishing, it's, there's so much that has to happen. In the background outside of the writing. Um, and it can be difficult to carve out the time for it. I mean, you've talked already Stephanie, about carving out the time for the writing itself, but then to have time to do the, the website build or the promotional periods or finding these readers that I need, or, you know, whatever stage you happen to be at, it can be difficult. To carve out that time. But we do have, uh, a virtual Writer's retreat. We do these quarterly through the Inspired Writer Collective, and we are doing our next one in a couple of weeks. So mark your calendars for April 17th, 18th, and 19th. You do not have to come to all the sessions. You can drop in to just one or two or all three. We're gonna have one each day. Um, that's a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And you can sign up using the link in these show notes. Um, if you're already on our just general email list, we'll be sending out an email blast about that as well. And so we'd love for you to join us and, and this can be a time where you either work on that messy first draft, like you're doing stuff, like if you've got a big, you know, goal that you're writing, goal that you're working towards. Or you can also just work on the really unsexy admin side of being a, a writer and an author.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 9:09

Well, and it's so interesting to, it reminded me about how we've talked so often about that body doubling piece where sometimes just especially for the unsexy. Things we have to

Elizabeth Wilson 9:22

Hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 9:23

the things we, the tasks we put off, the things we don't wanna show up for that are just like, Ugh, I don't wanna do this. But having this space to say, okay, this is on my calendar. I'm showing up with other writers, I'm gonna get this done. And I know my sister has come to some of our writing. during the week. And that's sometimes what she does for her writing life is she blocks off that time 'cause she knows she doesn't like to do those

Elizabeth Wilson 9:53

Hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 9:53

And so, and I know. It's not my favorite part of any of it either, but it's also one of those realities because a writer, regardless of which publishing route you go, you are the CEO of your writing life. You are the one who has to do those not so fun business tasks and keep track. What you're doing and reach out to the, the people who are your team, and like you shared Elizabeth, you know, you've, you've built this team around you, which I remember when I went to an a WP conference a few years ago, that was one of the big conversations about how you should have a team, you shouldn't be trying to do all the things yourself. And so that does require. Administration because you have to reach out to them, you have to connect with them, you have to schedule, you have to plan, you have to fit it in, you have to. then not only do you have to fit that piece in, but then you have to fit it into your schedule of when you get those edits back and when it works out, and are you doing. And yeah, there're just so many little details that you don't realize are important, but become necessary for you to move yourself forward.

Elizabeth Wilson 11:05

Yeah, it's true. And there, there's just a lot that maybe you don't think about when you're first starting out, but. Ultimately you're going to need an author website and probably some kind of email list. Um, certainly by the time you get to like pre-sales, you're gonna want an email list, even if you're not using it, you know, ahead of time to, to drum up interest in your upcoming book, there's all the, like you said, coordinating with the people that you've hired to do, whether that's cover, design, formatting, editing. Any of that. I mean, at this point, like I just need to carve out some time to even pull all those little nuggets of like review blurbs I've gotten about the book from my beta readers and some of those early people that have read the book that have sent me this beautiful, wonderful feedback. I need to compile that into like a spreadsheet so I don't have to go searching through this text message chain and looking through this email. You know? Group email thing. I, it can be, it can be a lot. And just taking that time on the front end can be really helpful. Um, the other thing that I've had so much fun doing this past week after I got my edit sent out is, and you guys can laugh if you want, but I've had this idea for a while, so I've been brainstorming what songs make me think of. Like each moment in the book, and this is a list I've been keeping throughout the writing process. Anytime like I think of a song that's been meaningful to me or was meaningful, something I listened to over and over again during a certain period of my life that takes place in this memoir, I would jot it down on this one piece of paper. And this week I finally got to sit down with that compared to my finished manuscript and really match up the song with the chapter. And I'm really excited for this to be part of my presale promotion for the book. So when people order the book on presale, they of course have to wait for the book, right? But they're gonna instantly get the chapter list and the Spotify playlist and song list that goes with it. And what this soundtrack, as I'm calling it, quote unquote does, is it really marks the. Emotional landscape of the memoir, like, you know, I start off with a very hopeful song, right? And then we've got some heartbreak songs. We got some struggles, we got some more, you know, romantic songs and songs about motherhood and, and all sorts of things and about taking chances and betting on yourself and, and all of that. And so it'll be a way for readers to. Whether they just look at the chapter list and that, you know, gets them excited about the book, or they do take an opportunity to listen to some of the songs. They'll get a glimpse at, you know, the like emotional rollercoaster that the, the book is going to take them on. And if nothing else, it's, I've been listening to it nonstop since I created it, sometimes shuffling songs around to get it just right. And it's been really cool for helping me just stay focused on kind of the lead up for promotion and publication. And it's given me a lot of different marketing ideas of, you know, being able to put a song on a reel and say, this is the song that goes with chapter, whatever about this, and wouldn't you like to know what that's about? Um, and. Yeah, that's, that's another sort of admin type thing that also plays into the creativity. It's something in addition to just writing the book comes in more with the marketing piece, but it is something that I'm having loads of fun with, and so that's been quite a fun endeavor this past week or so.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 14:51

You make an important point there about finding ways to make it fun. That, especially with the marketing piece and coming up with creative ways about how you're getting your story out there, how you're getting into the hands of readers sometimes for a lot of writers, we don't wanna be in the spotlight. We don't wanna put ourselves out there. I know I'm one. I struggle with this, with, you know, social media. I know want to show up and then I resist. But then it's always good when I do so, and there's proof of that. When I did a 30 day sprint, maybe, it's probably been about a

Elizabeth Wilson 15:29

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 15:30

since I've done that. And I, you know, and I keep saying to myself, okay, I need to do that again. And that again is another one of those admin tasks that I'm resisting because I want to be in my book. I wanna be in the writing piece, and. I look at the other pieces and I go, ah. But again, as we've had other guests on who've talked about the marketing, you need to have a runway for your

Elizabeth Wilson 15:52

Hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 15:53

Of which path you're, you're going down, it doesn't matter because even in traditional publishing, you are still the main leader of the. Word that gets out about your book and, and especially if you're self-publishing, you are that person. And so finding the way to manage that for yourself is really important. And are. Certainly the, uh, programs out there that allow you to schedule in advance and set things up or you know, there are people you can work with. am leaning into offering that as a support to writers around helping you set up your platform and the value for that, because sometimes that's not always something that you think about or you don't know how you want to put yourself out there and. People need a place to go

Elizabeth Wilson 16:49

Hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 16:49

and readers do love to connect with writers and, and you want to build that connection.

Elizabeth Wilson 16:58

Yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. More than likely I'll be using this virtual writer's retreat time to be in Canva, creating. All the different images that I'm gonna wanna use that I have available to me so far, um, for marketing material because I just know myself. And there are moments where I'm like, oh, I should post something. I should sit down and do something. But if I don't have it ready to go already, then I just, that momentum just will not continue for me and for whatever reason, I tend to think about this when I am. You know, sitting in the car waiting to go into the school where I work or while the, the children are taking their nap time, like not at times when I can actually go in and create the thing that I wanna post. And so it's so nice for me if I can take advantage of times like these chunks that we offer during our writer's retreat where. You know, I can go ahead and do like the backend work that needs to happen. Um, Stephanie, will you just explain briefly like what our writer's retreats actually look like for people who maybe haven't heard us talk about them before or haven't attended one before?

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 18:02

Yeah, so our writer's retreats are opportunities for you to show up on Zoom, be in community with other writers. You do not have to have your camera on unless you want to. You don't have to share it all about what you're doing. It's totally optional. What we've created these for is to give you space to show up in community with other writers. That's a huge part of what we talk about so much here as about the value of having community, having the touch points with other people who are in a similar space as you. As you listen, Elizabeth and I are in different places with our writing and we're in completely different genres with our writing, but we're still showing up together and we're, you know, podcasting together and there are all these pieces and, and we just want to bring you into our space. We, we want you to connect with us. We want to be a support for you and that's your opportunity when you come to the writing retreat is you get to connect with other writers. And again you show up. As much or as little as you like, you can. If you have to come a little bit late, it's not a big deal. You'll just come in the room and be a part of what we're, what we're doing. And you know, typically we have a little brief intro in the beginning. Then it's turning off the camera and the audio and there's a set work time. We set a timer. Then we come back together at the end and we debrief if you want. You don't have to. Again, it's really your choice. You make it what you want. You work on what you want. Nobody's going to be critiquing what you're doing. You don't have to share what you're doing. I mean, as you as, as we're talking here, I mean, both of us are thinking like, oh, okay. This is a great time to get some of these admin. Tasks

Elizabeth Wilson 19:55

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 19:56

you know, I'm sitting here thinking as I'm talking, I'm like, okay, like this is my chance to set up another 30 day sprint on Instagram with Canva. I mean, Elizabeth talking about Canva. I'm like, you know, I love being in

Elizabeth Wilson 20:10

You are so good at it.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 20:11

you know, design the, I can design the heck out of anything. And

Elizabeth Wilson 20:14

Yeah.

Stephanie Oswald, Ph.D. 20:15

Like, why am I not in Canva? You know? So those pieces and we're really here to support you. And we offer invitations during that time too. Elizabeth offers an invitation to work with her and her one-on-one coaching for memoir writers. I'll be inviting you if you need help with building your platform, setting up your presence, online guidance with how to do that in a way that's simple and manageable for you. know, I, as I say, just probably like you writer who's listening to this. You know, you have a love hate relationship with all of that piece, or maybe you love it, maybe you're all about the spotlight, and that's great you can bring that with you and, share your wisdom of how that works and for you. And so again, we're really about learning from each other and, and using the time to connect.

Elizabeth Wilson 21:10

and this is a free offering. There's no cost at all to attend. Simply add your email address to our list. Um, so that you can get those Zoom links drop in for whatever parts you want. But this is a way for you to try out our community. This is something that we have other offers that are a little bit more closed door, but this is a great way for you to get a sense of. Whether or not our community is one you wanna be a part of, it can be such a challenge to find a writing community that you jive with. And so much of the time you're asked for like a financial investment or time commitment up upfront. And it's hard to commit to that when you don't know if these are the people that are your people. And so these virtual retreats are a great way to come. Meet a handful of our regular people. And then if you like it, if you wanna stay, we do offer weekly writing times, but we only send those links out to those who specifically request it. And that's a much smaller group. Um, and it's really only those who work. Committed and need the accountability and want that current accountability for whatever big writing project they're currently working on. But I just have to say, there's so many nuggets of wisdom that come out of those really brief, like introduction and debrief times around the writing. That's basically what inspired next week's episode with Jared. Um, and, and so there's, there's just a lot there, not just for your own work, but simply. Seeing other writers working on their craft because in our day-to-day lives outside of the internet where we're connected to all these other people and writers, you might be the only writer around. You might be the only writer in your friend group. You might be the only writer in your family and they don't really get it. But you can come hang out with a room full of people. Our writing times are like an hour. So it, it's not a significant amount of time, it's just enough to like maybe write a, a scene or like get some admin work done as we mentioned. Um, but you'll see the link in our show notes to hop on that list if you're interested to make sure you get those. Zoom meeting links and you can check out our website for specific times 'cause we haven't totally decided on those yet in this moment of recording. But we have picked the dates. So mark your calendar for April 17th, 18th, and 19th if you wanna be a part of our next quarterly Virtual Writer's retreat. And in the meantime, happy writing. All right.