100. Beyond the Template: Finding Your Individual Calling as a Writer

Feeling creatively frozen from following too many writing formulas? You're not alone. In this milestone 100th episode, I'm sharing why the era of templates and "proven systems" might be holding your novel or memoir back—and what soul-centered writing looks like instead.

If you've been hitting all the "right" plot points but your manuscript still feels lifeless, or if you're exhausted from trying to fit into someone else's productivity system, this episode is for you.

We'll explore:

• The crucial difference between using frameworks as tools versus following templates as replacements for your creative vision
• Why your individual calling matters more than any formula (and how to hear it)
• What it actually looks like to write from the inside out rather than the outside in
• How to distinguish between your calling and the voice of fear telling you to "follow the system"
• Permission to honor your natural rhythm, even when it doesn't match what successful writers "should" do

Whether you're drafting your first manuscript or your fifth book, this conversation offers a different path forward—one built on authenticity, trust, and the courage to write what only you can write.

Because the question isn't "Am I doing this right?" It's "Am I doing this true?"

Join me for an honest, encouraging conversation about building a creative practice that sustains rather than depletes you.

Website | Substack

Transcript

THE WHOLE WRITER EP 100 - 

[00:00:00] Nicole Meier: I think we're living through a shift, a quiet revolution. Really for a while now, the creative world has been drowning in templates, but there's a difference between using a framework as a tool and following a template as a replacement for your own creative vision. So if we're moving past the era of templates and formulas, what are we moving towards?

[00:00:27] Nicole Meier: I think we're moving towards something much harder and much more rewarding. Soul-centered work, individual calling, the kind of creative practice that's built from the inside out. Rather than the outside in,

[00:00:49] Nicole Meier: welcome to the whole writer, A place where we talk about what it means to show up as someone who's grounded in their voice, in their community, and in their creative path, even when the world tells them to hustle, compare, or conform. I'm Nicole Meier, a multi published author and book coach. Who believes that nurturing the person behind the page is just as important as refining the words on it.

[00:01:15] Nicole Meier: In each episode, we'll explore the terrain of writing life with honesty, warmth, and practical wisdom, creating space for you to write from a place of wholeness rather than depletion. Whether you're drafting your first manuscript or publishing your fifth book, you'll find conversation and companionship for the journey here.

[00:01:36] Nicole Meier: So settle in, bring your questions and your curiosity, and let's discover together what it means to write and live with authenticity and purpose.

[00:01:50] Nicole Meier: Hello writers. Welcome to episode 100 of the Whole Writer 100 episodes. I have to tell you, when I started this podcast, I had no idea that number would mean so much to me. Or if we'd even get here. But here we are, and I've been sitting with how I wanted to mark this moment, if at all. I kept thinking I should do some kind of retrospective or share lessons I've learned along the way, or thank everyone who's been a part of this journey, which don't get me wrong, I am deeply grateful for all of you really.

[00:02:27] Nicole Meier: But the idea of. Doing something like that felt like I was following a template for what you're supposed to do at episode 100, and then it hit me. The thing I actually wanted to talk about, the thing that feels most true and most urgent is exactly that. The templates, the formulas, the how to that promises.

[00:02:50] Nicole Meier: If you just follow these steps, you'll get the result you want because I think we're living through a shift, a quiet revolution, really. I wanna talk about it with you today for a while now, and I'm talking about a heavy emphasis on what came out of the COVID years. The creative world has been drowning in templates.

[00:03:11] Nicole Meier: How to write a bestseller in 90 days. The proven plot structure that works every time. Five steps to build your author platform. The morning routine of successful writers, the productivity hacks, the content calendars, the frameworks, and the formulas and the full proof systems. Oh my word. And look, I am being transparent.

[00:03:33] Nicole Meier: I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I don't use frameworks myself. I teach the seven point story arc to writers that work with me. I've recently co-hosted a webinar called Three Ways to Sell Your Novel. This is because I believe in craft frameworks and I believe in story structure. They're incredibly useful tools, but here's the distinction I want to make, and it's an important one.

[00:03:58] Nicole Meier: There's a difference between using a framework as a tool and following a template as a replacement for your own creative vision. I'm gonna say that again because I really want people to hear me. There's a difference between using a framework as a tool and following a template as a replacement for your own creative vision.

[00:04:19] Nicole Meier: When you're starting out with writing, when everything feels overwhelming and uncertain. Frameworks feel like a lifeline. They really do. Someone is saying, here's the path. Here's exactly what to do. Just follow these steps and you'll get there too. And that can be genuinely helpful. Story structure exists because it works because humans respond to certain patterns and rhythms, especially in storytelling.

[00:04:45] Nicole Meier: Marketing strategies exist because they help books find readers, and we all want that, right? But what I've noticed, both in my own creative life and in working with writers as an editor, is that the template mindset can take over and that's when things go sideways, in my opinion. I've been in this industry for over 12 years now.

[00:05:07] Nicole Meier: I've published four novels. I've worked with hundreds of writers on their manuscripts, and I cannot tell you how many times I've watched someone follow all the quote right steps and still feel like something's missing. They've outlined their novel using the Hero's Journey. They've hit all the plot points at the exact right percentages they've built in their platform, posted consistently, done everything they were supposed to do.

[00:05:32] Nicole Meier: The work is fine, competent, maybe even good, but it's not always alive and they can feel it. They sit down to write and it feels like work in the worst of ways. Like they're filling in a form, checking boxes, performing rightness rather than actually writing. That's what I mean by the template mindset.

[00:05:55] Nicole Meier: It's when the framework stops being a support structure and becomes a cage. Sit with that thought for a minute. When you're writing to hit the beats, instead of writing to discover what your story needs, that's a problem. The framework should serve your vision, not the other way around. So you might be asking, what's the alternative?

[00:06:18] Nicole Meier: If we're moving past the era of templates and formulas, which I hope we are, what are we moving towards? I think we're moving towards something much harder and much more rewarding. Soul-centered work, individual calling, the kind of creative practice that's built from the inside out rather than the outside in.

[00:06:42] Nicole Meier: And I wanna be really clear about what I mean by that, because I think soul-centered work can sound precious or mystical or like something that only certain kinds of writers get to do. But that's not what I'm talking about at all. When I work with writers and I work with people writing everything from literary fiction to rom-coms, to thrillers, to memoir, what I see is that every writer has their own frequency, if you will, their own particular way of seeing the world, their own obsessions and questions and themes that keep showing up whether they plan for them or not.

[00:07:15] Nicole Meier: That's the calling, not some grand mystical thing. Just this is what wants to come through you. This is what you're here to explore and express and make sense of through your story. And here's the thing about calling. It's individual deeply stubbornly individual. Your calling might be to write a book that makes people laugh until they snort on the subway.

[00:07:39] Nicole Meier: Mine might be to write books to help people feel less alone in their confusion. Someone else's might be to create worlds so vivid and strange that readers forget where they are for hours at a time. None of these is better or worse. None of these follows a template. They're just ours. Another truth I've learned is that the calling evolves, especially with different seasons of our lives.

[00:08:03] Nicole Meier: It's not a fixed thing. You figure out once and then follow forever. It shifts as you shift, as you learn and grow and live more of your life. My calling as a writer has changed, like wildly changed over the course of my career. The books I needed to write 10 years ago aren't the books I need to write now.

[00:08:23] Nicole Meier: Yes, I still love what others have coined me as writing feel good books. That intention is still part of my core, but the questions I was exploring then have been replaced by different, deeper, more specific questions. And that's not a switch in personality, that's growth that's being alive and paying attention.

[00:08:43] Nicole Meier: I'm not going to lie to you. The path, the one without the template is harder in a lot of ways because nobody can tell you exactly what to do. Nobody can promise that if you just follow these five steps, you'll get the exact result you want. There's no foolproof system for finding and following your calling.

[00:09:02] Nicole Meier: There's no productivity hack that will make the soul work easier. What there is is practice attention. The willingness to get quiet enough to hear what's actually yours to write, even when it doesn't match what you think you should be writing or what seems smart strategically, or what's trending in the market right now.

[00:09:24] Nicole Meier: And this takes courage, real courage. It takes courage to write the thing that feels too weird, too specific, too much like yourself to follow the thread that doesn't fit into any of the popular genres filling the bookstore shelves. To honor your own rhythm, even when everyone else seems to be producing more faster and better.

[00:09:46] Nicole Meier: It takes courage to say, I don't know if this will work, but it's mine and I'm gonna trust that. And to be honest, I have to remind myself of this weekly, if not daily, because it's so easy to fall into the trap of make this thing because that's what's selling and attractive right now. Trust me, I know. On the flip side of this, the universal template for writing a book or crafting an essay, article blog that works promised certainty, the calling I'm talking about offers no such thing.

[00:10:16] Nicole Meier: What it offers instead is truth, authenticity, the possibility of creating something that could come only from you. So what does it actually look like to work from a calling instead of a template? It looks like getting quiet enough to notice what keeps showing up in your work, what themes, what questions, what kinds of characters or situations or emotional landscapes you find yourself drawn to Again and again, it looks like honoring your natural creative rhythm instead of forcing yourself into someone else's productivity system.

[00:10:51] Nicole Meier: Side note, I cannot tell you how many writers come to me creatively frozen because they've tried too hard to fit into all the systems out there. Maybe you write best in intense bursts with unproductive periods in between. Maybe you need to write every single day to feel sane. Maybe you draft fast and revise slowly, or even vice versa.

[00:11:15] Nicole Meier: None of these is right or wrong. They're just yours. It looks like learning to distinguish between the voice of your calling and the voice of your fear or your inner critic, or your idea of what you should be doing, because here's what's tricky. Sometimes the calling asks us to do things that feel uncomfortable or risky to write the scene that's too vulnerable to follow the story into territory.

[00:11:39] Nicole Meier: We don't know how to navigate to trust the process even when we can't see where we're going. Fear will dress itself up as wisdom and say, this isn't working. You need a better system. You need to follow a formula. You need to do what other successful writers do, but the calling knows better. The calling knows that your work doesn't have to look like anyone else's work.

[00:12:03] Nicole Meier: That your path doesn't have to follow anyone else's path. That what you're here to create is worth creating, even if, especially if it doesn't fit the mold. So how do we learn to hear the calling? How do we distinguish it from all the other voices clamoring for our attention? And there are many, am I right?

[00:12:23] Nicole Meier: I think it starts with creating space, literal actual space in your life where you're not just consuming content or following someone else's advice or trying to optimize your process. Just space to be with yourself and your work. Yes, I'm well aware that part of my work as a developmental editor is to dole out craft and revision advice through my Substack newsletters and also through my one-on-one work with authors.

[00:12:49] Nicole Meier: That's not changing. I still believe in getting help to identify your storytelling strengths and weaknesses, but what I'm talking about is doing the work in the ways that honor you. So it's about noticing, paying attention to what energizes you versus what depletes you, what feels like coming home versus what feels like performing.

[00:13:10] Nicole Meier: What makes you lose track of time versus what makes you watch the clock. Your calling is usually connected to the things that make you feel most alive. Not necessarily easy or comfortable. Sometimes the calling asks us to do hard things, but alive, present. Like exactly where you're supposed to be doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing.

[00:13:34] Nicole Meier: I think the shift from template to calling from formula to individual truth matters more now than ever because we're living in a moment of incredible noise. Oh my gosh. We really are incredible pressure to produce and perform and platform and optimize, et cetera, et cetera. Every day we're bombarded with messages about what we should be doing, how we should be doing it, what success looks like, what real writers do.

[00:14:01] Nicole Meier: It's exhausting, right? It's so easy to lose ourselves to that noise, to start measuring our worth by metrics that have nothing to do with the actual work to chase outcomes. Instead of honoring process to forget why we started writing in the first place. I've done this, I've absolutely done this. I've gotten so caught up in what I thought I should be doing, what successful writers do, what's expected, what leads to results that I lost touch with what was actually mine to create, and every single time the work suffered, I can tell you that for sure, but the calling is what brings us back.

[00:14:38] Nicole Meier: It's what reminds us that we're not here to replicate anyone else's success or follow anyone else's path. We're here to create our own body of work in our own way, in our own space. And that work, that soul-centered individually authentic work is what actually connects us with readers. Not because it's perfect or polished or follows the rules, but because it's real.

[00:15:03] Nicole Meier: Because they can feel that someone showed up fully and offered something true. So here we are at episode 100. What I wanna offer you, what feels most true, and most important is permission. Permission to stop following the templates that don't serve you permission to trust your own instincts, even when they don't match the advice.

[00:15:26] Nicole Meier: You're getting permission to honor your calling even when it evolves, even when it changes, even when it leads you to somewhere unexpected. This doesn't mean you ignore your craft or stop learning, or never look at story structure because I love story structure. Those things can be incredibly useful, but they're tools, not rules, supports not substitutes for your own creative knowledge.

[00:15:53] Nicole Meier: The question isn't, am I doing this right? The question should be, am I doing this true? Am I riding from the deepest, truest place that I can access right now? Am I honoring what wants to come through me, even if it's messy or imperfect, or not what I thought I'd be writing? Am I building a creative practice that actually sustains me rather than depleting me?

[00:16:18] Nicole Meier: Because here's what I believe after a hundred episodes of having these conversations, we don't need more templates. We need more writers willing to trust themselves to do the interior work. To build practices that honor their individual needs and rhythms and callings. That's what creates work that matters.

[00:16:38] Nicole Meier: Work that lasts work that could only come from you. So thank you. Thank you for being here, for doing this brave work of showing up to the page for trusting your calling even when, especially when it doesn't come with a roadmap. Thank you for these 100 episodes for the conversations and the comments for the emails and the dms sharing your struggles and your breakthroughs.

[00:17:04] Nicole Meier: I wanna thank you for being part of this community that's trying to figure out what it means to create from wholeness rather than depletion. I don't know what the next 100 episodes will bring, but I know it won't follow a template. It'll unfold the way it needs to unfold. Honoring what wants to emerge rather than forcing what we think should happen.

[00:17:25] Nicole Meier: And I hope you'll do the same with your work. So until next time writers, I ask you to trust your calling. Honor your rhythm, and keep writing from the truest place you can find. I'll see you next time on the whole writer.

[00:17:43] Nicole Meier: If you want to check out my coaching programs for fiction writers. Visit Nicolemeier.com. That's M-E-I-E-R. And if you like this episode, I'd love you to take a minute to leave a rating and review for this podcast. This will help more writers like you to discover the show and to get going on their writing journey.

[00:18:03] Nicole Meier: Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, happy riding everyone.