WOW! Women On Writing Blog: Jen Hatmaker

Thursday, April 18, 2019

art by Wesley Fryer (Flickr.com)

The title of this post may seem a little extreme for some of you, unless you're a big fan of Jen Hatmaker's podcast, For the Love, like I am. She asks every guest on her weekly podcast at the end of the interview: "What is saving your life right now?" (Answers can range from serious, such as therapy, to silly, such as coffee or Netflix binging.) This question is from a Barbara Brown Taylor book, a memoir titled Leaving Church.

So when I was thinking about this post, this question and answer popped up in my mind: "Podcasting is saving my life right now." And then I dug deeper to ask myself: why?

Working from home, sometimes doing menial tasks for my day job, and driving in the car, sometimes long distances, are the perfect reasons to listen to podcasts--along with walking, mowing the grass, and cleaning the bathroom. With my iPhone, podcast app, and earphones, it's so easy to have a funny podcast episode or information-packed episode entertaining me in seconds. I can't seem to listen to music and feel entertained in the same way, and watching TV while trying to do these tasks is just distracting and/or impossible. So podcasts save me from the absolute boredom that some of these tasks bring. It is the perfect solution. Plus, I'm learning so much from listening to them!

Besides the Jen Hatmaker podcast (which you should definitely check out the season that is titled, "For the Love of Books" if you don't check out every single episode, just like her number one fan--me--does), I also love Writing Excuses. This is a podcast with authors Dan Wells (horror/sci-fi), Brandon Sanderson (fantasy/sci-fi), Mary Robinette Kowal (fantasy/sci-fi/historical), and web cartoonist Howard Tayler. Their tagline is: "Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart."

You can tell just from that tagline--there's humor involved. These guys and this gal are in the author trenches and want to help all writers--beginners to advanced--navigate every part of a writing career from the actual crafting of fiction (characters, plotting, tension) to marketing and building a platform. I recently found this wonderful program, so I've only listened to a handful. But I've enjoyed them and take notes when at home (not driving or mowing the lawn). My marketing class students will be so thrilled to hear that I'm adding listening to this podcast to my syllabus. (BTW, you don't need a smartphone to listen to a podcast. You can go straight to the website, where all smart podcasters have their episodes downloadable from the web.)

The other "writing" program I'm currently listening to is the Smarty Pants Book Marketing Podcast. This features Chris Syme (faith-based writer and award-winning marketer) whose mission is to help authors sell more books with less marketing. (Insert the heart-eyes emoji here!) She co-hosts this podcast with her daughter (SO COOL!) R. L. Syme (Becca) who is an indie author of cozy mysteries and historical romance, and who runs "Write Better Faster" . The episode I started was the one titled: "Should You Start a Podcast?" and I think the advice was great. Chris's sincerity really comes through. I can't wait to check out some of their other episodes.

And why did that particular episode catch my attention, dear Muffin readers? Well, because I am 95 percent sure that I'm stepping into the podcast world with WOW!'s and Angela's support. We aren't sure how it's going to look or who all will be involved (all the staff members are currently pretending like I have lost my mind and asking who can take on one more thing?), but I'm serious about this. SO serious that I have read Sheena Yap Chan's article on podcasts in WOW!'s issue 90 a few times now and wound up buying this book the other day:

I'm so excited about this! Ideas are flowing. Podcasts makes me want to read more, write more, and find new authors and topics to explore. They are definitely saving my creative life at the very least, if not my actual life, giving me something to focus on during the mundane everyday tasks that we all have to accomplish. So while you wait for me to figure out what the podcast's going to look like, check out those podcasts above or let us know one you really like in the comments below.

Margo L. Dill is a writer, children's author, editor, teacher, and writing coach in St. Louis, MO. She is soon hoping to add "podcast host" to her resume. For the time being, you can check out her writing and books at MargoLDill.com or her editing business at Editor-911.com. She also teaches a monthly novel writing course for WOW!, which you can check out here. The next one starts on May 3!

4 comments Becca Syme, book marketing, Chris Syme, Jen Hatmaker, podcasting, podcasts, Writing Excuses, writing podcasts

Writers are Like Snowflakes Or Figure Out What You Need

Thursday, April 04, 2019

Writers are as different as snowflakes. I don't mean the new meaning of "snowflake" that's unfortunately appearing on social media and isn't very nice! I mean the way we used to think of snowflakes, even five years ago--each one is delicate and different and beautiful. The same with writers--we are each delicate and different and beautiful.

This is on my mind because I recently had a writing coach call with a writer, Kay, who was trying to decide if she should take my WOW! Novel Writing course ("A new session starts on Friday," Margo's dog Chester says, "Margo is embarrassed by shameless self-promotion, but I gotta eat!") in April, or if she should hire me at another time, or if she should not. As I talked to her, I had an a-ha moment. Yes, my a-ha moment was that writers are like snowflakes, but hold on--I'm gonna bring this all together with a point that will make this worthwhile.

I recently listened to Jen Hatmaker's podcast For the Love, which I have been going on and on about to anyone who will listen. I am planning a blog post somewhere soon--my blog or here--on how podcasts saved my life right now. (Those of you who listen to Jen--yes, we are on a first-name basis even though she has no idea who I am; she's just that nice--understand why I said "saving my life right now.") Anyway...I am catching up because I didn't realize how amazingly awesome she is until recently. I listened to the Gretchen Rubin interview, and she talked about her book: The Four Tendencies. I kind of think, after listening to this interview, that every writer should read this book or at the very least, take the free quiz on Gretchen's site to find out your tendency, and here's why...NOT EVERY PERSON IS MOTIVATED BY THE SAME THING!

No kidding, you say?

I'm not kidding. Some people are motivated by external rewards. Some people got it all within them and can figure it out without any help. Some people need accountability, and some don't. Some people are rebels--that is a tendency--and those people can't figure out what they need except they don't need rules, that's for sure. (You should probably buy Gretchen's book because I am going on memory here, and I've been binging Jen Hatmaker podcast episodes, like people binge Netflix...)

So while talking to Kay (remember the writer from above), I asked her a series of questions about how much of her novel was finished and what she needed to produce the work she hoped to produce. Did she need a deadline? (My class provides that because a section is due every week.) Does she need feedback? (Also given by me through the class) Or does she just need accountability? An author friend or really any friend could provide that--a friend who would check in with her to see if she wrote the amount of time or the amount of words she said she was going to write. But first, Kay has to figure out how her writing process and motivation works. And that's what I'm saying to you today.

You can read article after article about how to be more productive and how to finish a novel. But if you don't know if you need deadlines, short time increments, weekends, accountability partners, or what--then you won't know how to motivate yourself, and you may spend time and money on systems that don't work for you to finish whatever writing you want to finish.

Take some time--use a journal, take Gretchen's quiz, think about how you completed things in the past--and then pick the best method that works for you, so you can accomplish your goals. Of course, my dog Chester hopes you want a deadline and some positive and constructive feedback in my class, but I want you to choose what honestly works for you!

Margo L. Dill is an author, editor, and writing coach/teacher, living in St. Louis, MO. Sign up for her Writing a Novel With a Writing Coach class here.