Hoo boy,

Last week was hard, and not the brace-yourself kind of hard. It wasn’t the kind of hard you see coming from down the road like the headlight of a train wobbling as it careens off the track. This was the ambush kind, the very real tiger leaping out of the fake bushes in the mall to eat you and your new shoes all in one gulp.

I found out that a bestselling author — lots more bestselling than I am — is coming out in a couple months with essentially the same book I'm writing.

Y'all.

The sadness of it sent me straight to bed.

And of course I know that no two people can write the same book. If you give me and two other writers the exact same premise, the same characters, the same first line — we'd produce three completely different books. That's not a comforting lie I tell myself, it’s just true. 

Similar books happen all the time. Once Kristin Higgins and I both wrote about a bookseller living in an old, converted church at the same exact time. Both of us worried the other would think we stole from each other, and of course, we hadn’t.

But. The novel I'm writing is incredibly specific. It’s a retelling of an old classic, with a very particular angle. And the book coming out in two months? Same classic, same angle, same vibe. Different author with a much bigger platform.

So I left work, went home, got in bed, pulled the covers over my head, redownloaded TikTok for some good old-fashioned dissociation, and spent twelve hours doing absolutely nothing except eating chocolate and hot cross buns. 

Which was exactly right.

I have rules around how I get through publishing disappointments (they work pretty well for lots of different let-downs). These help me move through the pain without allowing it to eat my face.

• Small Setback = 24 hours to wallow. Then back to the page. 

• Big Setback = 48 hours to really get into the suffer-wallow-whining. Then open the document again. 

• Full Catastrophe = however long it takes plus as many Cadbury Creme Eggs as I can fit in my shopping basket (which is a LOT, let me tell you). 

This one? It felt so bad, I didn't want to wallow.

I wanted to quit. Screw the book. Screw writing. I was done. Forever. Thank you, goodbye.

Even so, I knew in my heart that with enough time, I’d probably feel differently. Maybe. With some luck. And I knew I had to do one thing: 

I had to lean into the CRAPTASTIC feeling. 

(This is how we stay writers for the long haul. We really feel the feelings, without rushing past them toward the lesson (oh, god, I much prefer to do that). We just sit inside the flashes and bangs and yuck of it all until we move through the psychic electrical storm.)

Sure enough, 72 hours later, hours during which I’d (reluctantly) gotten up to live my life without the help of social media numbing, I was writing again and back in love with my book. (Perhaps I was even more in love. Take THAT! I’mma show YOU!) 

And I know a couple of things now:

1. Yes, this might affect my book's path to market. Maybe my agent will be able to sell it anyway. Perhaps the other book will help it sell! Or maybe she won’t be able to sell it because of the other book’s release, and I’ll self-publish it. We’re so lucky we live now, in a time where we have such lovely options.*

2. I’m still the only one who can write this book. Not that other author (who’s an annoyingly good writer, one I just can’t dislike, damn her pretty eyes). I have to write this book. Not anyone else. Me. That hasn't changed.

Now — I'm moving toward joy. This book makes me happy. Writing it, of course, is hard (I'm producing seriously shitty words followed by even shittier ones, and that's the job right now), but the book itself? I love it. So I'm following that.

That's the whole thing.

Feel the feelings. Take the time you need. Then go back toward what brings you joy.

Not what makes sense strategically. Not what seems most publishable. Joy. Go in that direction. Always.

FIRE SALE - My online evergreen classes are shutting down!

I’m shutting down my Teachable writing classes in about a month to make some changes, so if you’ve bought a class from me in the past, please download them to your computer in order to keep them!

Before they go, grab them for half price!

How to Publish in Today’s Market

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and

Stop Stalling and Write Your Book

Take 50% off each with code FIRESALE50 at checkout! (And don’t forget to download the modules so you’ll have them forever.)

Now, please, go write with joy!

Onward!

xo, Rachael

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PS - I’ve been watching people write more in two weeks of Ink Village silent sessions than they did in the three months before that. Scheduled time plus quiet company is a gorgeously simple trick that actually works. Two-week free trial, no commitment. CLICK TO WRITE

PPS - Please ignore typos! This, like all my writing, is human-created, never AI; therefore, my human fallibility will definitely show! 🤣

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