🤯 You're the Hero in Your Writer's Journey! (You have an arc.)
Don't forget YOU have a character arc, too!
Hi writer,
As a writer, you focus on your main character’s growth.
I know you know this.
If you’re writing a novel, the hero MUST change. Main characters must struggle, fail, choose, and ultimately, grow into a new triumphal state. Of course.
If you’re writing a memoir, guess what? Same thing. You, as the character, must start out with one set of character traits that morph into a set of more useful character traits by the end.
Character change = emotional journal = why readers read.
We get that, right?
THEN WHY DON’T WE GET IT AS WRITERS?
For a very long time, I thought that in order to be a good writer, I had to burst onto the writing scene as a hero already crowned in ink-stained laurel.
I thought I had to be a good writer in order to be a good writer.
Why on earth did I think I should be the exception that got to SKIP the character arc of becoming a writer?
In fact, I needed:
A premise - I wanted to be a person creating the books I loved to read.
An inciting incident - I made the Big Decision to try to write the book I dreamed about.
A context-shifting midpoint - The sudden and overwhelming realization that while I knew I had talent, I didn’t yet possess the skills to pull off a good book.
The dark moment - The terrible moment it became clear that not only did I not have the skills to write a first draft, I had NO IDEA what revision meant, and even if I had, I thought my draft was probably too terrible to save.
The resolution - With help, I learned how to breathe life into my mostly-dead book so that in revision, it awoke and became real. (Pro-tip - this happens for every book.)
Reality Bites
Because writing had always come naturally to me, I thought writing a book should come naturally.
But the fact that actually sitting down and writing a book felt impossible the vast majority of the time meant only one thing to me: I wasn’t a real writer.
And how dare I even try before I was ready?
So I read all the craft books. Took all the classes.
They told me HOW to do a lot of things.
But none of them told me the biggest truth:
Writing a book is just hard fucking work.
It’s wonderful, yes. Totally worth it.
But no one (NO ONE) finds it easy. (Read that again.) NOT ONE person who makes a living writing books will look you in the eye and say, “I love my job because it’s so flipping easy. I just make stuff up and people buy it.”
It’s such hard work.
The Great News:
That truth is exactly what makes me feel better. It’s precisely what I need to hear (all the time, because I forget this over and over).
Rachael, it’s just hard because it’s hard. Let it be tricky. Allow yourself to be frustrated. You’re not doing it wrong. This is just how it goes.
If you’re struggling to write?
That’s okay. That’s normal.
The struggle means you’re a real writer. (Doesn’t that feel amazing to realize? For perhaps the umpteenth time?)
You know who doesn’t struggle with writing? Non-writers. In the same way, I don’t struggle to climb mountains (because I’m too busy snacking and taking baths to want to climb a single one).
Please, my sweet writing friend, ALLOW YOURSELF to have a writing character arc.
Take your own gender-neutral hero/ine’s journey - hear the call to write, refuse that call for a while, go on the writing adventure, find your writing allies, face the darkest conflict, dig so deeply inside yourself that you hit gold, and get home again safely with your new chosen writing family.
Then do it again. And again.
Because of course, you don’t go on the character arc cycle once and call it good.
For every book you write, you begin a new character arc as a writer. Each of those arcs is nested under your Ultimate Writer Arc which will continue for the rest of your writing life.
And, my dear one, as long as you continue writing, you can’t get your writer’s arc wrong. (Can you take breaks? Of course. You’re still a writer. Can you quit writing forever? Of course, and that’s also okay, though you wouldn’t be reading this newsletter, so I know that’s not you.)
Isn’t it glorious to know that not only do you NOT have to be a Great Writer to start, but that you never have to worry about getting there? Your goal is just to be a More You Writer, a journey that never ends.
You simply have to keep putting one word on the page at a time. Fix those words later. Breathe.
You’re a writer. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.
What tiny step do you want to take now?
love,
Rachael
PS - Classes are open, and I won’t be teaching again until mid-2025, so jump in if you’re interested! There are still a couple of slots left in Revision and a few more in 90 Days to Done, and I’d love to have you, no matter where you are in your journey.
Former student Jody says: “I have been working on a novel for over ten years… and I can proudly say that with Rachael's help, I was able to complete my novel, and a week before the 90 days were up, I wrote THE END!!!”
PPS - I have to tell you: I’m in an AirBnb right now as I type this with my chosen writing family: Anne, AK, and Moira. I met these three writing marvels at the first RWNZ Wellington meeting I ever went to three years ago, and we just attended the 2024 Romance Writers of New Zealand conference. (It’s not related to RWA US, so it hasn’t gone down in a racist trash fire, woo!) It was the best conference I’ve ever attended, bar none. All love, all encouragement, all good vibes. And now I’m with my writing besties for four extra days on retreat. All we want to do is sit around and talk, but we’re also (mostly) introverts who need their quiet time and their writing time. Right now all I can hear is tapping and the occasional giggle at something they read on their screens. This afternoon, we’re going to the Christchurch hot pools to soak at the edge of the sea. Tomorrow, we’re doing a cheeky midweek brunch followed by an escape room (I’ve never done one!). My writing well is SO FULL. If you don’t have in-person writing friends, please GET SOME. Immediately. I know it’s hard, but you need them.
PPPS - Speaking of writing friends, here’s a shot that proves that Sacha Black and Becca Syme and I were all in the same place at the same time (joy!). If you’re a member at the $3 level over at Patreon, you can hear the mind-blowing chat Sacha and I had in my hotel room two days ago about the real secret to writing success (it’ll be out on my podcast next month for free - I won’t keep it from you!).
PPPPS - Regarding books needing to end in triumph: of course, there are books that don’t tie up with pretty bows, but the reader will still applaud as long as the main character is standing in a better place of deeper truth than she was in the beginning. And the vast majority of us aren’t writing books that end in tragedy, but if we are, the main character’s failure/tragic end is the triumph the book is built around.
Was this useful to you? Will you send it to a friend? And if you got this from a kind person who likes you very much, you can subscribe here!
YOU CAN DO THIS.