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5 Ways to Handle Feedback & Criticism Like a Champ

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Getting feedback on your writing, or any other task, isn’t always easy. I recently got my manuscript back from my editor with all of her feedback and notes and a video outlining all the things I needed to fix. That same week, I got a pretty harsh review on one of the free Tarot Readings I’m doing as part of my Tarot Reader Certification program (more on that later). In both cases, I felt my heart race, my chest tighten, and I felt like I was on the attack. 

This is normal! 

But instead of crying in my coffee or yelling at the sky, I did these 5 things and felt like a true champ. 

Give yourself time and space

Don’t read through the feedback or reviews (seriously, this works great for those less-than-stellar book reviews!) until you have time to devote to reading it slowly and the mental space to not be distracted by TV, your family, or day job tasks. You want to set time on the calendar to hold space for yourself and for the feedback.

Let yourself feel your feelings

Reading feedback or criticism of any kind is going to bring up all kinds of feelings, this is natural. You’re going to feel defensive, upset, angry – don’t stop yourself from feeling these things. Talk it out – even just to yourself, write it out, dance it out, draw it out, whatever you do when you have big feelings – let yourself feel all the things. This is another reason for taking space, because you want to have the time to feel and process these things.

Take a break

After you read through the entire thing, and you’ve let yourself feel all the feelings – give yourself a break. If this is a major criticism or feedback from your boss or your editor, take a day or two. If it’s something smaller (but still just as serious to your psyche) maybe an hour or two will be sufficient. But give yourself that extended time to let yourself process what you read without responding. This is important – do not email, do not respond, do not take any actions or make any changes until you let yourself take that space away from the feedback. Please, don’t be rash – we can let our emotions get the best of us, send off a quick email, and then realize too late what we did. You don’t want to burn any bridges or cause any hurt feelings.

Re-read the feedback

After your break, re-read the feedback. See how you feel now? Still angry? Feeling better?  Can you now see their point of view? Especially in the case of an editor’s feedback – can you see that she might be right – even if only on certain things?  Is this something you are willing to fix?  Start asking yourself these questions while you re-read the feedback as many times as you need. If you need to email them back or respond in some way, start taking notes about what you want to say. Again – do not respond yet. If you’re still feeling very prickly or on guard, repeat the steps above – talk out your feelings, take a break, and come back. You don’t have to agree on everything but you do need to be able to express that in a calm, clear manner.

Fix the problems

Once you have calmed down, seen the feedback from the other person’s point of view, and responded in a mature manner it is now time to make the necessary changes. Do you need more input? For example, my editor and I are meeting this week to work on a new editing plan for the final draft of this book. In the case of my tarot reading, I just made some choices for how to read going forward, no further input needed. And if you decided not to change something, and you’ve told them in a clear and calm manner, can you live with that choice? Good! 

How do you handle feedback or criticism? Could you try these next time the situation arises? What do you think might happen? Let me know in the comments below!

Next time, I’ll be talking about my editing plan and how to create one for your own book, see you then. 

Ghosts of Writing Past

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

I was doing some rearranging the other day – not cleaning, not decluttering – just rearranging of the stuff, and I found an old binder that had writing pieces I did when I was a kid.  Now these are not the first things I ever wrote, I’m sure, but they are the oldest things I have in this apartment.

To highlight just a few — an autobiography I wrote in 2nd grade, a small booklet written in French about Ma Famille in 3rd grade, a how-to paper about loading a program onto a TANDY computer, and one of my favorites – a small descriptive piece about Main Street in Walt Disney World from 1990 (I was 14 years old!).

MAIN STREET IN WALT DISNEY WORLD

As I walk through the gates at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and step onto Main Street, I see the glorious blue towers of Cinderella Castle at the end of Main Street.  

I get the feeling that I’m in a small nineteenth-century town.  I see the horse-drawn carts taking people to the castle. I see shops such as the Drug Emporium, the Penny Arcade, and a Candy and Ice Cream Shoppe.  At the end of Main Street I can see six different paths leading to different lands of the Magic Kingdom.

All of the people shopping, eating, riding, walking, looking, and taking pictures are smiling and enjoying themselves. 

I think Main Street in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is a fun and exciting place to be. 

Let me first say, I still love Main Street and seeing the Castle for the first time each trip always brings tears to my eyes — so the love of Disney, Magic Kingdom, and Main Street haven’t changed.  Luckily, my writing style has improved somewhat. HA

As I was re-typing that piece I kept wanting to edit and fix and change (I didn’t) – especially redundant phrases – and I wanted to change up the pacing, the sentence structure, and give more details — like what about the smells coming from the bakery and the popcorn carts? What about the sounds of kids who are already crying? What does the shadows look like on the ground as the sun goes through the massive amounts of balloons being sold?  What does the park smell like after it rains?  Or after the horses have gone by during a parade and left their fun…uhm, deposits?  

Writers have you ever looked back on your old writing? What has changed for you?  What has stayed the same?

For me, the things that are still the same when I write are not knowing where to cut off for paragraphs and using way too many examples and action words (shopping, eating, riding, walking, looking — okay, we get it!).  

Readers…was this a fun peek into the child-like mind of Jennifer?  I try to stay in this mode, or a little older, when I’m writing my characters – what would a young adult see when they’re standing on Main Street or writing about it later and telling someone else?  I try to keep this wonder in all things honestly, but especially when writing my Young Adult coming of age novels.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Yay….we have reached the end of our journey – but before I get into this week’ spread, I wanted to announce the name that my Instagram readers came up with for our short story – and I have to say, it’s pretty darn perfect — Mysteries, Deception, and The Full Moon!  Ahhhh, I love it!

Ok, now I’d like to introduce you to the Happily Ever After spread where you can make sure that all of your loose ends are tied, that you and your characters are happy (or as happy as they’re going to be) and that your ideal reader will be satisfied with the ending you give them.

Journaling Prompts

Just like last time, I have a few journaling prompts or things to think about before you dive into this spread:

  • What happens next, after I type The End?
  • How far from my planned ending am I?
  • Am I happy with the current ending? Why or why not?

Once you have those thoughts pretty firmed up, move on to the five questions below and find out how things are doing as we near closing the book, so to speak.

The Reading

For us, I feel like Paige has most changed by growing up some.  She became more focused, less wishy-washy about what she wants out of life and she now realizes that life isn’t always fair – there’s hard work, difficult choices, and consequences to her actions.  I feel like she’s learned that truth isn’t always easy to deal with and one person’s truth affects others – and they might not be in agreement.

Since we are using an antagonistic force, rather than a person, I feel like that morphed from being karmic cycles to more about vision and being in control of one’s own life.  This ties in nicely with Paige’s character arc from beginning to end as well.

I need to make sure all of the stuff with her Dad is dealt with so that the audience knows if they’re going to have some kind of relationship after all is said and done – basically that nothing is left unsaid.  Because I feel like my ideal reader will want to see Paige becoming more in control of her own life, dealing with grown-up issues as best she can – rather than running, hiding, lying – and being more prepared to deal with adult relationships and problems.

What do you see in the cards?  I’d love to know your final thoughts before I take all of this and complete final edits and proofing to make this the best short story ever!  I’m going to be taking one whole week off to do this and get the PDF ready and then I’ll be sending it directly to my newsletter on Friday, September 3rd so make sure you drop that email into the red box below to join now!

I also wanted to thank you – this has been so much fun, given me a cool diversion from editing my novel, and a chance to take my new spreads out for a spin.  If you have any questions about using tarot in your writing, please let me know below in the comments or send me an email.  

The End (First Draft)

I was just about to walk out of my father’s house, for what felt like the last time, when he came rushing out of the back room.

“Don’t leave,” he said.  “Not yet, not like this.”  

I had the door half way propped open and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.  Heidi was in the car, and it was running, I knew I couldn’t stay in here much longer.  But I also didn’t want to leave with things left unsaid.   We had both hurt one another, and leaving now would make things harder later.

I shut the door, turned around, and leaned against the door.  Dad and I looked at each other.  Him waiting for me to speak, me waiting for him to speak.  

Finally he sat down on the couch and said, “I know I’ve said things, mean horrible things, and I think I meant them in the moment but if I could take them back, I would.”

I sat down on teh arm of the chair closest to teh door and sighed.  “I know,” I said. I rubbed my arm with the opposite hand. “I said things too.”

“Yes, you did.”

I looked up and saw how broken my Dad actually was.  He was teetering on losing it.  He had lost Mom to prison and was now about to lose his only daughter because of his inability to deal with change.  He had hurt me, caused me to question so many things, but he was my father and without Mom in the picture, was it fair to leave him behind completely?

“I’m sorry,” I said and I meant it.  I was sorry for hurting him, for saying things I knew would cut deep.  “I have to go, but I don’t want to lose you.”  

He smiled, but still looked sad.  He nodded and I got back up.

“Don’t be a stranger,” he said not moving from the couch.  This was something he used to say to his best friend when he would come to visit from Seattle.  Don’t be a stranger meant hurry back, call sometime, send a funny text when you get a chance.  Was that all we were going to be from now on?

“I won’t Dad, I promise.”  I opened the door and walked out onto the porch.  It felt like years since I came home from that first date with Heidi, before Mom was arrested, before any of this happened.  The door shut behind me and I walked away from the house and to the car.

Thank you for joining me on this journey — if you are a new subscriber to my newsletter and would like a copy of the finished story – just email me and I’ll send it right over! -Jennifer

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Stuck In The Middle With YOU

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Middles are hard to write, heck even this blog post about Middles and thinking about writing the middle of our short story has me feeling well, kinda icky.  I actually came up with some fantastic ideas using this spread and I’m still not 100% feeling the actual writing I did.  Who’s with me?  Show of hands — who hates writing the middle of anything? Or do you find endings harder?  Wait until next week baby!

Journaling Prompts

For this spread, I include some journaling questions so you can think about your story or novel before just diving into this spread so I thought I would share.

  • Is it really a crappy story or are you just bored and need a break?
  • How far off your original outline or idea are you?
  • What your Main Character say about your story so far?

Okay, once you get some of that out of your head and down on paper, you’ll be ready to do the spread and get some further insight.  

The Reading

For us, I feel like Paige has options and she has a choice to make – stay loyal to her Father (who’s being a right royal pain) or leave and be with Heidi and start a new life?  Since we don’t have a traditional Antagonist, I kind of summed this one up by saying that someone needs to face the music, face reality and stop living in dreamland.  Which does speak to our overall Karmic force that we’re dealing with – it’s kind of now or never time.

New conflict I can add includes money and time – are we running out of it? Is there a deadline I can add to the story?  Deadlines are great, that ticking clock can amp up feelings and the push to make a decision.  I also see more of that having to choose and decide which side – family or lover – needs to happen and quick! 

To move the overall story forward, I had this idea of Paige betraying her father and telling him that she’s going to say Goodbye to Heidi but when she sees Heidi, she abandons that and makes plans to run away.  It’s a good conflict,  and it shows us that Paige isn’t thinking with her head but rather her heart – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I feel like in this situation is going to lead us to more trouble.

What do you see in the cards? What are you hoping happens for Paige and her Dad? What about Paige’s relationship with Heidi?  Head on over to Instagram to help me with Titles for our story this weekend and let’s talk about Middles and how much they can suck!

The Middle (1st DRAFT)

I walked out of the house and got in the car.  As I clicked the button to turn the engine, I thought about what I had just said to Dad.  Was I really going to break up with Heidi? Was I really going to say goodbye, forever, never seeing her again? I had made my choice.  I backed out of our small driveway and made the quick drive over to her house.

She was sitting on her porch looking up at the moon, waiting for me.  She looked happy to see me, she had no idea when I called what I was going to say.  She stood up and smiled at me as I pulled into her driveway.  I turned the car off and sat there.  I could do this, right?

As I got out, she came off the porch and over to me.  She lightly kissed me and put her arms around my waist.  Oh no, her orange scented perfume wafted into my nose and I could feel myself getting warm, remembering when we were together last.

I pushed her away from me.  “I can’t do this,” I said.

“Do what?”she asked me.

“I need to,” I started but her eyes sparkled in the moonlight nad I lost my nerve. “I need to sit down.”  She led me into the house and I flopped on her couch.  She sat next to me and rubbed my arm with her hand. Her skin felt so smooth against mine.  I wanted to kiss her nad never stop.  

“Are you okay? You sounded funny on the phone,” she said.

“No, yes, I don’t know.”

“Well, then, at least you’re sure,” she said and laughed.  It sounded like music and I just wanted her to keep going, tell her stupid jokes and hear that sound forever.

I shook my head and started to cry.  She kissed me again and wiped my tears.

“You were coming to break up weren’t you?” she asked.  I shook my head yes and closed my eyes tight.

“Don’t,” she said quietly.

“Okay, I won’t,” I said back in a whisper.  I knew in that moment that I had nothing else to lose. I had chosen Heidi over my dad and there was no going back. 

Keep Reading — And They Lived Happily Ever After can be found HERE

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Once Upon A Time…

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Okay, now we are getting into the writing – finally!

This spread will get your creative juices flowing, give you some amazing ideas for how to start your very first scene (or in our case, the first page) and what conflict your characters are facing. Each scene or chapter needs its own conflict – which can be tricky to write (at least for me) so pulling 1-2 cards for each scene to work out the problem can help save you from getting stuck halfway through a draft.

I pulled cards to answer my 5 questions…I feel like Paige is doing something slightly secretive, it’s nighttime and her intuition is coming into play. I think her motivation is to protect itself, help her make a difficult decision – or figure out two sides of an issue. I see the overall conflict of this scene is Heidi, our love interest, but it’s also saying that Paige is overcoming some fears and dealing with unconscious desires. 

The other person in this scene is her Dad. He’s feeling confident and normal – even social and is happy seeing his daughter grow up and become a woman. This all tells me that the very first scene happens before the Mom is arrested. They are in the status quo of a happy existence right now, unaware that tomorrow (?) that the world will come crashing down around them.

Exciting place to be before we get to the Muddy Middle – which is next week’s spread.

Here is my very rough, right out of my brain first draft using these cards as inspiration. Let me know what you think in the comments below or email me and this weekend let’s have a conversation on Instagram about beginnings and what I can do to make the first draft even better. Yes, that’s right – for the next three weeks you get to help me rewrite and edit what I actually put on the page. 

Seriously, I’m so giddy about all of this right now, I can barely stand it. Okay, let’s get into it!!

The Beginning (1st Draft)

I could still taste her strawberry lip gloss as I walked down the boardwalk toward our house. I wasn’t in any hurry to rush home, but my curfew was just minutes away. Turning around, I searched for her, but she was long gone. She did say her car was parked just a few feet down the beach. She was probably half way home already.

I wasn’t expecting to kiss someone today, but she had been so funny. And that crooked smile.

Last year I was all about Troy, and then Devin, but Heidi was something else. For one thing, she had to be at least 5 years older than I was. She mentioned a job in the morning and seemed quite serious about it – so it couldn’t have been just some shop along the boardwalk like me.

Dad was sitting on our small porch, reading a book, the little book light on top illuminating the page he was on. He was in the rocker that we had purchased for Mom that past Christmas, slowing going back and forth as he read, finger on the page of an actual book even though his Kindle was sitting next to him on the little table. He glanced at his watch, then up at me.

“Cutting it close, huh Paige?” he asked with a smile.

“I know, sorry. Lost all track of time,” I said and sat in the small non rocking chair that was on the other end of the porch. Our house faced the beach and I could hear the waves before I saw them crashing under the moonlight.

“Anyone in particular making you lose track?” he smiled. He knew me well, but since this was so new and I still wasn’t sure what was happening I didn’t want to answer him. I had never kissed a girl before. I had found them cute before, that sensation wasn’t new but I had never acted upon those feelings before.

“Maybe,” I said bowing my head so he wouldn’t see me blush and maybe he would stop asking me questions. He was in a good mood though. “How was work?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Really good, we closed a deal to help build a new eco friendly office space downtown.”

“Nice,” I said standing up to go in for the night, “Congrats, Dad.”

“Thanks. Be quiet going in, your Mom came home in a funky mood and went right to bed,” he said and put out his hand for mine.

I held his hand and smiled. I thought about Heidi holding my hand just moments earlier, while we starred up and discussed the full moon.  We talked about our sun signs and giggled while we talked about the favorite things to do at night.  Dad squeezed my hand and brought me back to the present moment. 

“Is she okay?” I asked, bringing it back to Mom.

“She just seemed kind of sad, but didn’t want to talk about it. I’m hoping a good night’s sleep will help.”  He kissed the top of my hand and dropped it. I walked into the quiet house and made my way to my bedroom. Passing Mom and dad’s room, I could hear Mom softly snoring.

Keep reading — Stuck in the Middle With YOU can be found HERE

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Let’s Meet The Rest Of Our Cast

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

So originally I wanted week 3 to be actually writing the beginning of our story, but after the simple outline was finished I knew I needed to spend a tiny bit more time with the characters.  Again, instead of a formal tarot spread, I just pulled 1-2 cards for each person.

If you’d like to catch up – here’s the article for Week 1 and Week 2

PAIGE

Okay, let’s jump right in with our main character, Paige. I pulled a card for her inner strength and her inner demon so I could get into her brain and find out what she wants in this world and what’s holding her back.

Inner Strength/Wants – Strength

I see this card showing us that she has great confidence and self-esteem, she knows what she wants in life – something to do with animals, possibly a veterinarian or someone who rescues animals.  She has great inner determination and knows exactly how her life is going to go.  Optimistic even.

Inner Demons/Issues – Temperance

BUT I also see that with that determination comes some self-absorption or selfishness, she feels the world should revolve around her. She’s a bit insensitive at times, even tactless and I’m curious about her spirituality.  I get from this card that she might have lost faith OR that she really wants some kind of connection to a higher power and can’t seem to get there.

FATHER 

Side note, I’m going to be doing some polls over on my Instagram this weekend to figure out names for the other two characters so join in, please!!!

I just pulled one card to get an idea about who this guy is and got the 5 of Wands.  Very interesting. This card’s “book” meaning is all about conflict but I’m reading it more like they are building something together.

I think her father works for an eco-friendly construction company (remember it’s California) as either the CEO/founder or one of the higher up VPs.  He was an old hippie who had to grow up.  Why am I seeing Alex P. Keaton’s father for this?  I see that he’s passionate and willing to fight for what he thinks matters.

LOVE INTEREST

Instagram this past weekend chose a female FBI agent for our love interest with the twist that she was on the team who arrested Paige’s Mom for attempted murder. What?! This is getting really good. I pulled two cards just because one card didn’t feel like enough information.

I pulled the Moon card first and I see that there’s some repressed emotion and inner confusion – maybe around falling for a newly adult woman – and some fear or anxiety.  As an FBI agent I assume you might fear for your wellbeing or life while on duty.  I didn’t feel like I had a full handle on this woman so I pulled the Hierophant and immediately I saw inner conflict – someone who loves the sold institutions (the FBI) and is very conservetive, but had to challenge the status quo to be considered an equal as a woman in a mostly male-dominated field.  Interesting inner life we’ve got now.

Next week I’ll finally be ready to start actually writing!! I also have a fun Beginning of Your Story tarot spread too…and don’t forget, I’ll be sharing the full edited story as a PDF to my newsletter subscribers only, so join today! Not only will I be sharing the spreads I’ve used for this short story, but I know there will be some bonuses and goodies too!

What do you think of our little cast of characters?  Do you think 3 characters is the right amount for such a short story?  Let me know in the comments below.

Check out Week 4 – Once Upon a Time HERE

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Let’s Start With A Simple Outline

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Welcome to Week 2 of this fun tarot experiment where we will be working on a very simple outline using a 3-card spread for the Beginning, Middle, and End of our story.  

I shuffled and pulled three cards, laying them down side by side.  I usually start by looking at each one individually and then together in pairs.  I take notes and jot down all of my thoughts.  To save space, I’m not going to bore you with all of my ideas and notes — literally, it was about 3 pages of handwritten scribbles – but I will share some things I’m thinking about over on Instagram this weekend so make sure you’re following along there to help me decide!

And speaking of  Instagram, they really came through big time this past weekend and my lovely Page of Cups main character has a name — I’d like you to meet Paige (gotta love the play on words)!!  

Okay, so here’s the down and dirty outline I came up with.  What do you think?  What do you see in these cards? What would you add or change?  

Beginning

A happy family, happy memories of being together — something happens, a death/self-destruction and jail?  The happy memories are gone.  Paige has to act like the adult, her father is not handling things well.

Middle

During all of this, Paige falls in love – with someone she shouldn’t — someone who is connected to who hurt her family and brought them down in the first place – the cop’s son or a young FBI agent. Basically, he’s part of the system that’s now tearing her family apart.

Ending

Paige’s father tries to assert dominance, become the patriarch again by going back to old rules/old regulations/old religious ways of thinking about women.  This causes an even further tear in his relationship with his growing daughter – who should be getting ready for college or her next steps and now she’s terrified for her life and for her freedom.

I have so many questions:

  • Who is this person she’s fallen in love with?
  • What happened to her mother?
  • Why is her father so down on his luck? 
  • What happens after she falls in love?
  • What will she do when her father starts acting so differently?  

Whoo boy!  So many questions!!! This is exactly where you want to be when you start working on a new idea.  

If you’re writing a longer novel (or series even) you’d want to then move on to a longer story arc type spread, work through the entire hero’s journey to come up with your plot points, subplots and all the other things you need when cranking out 60,000+ words.  You’ll also want to pull cards to help with character development and help you create any additional characters. 

For me, I have some basic understanding of my overall story now and what Paige is up against – bad luck, karma, old vs. new, and the cycle of life that one must go through to become an adult sometimes.  

I was going to jump straight into the beginning of my story next week, but I feel like I need to know more about my main character’s wants and needs and inner struggle. I also want to pull cards for her love interest and her father. Then I will be prepared to write the beginning in Week 4 followed by the Middle in Week 5 and Ending/Finishing up in Week 6.  

Thanks for joining me on this journey.  Let me know what you would do with these cards? I had about four other ideas written down but this one felt the most interesting. I do have some things though that I’m thinking of tossing in so follow me on Instagram to help me choose this weekend.  

It’s going to be so much fun!!  

Check out Week 3 – Let’s Meet The Rest of Our Cast HERE

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Using Tarot Cards (And My Own Spreads) To Write A Short Story

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Yesterday, while I was doing the dishes, I was thinking about my social media and what I wanted to write about. I had some ideas written down but none of them were feeling very fun or exciting. In between soaping up some bowls and drying some plates, I had a really crazy idea – and I’ve learned to run with those without much hesitation because usually my intuition is pretty spot on. So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to an experiment…blog a book!  

Over on Instagram this past weekend I shared my secret project that I’m working on – Tarot Spreads for Writers – another crazy idea I decided to run with and have been working on since February. People seemed interested so I thought, why not share some of what I’m working on while also using my own spreads to create a short story here, in real time?!?!  

The goal is to have a 5,000-7,500 word short story written using my own tarot spreads within six weeks. The finished project will then be available as a PDF download (with a fun cover and copies of the spreads that I’m sharing) to my newsletter list — so sign up now!!  AND, for some extra fun, I’ll be having my Instagram followers help me choose names, plot points, and other things over on my stories so make sure you are also following me over there so you can help me out along the way! 

Characters

 This isn’t so much a formal spread as it’s more about pulling two tarot cards – one for my protagonist and one for my antagonist. But first, let me share a little about how I use tarot cards in my writing. I pull the cards and try to use my intuition and storytelling to figure out what the cards mean. Basically, I ask a lot of WHAT type questions. 

For example, what is the page of cups doing right now? What was she doing 5 minutes ago? What is she doing after this? Why is she holding that cup? What does that cup contain? 

Note: If you are completely new to tarot and don’t already own a deck, you can get a few apps that help you pull cards and use those to follow along. It’s cheaper than an actual deck and you get to see if you like the artwork before purchasing. If you want to learn more about tarot in general, I’m going to suggest Biddy Tarot’s site and books!! She’s amazing and her site is how I started learning more about the amazing world of Tarot. 

Protagonist – Page of Cups

 A young woman, emotional and extroverted, who is very into the beach and the sun and the surf. A true California girl, she loves to rollerblade in her pink skates and sand volleyball is the best exercise ever! She hates when people assume she’s vapid or stupid because of her blonde hair and slight Valley Girl speak, but she actually loves to read and is #1 in her school’s debate team. She has a very open mind and is extremely curious about the world around her. 

Antagonist – Wheel of Fortune

 Luck, circle of life, cycles, or a turning point. Rules and regulations – old world vs. new. I feel like the creatures around the edges are writing down people’s stories, keeping track and watching who does what – keeping score perhaps? I feel like this will be an antagonistic force rather than an actual person (but I might be surprised later when I do the 3-card beginning/middle/end spread). Another way of looking at this card is Karma or what goes around, comes around. It can also remind you to remember that miracles happen and bad luck can quickly turn to good with the right attitude. 

What’s Next

 What do you see in the cards? I’ll be sharing these thoughts on Instagram this weekend and asking for a name for my main character so follow me over there and let me know your thoughts! 

Next week I’ll be doing the basic 3-card Beginning – Middle – End spread to get a really simple outline and will announce the name that was picked this weekend. I’m super excited to share not only these spreads with you, but also my process and my story. 

If you’re a writer (or just looking for a fun challenge) and decide to do these spreads with me to come up with your own story, I would love to see it or hear about it. Please comment down below!!!  

Check out Week 2 – Let’s Start With a Simple Outline HERE

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How I Use Pinterest To Create Mood Boards For My Novels

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

As you know, my current work in progress has gone on quite a journey from short story to a novel about Leo dealing with his famous father to a novel about his sister, Etta, and NOW about two young High School juniors, Etta and Gina, dealing with their own ups and downs of family, school, and life. 

Along this very long, multiple year journey, I’ve lost my way and lost my passion a few times, but I feel like I’ve gotten back into a really good place and actually am excited to start this next round of edits and fixing things.  BUT I was also looking for a fun distraction between finishing up some new chapters and re-reading the novel so I turned to Pinterest.

Pinterest? Yup…I love creating mood boards for my novels and I realized that I had never changed the one for this book to reflect my new point of view character and her interests in the book.  Head here to see the full board if you’d like to see some elements of my book: St. Louis, High School, the violin, the musical Grease, and baseball – student athletes and the Cardinals!   

Basically, how I make a mood board is I start thinking about my novel as a whole and then think about each character and start putting in topics that relate to them and find images that I like.  

So, for example, baseball girls in high school and then softball because it’s hard to find girls playing baseball (which is a huge part of my novel).  For Gina – my new POV character, I started searching for theatre spaces, auditioning for theatre, and high school musicals but that didn’t yield too much so I went with the specific show she’s auditioning for in my book – Grease – and I found a ton of stuff!

I also like to describe my characters and find a few pictures for each of them.  I still have a few characters to add to my board but I have Etta and her family and Gina and her twin brother Carl added but still need their cousin Libby and all the parents for that side.  When I describe my characters I usually put in things like: short brown hair slightly nerdy teen boy and then scroll until I find one that I like, or that I think looks like what I have in my head when I write.

After creating my full mood board this past week, I decided to go one extra step and create an aesthetic over in Canva — what do you think? 

 

 

I think it captures the new novel perfectly and I can’t wait for you guys to read it!  I’m really hoping it will be ready by next Spring but we shall see what my editor thinks after I turn in the next round of edits in early September.

So…as a reader, do you like these sneak peeks into my author process? What else are you curious about? Do you want to see my outline? My editing notes or what I do digital vs by hand?  

Let me know and I’ll make sure I incorporate some of that into my blog posts moving forward.

 

 

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Unpacking The Privilege I Have In Being Able To Say I’m Not Political

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

After weeks of watching protests, listening to people on my Instagram feed, and reading articles and books I have realized how privileged I’ve been to be able to say I’m not political, or I don’t like to discuss politics – or the even more cringe-y worthy one, I hate politics, how boring. 

 

I have been thinking long and hard over these past few quiet weeks about where I stand, what values I hold, and how I think about the world…and I just assumed you, my lovely readers, would know some of these things but that’s not necessarily true. So, let me say very clearly – I stand in solidarity with Black people and I truly believe that all lives can’t matter until Black Lives Matter in this country (and in larger part, all over the world). 

 

What is happening to innocent black men, women, and children in this country is very wrong.  If all lives mattered, as I have heard people say time and time again, then we should have cared so much earlier about our citizens getting gunned down while driving, while sleeping, while jogging, or while playing in the park. 

 

Saying I’m not political or I don’t like to discuss politics shows my privilege. I should have cared sooner, I should have paid more attention, I should have been doing this reading and listening much, much sooner and for that I’m sorry.  But, I know better and from now on I will do better.

 

Writing these truths and being this honest is scary, because I don’t know if I’m going to say the right thing, but I also know that I didn’t want to say nothing at all. I am not a front line person – although I think the protests are needed, but I have been signing petitions, sending emails, adding new authors to my TBR list, reading books, listening to people’s stories, and sitting with how I can make a difference.

 

For starters, I’m going to get more involved in my local elections. I have always voted in the big Presidential elections every four years since I was old enough to vote, but I’ll be honest – I very often skip the little elections because I assumed they didn’t mean that much to everyday people.  Again, I was very wrong.  They affect my neighbors, they affect my friends, and they affect me and my family.

 

I vow to start researching how my tiny part of Queens does things, who is in control, what kinds of elections can I get involved with here – closest to home. Then expand that to Queens as a large borough and then on to New York City and finally, New York State as a whole. 

 

Once I’ve learned and explored and done that work, I’ll move on to the US government. I know from High School how things work as a general rule – or how they should work – but I want to expand that knowledge.  Like: Who are the Senators for NY? I’m embarrassed to say, I don’t know. I know our Mayor and our Governor and I assumed that was enough.

 

I plan on sharing what I’ve learned, how the research is going, and what it takes to get involved – mostly on my Instagram stories if you’d like to follow me over there.  But I can definitely write an update in the next month or so and share any links, books, podcasts, etc. that I have used. 

 

And, if you’re a lovely reader in a country outside of the US and would like to share resources with me to share with my larger readership – send me an email and when I do my next roundup, I’ll include them with your name and social media handle (if you’d like).  

 

I believe that together we can make this world, this country a better place for everyone!!