Category: Writing

6 Ways Tarot Has Made Me A Better Writer

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Sure, I was a good writer before I found Tarot but since I’ve started incorporating these magical cards with my writing….I’ve become even better!  How has it helped me?  Let me count the ways. 

 

Helps me get out of my own head

 

We all get stuck in our comfort zones, our own little ways of doing things, but using Tarot and the imagery in the cards helps me break free of that and see things that I might not have thought of before.  If the villain in your book always kills their victims in a certain way and you’re getting tired of that, pulling a card and seeing what else might be possible helps with the brainstorm process, helps your brain make new connections.

 

Helps me develop ideas

 

For my novels, Tarot has helped me create characters, develop subplots, helped with conflict, and gotten me out of stuck corners during problem scenes or sections.  I always get some new ideas, new things to think about that allows me to continue forward movement and continue writing – even if I need to fix things later, at least I have words on the page. 

 

I also use Tarot to help me come up with ideas for YouTube, Instagram, email sequences for my business, and my newsletter.  It really can help you come up with ideas for almost anything – tell the cards what you are looking for while shuffling and let the magic happen.  

 

Helps me deepen my relationship with my characters

 

Yes, I teach how to use Tarot to create characters – and you can check that out here – but it also helps me deepen those relationships, even developing friendships with my characters. Even with my villains and antagonists!! When I create characters I usually choose a Tarot card (or let the Universe provide me with one) and I’ll keep record of that so I can grab that card and “talk” to my character when I need to. 

 

I do this normally by journaling with them, but you can also record yourself speaking and answer yourself back as if you were the character – sometimes it can be super fun to do these kinds of things to help you learn more about your characters.  Ask them about their likes and dislikes, what makes them tick, why they do the things they do and what they want you to know.  I guarantee you will know so much more about them if you take the time to talk to them.

 

Helps me have a relationship with my Inner Editor

 

And speaking of creating relationships, over the years I’ve developed one with my Inner Editor.  I chose a Tarot card to personify that voice in my head and started having conversations, learning more about them and telling them more about me.  He’s changed over the years but we now have a very nice working relationship where he helps me (rather than hinder me) and I can write so much faster and with greater purpose than before.  

 

If you’d like to learn more about this process, I teach all about it in my signature course – Turn on the Tap, which is coming this June, so sign up for the waitlist here.

 

Helps encourage me when times get tough

 

Who here has cried over a draft or section of their writing? I have.  One of my favorite ways that Tarot has helped me become a better writer is it encourages me when times are tough.  Listen, things are not always going to be rosy when writing.  Sometimes we feel defeated, we get blocked for days or months, sometimes are characters are real jerks and stop listening to us, or sometimes we just paint ourselves into a corner and can’t see a way out.   Tarot can help you see the big picture.

 

For me, specifically, it helps me see how far I’ve come, how much I’ve already accomplished and how amazing my journey has been.  In the video attached above, I pulled The Magician card and realized how perfect that was for encouragement because we do all have the tools we need to move forward, sometimes we just need to remember how magical we are, how amazing we are for being able to pull words out of thin air and create whole new worlds and people!   The Magician reminds us that we can feel grounded while reaching for the stars – it’s a beacon to help you keep going.  

 

Helps me when I need a writing coach

 

In that same vein, Tarot has become somewhat of a writing coach for me.  Yes, I am a writing coach and have amazing support around me from a kick ass editor to a really awesome writing group, sometimes you need to be able to rely on yourself for answers. 

 

When you are having a panic over something at 3am, you can’t always call on another human being, but you can reach for your trust deck of cards to give you guidance and answers.   For this example, I pulled the Knight of Wands which is all about the fiery passion, nurturing your dreams and your projects while keeping both feet planted on the ground – it gave me a message of your project being precious and you being an amazing writer who cares so much and it shows! You can’t see it right now, but you have bigger things to conquer, bigger mountains to scale and you are going to do just fine!!

 

And that’s how I use Tarot as my writing coach, sometimes you need that little burst of inspiration to help you stay in the moment and keep writing.  We all need someone to tell us we are doing a great job and we don’t all have those people in our lives, so let Tarot do that for you.

 

By combining the magical tool of Tarot with the innate knowledge you have about writing can help take your writing career and journey from pretty good to freaking awesome.  Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and hopefully this gave you some insight into why I think Tarot is the best tool for writers to help unlock their creativity and keep them writing for the long haul. 

How To World Build Real “Fictional” Places

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

When most writers think of world building they start thinking about space odyssey, fantasy realms, or worlds with lots of magic but I’m here to tell you that it’s just as important when building out real “fictional” places to help ground your readers into the reality of your story.

 

What is World Building?

 

It’s setting the stage for my characters, the actors, to play upon. This can mean anything and everything from their house, the city they live in, to far off magical lands. The Young Adult books I write happen in real places – my first novel, The Art of Lying, is set in New York City. The book that’s coming out this summer is set in my hometown of St. Louise and my 3rd novel is set in the Circus. Now it’s not a real circus, but circuses are real things – so I think it counts.

 

To make sure these places ring true for your readers, you need to think of three things: Key Landmarks, Elementals and Character Interactions.

 

Key Landmarks

 

For this category, think about things like places – buildings, parks, homes; food – local specialties, likes and dislikes of the characters; proximity from one place to another – do your characters have to travel, do they walk everywhere?

 

To help you decide on these key landmarks, go to the characters themselves.  What’s most important to them? Do they need coffee in the morning to get going? Do they have a specific route they take to work or school? Then think about your story, what main problem does your story need to have? What would help or hinder the conflict? 

 

Once you have these key landmarks – you will need to use maps, pictures, interviews, or actually going there and doing real life research to help you get the small details right, which will go a long way to help with your setting and world building as a whole. 

 

 

Elementals

 

What year or time period is your book set? Present day, 1980’s, Colonial times, the future? What country does your book take place in? Things are going to be different in Ireland versus the United States, for example.  

 

Real “fictional” places can also be historical places, or setting your book in the future, but in a real life city, so make sure you keep these places and times in mind. 

 

What season are you in? It’s going to make a difference especially if your character spends time outside or needs to take public transportation, or is driving through the desert, or dealing with a climate change – like snow in Las Vegas (it happens, but it’s super weird). 

 

Remember, to keep your plot points in mind as well – when do things have to happen? For example, my 2nd book has the characters trying out for the high school varsity baseball team and trying out for the Spring musical – those need to happen at a certain point in the school year. 

 

Character Interactions 

 

How does your character interact with the setting? For example, if your character lives in the suburbs of St. Louis they are going to need access to a car, but if they are too young to drive what are they going to do? Bum rides off their older siblings, have to deal with car pools and their parents, or walk home? 

 

My suggestion at this point would be to interview your characters and find out how they feel about where they live – do they love where they are? Do they hate it and can’t wait to move as soon as they can? Do they love the setting, but hate the weather? What does your character think about the setting you’ve placed them and how does that help or hinder your story?

 

As you can see, world building is a totally different thing if you are writing a fantasy world or something up in space where you are in complete control of the setting – you have a lot more options and maybe more creativity, but it’s just as important when you’re writing about real places and real settings to get those specific details right – even if it’s just a small thing like how the park smells or how the food tastes, it really helps ground your reader into the reality of your book and helps them focus on the story and the characters. 

 

Let me know below one tiny detail you will be adding to your real world building in the comments below!!

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Mix & Match A Customized Writing Ritual Built Just For You

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Do you have a writing ritual that helps you put more words on the paper? Would you like one that’s totally customized just for you? 

 

I believe that having a writing ritual can help you actually look forward to writing so you sit down day after day with a smile on your face.  This is how I wrote the first draft of my third novel in 4 months (which is fast for me!) – by having a writing ritual that I could not only customize for me and my likes, but also how I felt each day.

 

There are four categories that I think make up the perfect writing ritual, read through and choose 1-2 items from each to start building out your customized ritual.  

 

CATEGORY ONE: GROUNDING

You want to come into your writing space, or writing project as clear as possible.  Back in my college theater days we had something called “leave your baggage at the door” where you would visualize all the stuff from your day – the fight with your roommate, the bad grade on the test – as baggage that you would drop at the door of the theater rehearsal or performance space.  The thing is this concept has been extremely helpful as a writer as well. You forget the fight, the bills or dishes piling up, and leave that baggage at the door so you can concentrate on your story.

 

This is how I ground, but there are other things you can do.  Deep breathing, meditation, feel your feet on the floor (or your butt in the chair) – anything that helps YOU be in the present moment so you can write without distraction or worry.  This needn’t take long, but will go a long way to give you peace of mind so you can enter your creative world. 

 

CATEGORY TWO: EXCITEMENT

This category is all about hyping you up so you are in a good mood to write.  I like to use music, either a particular song or genre.  Another thing I like to do is choose a Tarot card and do some light free writing. Some people read from their pervious writing sessions, dance it out, or light a candle.  Think of something that will amp you up so you have the energy to write for that day’s session.  This is where the customization can really come into play – what kind of energy boost do you need that day? Song and dance, a candle and three deep breaths, or will quickly reading the last line you wrote get you ready to start typing up new words? 

 

 

 

CATEGORY THREE: MOTIVATION

Okay, so you are in the present movement and you are hyped up, now you need to keep that motivation high to write for your session.  Personally, I continue using music but others have told me they love having a mood board to look at, character sheets with images, a favorite snack they can nibble on, or a timer they can try to “beat”.  Some people need complete silence and that’s great too, I suggest trying a few to see what works best for you most days. 

 

CATEGORY FOUR: REWARD

When your session is over you might feel like you are in a haze of creative energy.  For that I suggest a re-entry type exercise that can help you come back into the real world.  It can either mirror what you did at the beginning to ground – so pick the baggage back up, feel your feet on the floor, or do a quick meditation – or use some other technique like closing your project or laptop or just checking off that day’s session on a calendar.

 

Once you are back into the real world, you need to reward yourself for a job well done – I don’t care if you wrote two words or two thousand words, you deserve a reward.  Give yourself a gold star sticker, a piece of chocolate, a dance party, or 30 minutes to watch your favorite show.  You earned it!!

 

Now that you have a few items that you can choose from for each category, I want to ask you to look over your list and make sure at least one item each day is going to light you up, something that’s so fun you can’t wait to do it.  For me, this is music – it lights me up, keeps me motivated and makes me super happy.  What is that element for you? 

 

I would love to know what your current writing ritual is and what you might be adding now that you’ve read this article – what were you missing? What will definitely light you up so you can come back to the page (and the chair) day after day so you can finally type The End on your novel?

 

 

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How to Identify, Personalize, and Befriend Your Inner Editor

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Do you think you can quiet your inner negative voice while you write? Because I think you can. 


I don’t think there’s a writer around that has not had the issue of sitting down at their keyboard or notebook and hearing their inner voice saying things like:


“This sounds stupid!”

“Nobody is going to want to read this!”

“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”


We’ve all been there from bestselling authors to complete newbies. 


Everyone has that inner voice, that inner editor or critic. Some say you can’t quiet that voice, but I think that you can. I think it takes a little time, a little investigative work, and you gotta get into your mind a little bit, which is not always easy, but it’s so worth it!


Figure out who’s talking

Is it someone that you know? A parent, an old teacher or mentor, is it just a version of yourself? I have a snotty teenager that talks to me when I try to do TikTok or Instagram Reels. She’s fun. I also have that old teacher’s voice from back when I was doing theater. That voice is still there, unfortunately. 


Sometimes it is just that inner critic. You don’t really know where it came from – it’s just there. So first, you’ve got to figure out who is talking because that can actually help you figure out how you’re going to deal with them. 


Personify that voice

Even if you know who or what that voice is, if it actually is someone from your past, I still want you to personify them a little bit. For example, I know what my inner teenager looks like – wearing Doc Martens and other various nineties gear, listening to Alanis Morrisette.  I know what that old theater teacher looks like, right? But when it comes to that inner critic or editor, I needed to personify that voice, and I used Tarot cards for that. 


You don’t have to use Tarot, you can pull images from Canva or Pinterest, but if you are going to use Tarot, grab your favorite deck and flip through until you land on a card that gives you that vibe or feeling of your inner editor, something you connect with right away.  This step is important because our next step is to talk to this voice and I find that’s easier if you can look at something or someone. 

 

Interview them, start a conversation

I know that sounds nutty, but I promise you it works! I like to do this long hand in a journal, but you can totally type this up, or if no one else is home, just talk it out. Anything works, just start the conversation. I’d love for you to ask them some questions. Who are you? What are you doing here? Why do you feel the need to criticize everything I do?  Literally ask them and see what they come up with. I know it’s a little weird, but if we personify them enough, they just become another character and as a writer, you are used to talking to people that aren’t really there, right? We are used to creating characters and writing as if we are them, this is just an extension of that.

 

So, be you and then be them and go back and forth and have a conversation. Sometimes I like to write a full on letter to them and then write a full on letter back as if I am the inner editor, but now I’m so used to working with my card that I can speak via post-it note. That took some time though, remember we are building a relationship here. I want you to befriend your inner editor, and that takes time, just like in real life. 

 

When you meet a new person, they don’t become your best friend right away. You may have a very strong connection with someone, but it still takes time to develop that intimate connection. So don’t feel like you have to rush this process, take your time and really work with this inner editor and find out what they’re good at. try to understand them and help them understand you and your writing process.

 

The thing is, I don’t believe the inner editor is there to harm you or hurt you or belittle you on purpose. I think they’re trying to help you. My inner teenager is trying to keep me from being embarrassed when I do Instagram Reels or TikToks because my inner voice was like, you’re going to embarrass yourself. The inner teacher’s voice is trying to keep me on track, trying to get me to do my best. And the inner editor is just trying to make the words beautiful. They really are trying to help, they just do a really crappy job of it. They suck. They’re not nice. That’s the bottom line. They are not nice about it. So if we can befriend those voices, we can make them a little nicer.

 

Let them help you

Once that friendship or relationship is established then you can give them jobs to do, help them help you so they are not butting in where they don’t belong.  My inner editor is great at names and research.  What would your inner editor be good at?  Ask them and see what they answer – put them to work so they quiet down when you don’t need them criticizing you – like first drafts.  This really does work. It really does quiet that inner editor voice. 

 

I would love to know how you personified your inner editor? Did you use a Tarot card? If so, which one?!  Let me know in the comments below.

 

And if this is something that affects you and keeps you from writing, then I invite you to join my waitlist for my signature course – Turn on the Tap – which I’ll be opening up again in the Spring of 2022.  

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4 Things I Do To Defeat Writer’s Block

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Suffering from writer’s block can call one to feel guilty, shameful, and depressed.  I have four simple things that I do before, during and after my writing sessions that help me defeat writer’s block. 

 

Have a writing ritual

The beautiful thing about writing rituals is they can be pretty much anything you want! The key is to find a few things that help you get into the mood for writing and do them consistently.  I use Tarot cards, candles or essential oil diffusers, and music as my writing ritual.  These help me slow down and break away from my day, gives me a chance to journal or do some prewriting to help prime the well, and ground me into the scene I’m going to write. 

 

Having a ritual that you do every single time you sit down to write helps tell your body that it’s time to settle down, settle in, and start creating.  And even if the writing ritual is the only thing you get done that day, if you are consistent, eventually your brain and body will connect and words will start to flow. 

 

Keep your Big Why in mind

Before I start writing any book, I like to think about my Big Whys – both the specific book project and how it fits into my overall writing goals.  I like to keep this where I can see it so I can review if I start feeling disconnected or if writer’s block starts to creep in.  Reading it at least once a week might be helpful or re-writing it every so often might work better – try both and see what feels most helpful for you. Just make sure you are thinking about why you wanted to write this story in the first place to keep your motivation high and writer’s block at bay.

 

 

Befriend your Inner Editor

This is going to sound a little nutty, but I have befriended my inner editor.  We all have that negative voice, that inner critic that tells us – this doesn’t sound good OR no one is going to want to read this – which can affect our ability to sit down and write new words.  I don’t believe this voice can ever truly go away, but I do think if we work on making that voice a bit more friendly we can work with it rather than have it work against us. 

 

By becoming friends with my Inner Editor, I can give it jobs to do so it feels important and like it’s part of the writing team and therefore will leave me alone more often than not while I’m writing my drafts and editing. Now, I’ve chosen a Tarot Card that personifies my Inner Editor and then started a conversation with them in a journal – and yes, I wrote out both parts … Again, it sounds nutty but it works!

* If you think this is a cool idea, wait a few weeks as I have a whole blog post just about this concept coming up!  

 

Track your data

Every week I like to write down what worked this week, what didn’t work this week and what needs to be adjusted for the following week.  You can also do this every time you write as well, especially if you are testing writing times or rituals, by jotting down when you wrote, where you wrote, what rituals you performed and any other notes that will be helpful. 

 

If you track data you can catch problems before they become huge issues. For example, every time you sit down to write at 10am the words flow out of you with no issues but 2pm feels super hard to even write a sentence, let alone pages of words.  The trick here is to leave emotions out of it – yes, we want to note how you felt during your writing sessions, but I don’t want you to judge the amount you wrote.  It’s a fine balance but if you can take the judgement out and just look at the data you can see that 10am just works better for you – that’s good information, useful information that can help you plan out the next week’s writing schedule. 

 

Catching things early keeps us moving forward, rather than getting off the rails and then writer’s block just comes in and causes guilt, shame and depression all over again. 

 

I would love to know which of these four tips was the most helpful? Which one are you just itching to implement? 

 

And if these ideas got you excited to get back to writing, then I invite you to sign up for the waitlist for my signature course – Turn on the Tap – to get early intel and a discount the day before the cart officially opens in early February!!

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4 Creative Ways To Name The Characters In Your Next Novel

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

 

Anyone can grab the baby name book off the bookshelf, or use any of the apps available, but I think there are more fun and creative ways to come up with character names. 

 

Start with the time period and country your book is set

If you’re writing from a book set in the United States in the 1980’s you are going to come up with very different names than if you’re writing about Japan in the 1800’s.  My name, Jennifer, was extremely popular in the late 1970’s, especially in the midwest, versus what’s popular name in baby names so make sure you keep these things in mind before you jump into books, apps, or your own imagination. 

 

Think about the main theme of your book

Let’s say you are writing a Young Adult romance novel with the theme of love conquers all.  I would use that word – love – and search for names that mean love.  Then I would brainstorm other words that make you think of love.  Romance, roses, chocolate and use those to help search for names. 

What chocolate brands are out there? Can they be used for last names? 

What rose varietals are there? Can they be used for last names?

 

Use movie and TV credits

Speaking of last names, one of my most fun tips is to use movie and TV credits to borrow/steal actual real names.  This works extremely well if you’re writing a story set in another country.  Find a movie on Netflix or Amazon from that country and use the credits to grab names.  Note: I would google the meaning just in case it comes up as something weird or contradictory to your book’s theme.   

Use Tarot cards

Who didn’t see this coming? I like to shuffle my deck, pull a single card, and concentrate on something small – like a river, a flower, or a city scape in the background – and just brainstorm all the possible names that come up for me.

For example, with a river, I might think of the character River Song from Doctor Who, who is played by the amazing Alex Kingston. Or my favorite flower is the Sunflower, so a nickname for my character might be Sunny.  City names were really popular for awhile so you might have an Austin or Brooklyn or London.

This can be used in many ways, so pull cards and have fun with this process!

 

Which one of these tips was your favorite? Which one are you going to try? I would love to know, so share in the comments below. 

And if you loved this, then I think you would especially like my free training – Novel Narrator: Creating Your Book’s Characters in 30 Minutes Using Tarot – which you can grab here.  

 

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6 Questions To Get You Unstuck & Writing Quick

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Experiencing writer’s block can cause you to feel all kinds of emotions from shame to guilt to anger and back again. If you are dealing with writer’s block and you’re afraid you’ll never write again, I have six questions that can help you get unstuck and back to writing again. 

Note, if you’re like me and you love using Tarot, you can turn these into a spread by putting the first three questions on top and the second three questions on the bottom.  Otherwise, grab your favorite journal and let’s get journaling!

Q1: What excites you about your current project?

Think back to when you first had the idea or when you first started writing. Jot down all the things that excited you – was it the character? Was it the conflict? The theme? 

 

Q2: What scares you about your current project? 

Are you worried that you’re not ready to write this book? Are you writing a new genre or trying something new with your writing? Just write down all the stuff that might be holding you back. 

 

Q3: Why do you think you’re having writer’s block? 

Honestly, I think deep down we know why we’re stuck. We don’t want to admit it to anybody else, or ourselves. So, take a deep breath and let the words flow. Don’t judge yourself – just get it all out and down on paper. It will seem less scary.

 

Q4: What is the block trying to tell you? 

The block might actually be there to teach you something. Do you need to slow down and figure something out? Are your character’s not talking to you so you need to deal with them a little bit?  Write down what you think might be causing the issue. 

 

Q5: What do you need to know to bust through that block? 

So what came up in the previous question that you can now deal with? Do you need to stop and interview your characters again? Do you need to slow down and go through your outline? Do you need to research something so you can continue writing?

 

Q6: What is one creative solution that you can use to bust through the block? 

Now comes the fun part. Brainstorm some creative ways that you can bust through the block. Maybe you need to walk and talk, right? Get an app on your smartphone that allows you to dictate your words so that you can walk around your neighborhood or walk around your house. That’s one idea, come up with a bunch and then choose just ONE to start with. 


I would love to know what your one creative solution was, so please let me know in the comments below, and know that Writer’s Block happens to the best of us, but with these six questions you should be back to the keyboard in no time.

Adding Depth To Characters

How To Add Depth To Your Characters

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Creating characters that make readers fall in love takes time and many, many layers of development.

If you’ve taken my free training, Novel Narrator, and used Tarot to create your characters then you have an amazing character but to take that character and add some depth, we need to do a few more things.

 

What is my motivation?

Yes, this is a terrible actor cliche, but it’s true! Your character needs something to motivate them to do things in your book.  What do they truly want and what do they need by the end of their arc? This is usually two different things too, which can be confusing.  Let’s say your character wants to find the murderer – that is what is motivating them to take on the case.  But what they need is to have closure around their own father’s murder from twenty years ago – that will help them grow and evolve.  

 

Flaws make for real humans

I know we don’t like to look at our own flaws, be we all have them. From little quirks to big things we would like to change (or maybe we love them and others wish we would change) we have character flaws. These help your fictional characters feel like actual humans, people that your readers can root for and feel connected to. I like to use Tarot cards to help me find these, but you can also look toward friends or family and just tweak it a little.  For example, say your friend is always late, like annoyingly so.  To change it up a bit, maybe your character can always be early.  What would that do to your novel and the people your character has to interact with?

 

Friends and Enemies

Another layer to add on to these characters we are creating is how they act around other people.  Do they have quirks or coping mechanisms when they are around their parents? Do they have friends that bring out things they would rather hide about themselves? Are they putting on masks around anyone?  We all tend to do this, but it can be tricky to see, but adding this element to our novels takes our characters from blah to holy crap, I totally relate!

 

Using Tarot

Like I teach in Novel Narrator, I love to use Tarot to help me with all these layers.  If you used 1-2 cards to create your character, get them out and place them on the table.  Then shuffle your deck and add 3 more cards to help you add depth and layers by assigning one card per issue above – you can choose which card goes with which layer.

Choose your card, grab your notebook or open your document and start writing down all the ideas you get.  Remember – look at the background and foreground, use the colors of the cards, and think about what happened right before and after the card’s images.

 

If you haven’t taken my free character creation training, sign up below!!

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There Is Power In Numbers

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Why community is important, even if you are between writing projects

Writing can be lonely, and most of the time that’s exactly what we like about our chosen career, the solitude of talking to our imaginary friends.

But when those friends stop talking to us it’s helpful to have real life people, other writers, around to talk to us, offer advice, and provide feedback. This is why I believe that having a community of other writers is helpful, even if you are between writing projects.

I mean, are we ever truly not writing?

Even when I’m between projects – say my draft is with my editor and I don’t have time to start fully working on a second book – I’m still thinking about, dreaming about, and possibly planning that next book. We can say we are on a break all we want, our brains are usually pretty busy coming up with names, small details, or just getting excited about that next new shiny thing.

And having a community of like-minded writers, who understand the ups and downs of writing a full-length novel, non-fiction book, or scripts can be so vital during our down times to help motivate us, inspire us with their amazing projects, and let us remember why we started writing in the first place.

Yes, writing communities are very important when blocks pop up, but they can also be super important when things are going well to have that on-going, day to day support because writing can be lonely and knowing others are out there struggling to get words on the page each day with everything else going on in the world is the most amazing feeling.

You are not alone!

If this sounds like something you need in your writing life, join my newsletter today so you’ll be the first to know about my upcoming membership for writers where I’ll be hosting mini courses each month, co-writing sessions, Q&A calls, and so much more!

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Lessons I Learned Publishing My First Novel

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

I thought I knew so much when I pushed publish on my first novel, but whoo boy was I wrong!   Here are five lessons that I learned during the self-publishing process that I went through with my very first novel. 

Negative reviews will hurt

My advice – find someone you trust to read the reviews for you and give you only the things that will help make your books better.  Sometimes, people give amazing constructive criticism in their reviews, but more often than not they are just petty, mean, and downright frustrating so it’s best not to read them. This is harder than it sounds, I know, but trust me….they hurt and they linger in your self-consciousness, cropping up when you go to write your next book.

You will feel different, but not that different

Yes, being a published author and having someone buy your book off Amazon or Barnes & Nobles feels amazing!!  You will feel accomplished, proud, and high on life, but there will still be dishes in the sink, taxes to pay, and fights with your spouse or kids.  And there is still another book to write. Feel the highs and don’t let real life diminish that shine, but just know – real life grabs you faster than you would think or hope.

Your next book won’t be magically easier to write

This might be hard to hear, but it’s true. You will understand your process more with each book you write, you will understand the publishing process more as you do it, and you will feel more confident overall but the actual sitting down, hands on keys, words on paper won’t be any easier.  Sorry.  You’ll still have to put in the time, make the effort to schedule in writing sessions, and scramble through murky middles and terrible endings – or is that just me?

Some promos might make you feel icky

I followed a bunch of advice online and gave a ton of copies of my book away for free thinking it would help me build my newsletter list, but all it did was make me feel depleted, depressed, and icky.  Read up on different promos, different companies and websites, and really plan out your launch with purpose – thinking a little bit about how you would like to feel during the whole process.  It was more important than I realized.

Audience building is a big factor in sales

I’m not saying I won’t ever give my books away for free, but I think it’s better to have that audience before you launch.  I didn’t really have that as I started Instagram a bit too late, and didn’t really know best practices for things like content creation and engagement online.  It’s best to build your audience online first, nurture those readers, and then publish your book.   

Even though I had lessons to learn, and bumps along the path, I’m so thankful I stuck with self-publishing and am extremely proud to call myself an Indie Author.  We learn by doing, by trying and learning and fixing and then by doing and trying all over again.  

Don’t let the fact that you might not know everything right away stop you from following your path and living your dreams.

If you’re a published author, what lessons did you learn along the way? And if you haven’t published yet, what above is making you rethink some things now before you start? I would love to know.

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