Category: Creativity

What do you crave in your creative life?

by Maria

Remember last year when we had so much fun with the annual survey?

Let’s do it again! … she says with an overly cheesy grin.

Last year we discovered:

  1. That you guys are the best ever. Your responses to the last survey cracked me up, and I don’t know how I ever got so lucky to be able to online-hang with all of you.
  2. We don’t have enough time to read. And we’re not going to be quiet about it. Riot for reading time!
  3. We read fiction, nonfiction, food labels, road signs, the fine print. We read it all, and we’d do it full-time if it were up to us. (Current reigning comment: “I wish someone would pay me to read.” I dare you to unseat that one.)

I know you guys are busy and juggling a million things—full-time jobs, kids, side hustles, cooking, writing, endless TBR lists, breathing when you get a spare minute i.e. never. So this year I want to hear all about what could make that better—what do you crave this year?

The survey is just 5 multiple choice questions that won’t take longer than 3 minutes.

And I Girl-Scout-swear to try to make this space a place that gives you more of what you crave. A space that’s going to help you get where you’re going and make us all a little less frenzied and anxious on our way there.  

So if you’ll take just 3 minutes to tell me what’s on your mind, I’ll love you forever. (You know I already do, but THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your time. I know it’s precious and in high-demand.)

 

Click here to take the survey!

 

5 quick reads for the week

  1. Austin Kleon on why jealousy needs to be your worst enemy.
  2. Try to put your anxiety to bed with the sun–easier said than done, sure, but can save you a lot of stress-ridden bedtimes.
  3. My author, Tiffany King, wrote this wonderful piece on the 13 ways libraries are holding us all together.
  4. Trying to sell your book to everyone is a big task; follow these tips to narrow your marketing strategies.
  5. An oldie but a goodie: 3 strategies to amp up your productivity.

What we’re eating this week

WE ARE IN OUR NEW HOME! …she shouted from the rooftops. Apparently I’ve taken to voice-over narrating my own life and maybe that’s because it just feels too good to be true that we’re in our new house. It is so peaceful here, and I can already sense all the possibilities and productive vibes wafting through the air. (Or maybe that’s new-paint smell? I should open a window.)

Speaking of new paint, we horribly and laughably messed up a mini bathroom makeover that ended with a broken mirror and torn drywall. Here’s the before-and-after, and I’ll spare you the in-between shots of me weeping and gnashing my teeth.

Of course, now that we’re settled, I’m cooking because—hallelujah chorus—I have a new kitchen! It even has a fridge, finally. Here’s what’s coming in and out of it:

Monday: The Bombay Frittata from Season, which I am very mad I didn’t make before this because it was very incredibly good. Like, weeping in joy kind of good. (You do have your copy of Season, right?) 

Tuesday: Balsamic pulled pork in the Instant Pot. Me and IP’s one-year anniversary is coming up, and the love is still strong and delicious.

Wednesday: Spaghetti Bolognese in the Instant Pot (because see above referenced LUV). I am nervous about this one, though, because I cannot abide overcooked spaghetti. Wish me al-dente-ness, please.

Thursday: Lentil soup in the Instant Pot. Why did we buy a stove for our house again?

Friday: The Sweet Potato Fries with Basil Yogurt Sauce from Season, because I haven’t been able to stop daydreaming about them since Nik roasted some up for us at the Bon Appetit test kitchen. I shall be weeping happy weeps and gnashing my teeth on some sweet potato fries until further notice.

Cheers!

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4 tricks for finding time to write with a full-time job

by Maria

 Finding time to write with a full-time job can be hard, but a literary agent shares the four best ways to find time to write, no matter how busy you are!

Last week, we spent a few nights at a tiny cabin near the Blue Ridge Mountains. The first thing we saw each morning was a peaceful forest with rain-soaked leaves.

We’d roll out of bed whenever we felt like it—there was no alarm clock blaring in our faces—and make ourselves coffee. Then we’d fire up our laptops. But instead of jumping into work emails, we did something we wish we could do every day. We just started writing.

finding time to write with a full-time job

We wrote each morning for a few hours straight, without the distraction of Twitter, Facebook, or Gmail—because, gloriously—there was no Wifi at the cabin.

We spent each of those three mornings living our best writer’s life, waking up with nothing to do but write or edit. I finally finished a few book proposals I’d been working on, and Jarrett made great headway on a white paper. And most importantly, we felt like we wrote better in our little cabin in the woods. Heck, give us a few weeks like that, and we’d make it rain Pulitzers (ha!).

Pepper begging us to keep writing

So today I’m letting Jarrett take the spotlight and talk a little bit about what we learned at our beautiful little Getaway House. (Pepper finally learned how to look at the camera. Big stuff for her.)

Here’s Jarrett:

Back #IRL, Maria and I struggle with finding time to write with a full-time job. Even though our full-time jobs require writing, we still find ourselves sucked up in day-to-day to-dos (like responding to work emails, ugh) that prevent us from actually doing the writing part of our jobs.

So how can we fight back against all the forces in our life—stressful full-time jobs, social media, addictive TV shows—that constantly conspire to deprive us of writing time? Maria and I have come up with a few ideas over the years that have helped us with finding time to write with a full-time job, even during the busiest seasons of our lives.

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A beautifully simple way to stop feeling overwhelmed at work

by Maria

A beautifully simple way to stop feeling overwhelmed at work–this is the best go-to strategy for when work is piling up, deadlines are looming, and you finally want to stop feeling overwhelmed at work. (This post may contain affiliate links.)

I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday, glaringly awake, grumpy, and annoyed at myself that I’d stayed up watching the Olympics.

My mind instantly turned to work: emails I needed to return, proposals that needed editing, book delivery dates, production dates, and launch dates stretching far into 2020. (Yes, that’s how far in advance we work!)

And then I got really overwhelmed. Like, can’t-turn-it-off, panicky, sweaty, deep overwhelmed.

I got out of bed, and as the sun was starting to come up, I sat in the living room, wrote everything down, and got started.

Guys, I have never been more productive before 8 am than I was that day. I’m a morning person like Pepper is a human person. It’s that far off.

Of course, I wasn’t gracefully productive. I was angsty productive. I was just desperate to get a handle on all my projects so my brain would stop reeling with to-dos.

But even in that jittery, panicked state, I kept trying to breathe deep and repeat to myself the best piece of productivity advice I’ve ever heard.

stop feeling overwhelmed at work 1

I think of it almost as my Overwhelm mantra. When the panic starts rising, but I don’t have any time to spare with analysis paralysis, I run this break-in-case-of-emergency phrase through my mind on repeat.

I rely on it because it’s uncomplicated; it’s easy to remember; it’s not a fancy 10-step strategy; and it just works.

My beautifully simple strategy to stop feeling overwhelmed at work:

Take the first tiny step.

It’s not: plan out the entire project and set goals and deadlines. It’s not: look at the big picture before zooming in.

It’s the opposite of those two things. Because as important as it is to keep the long view in mind—to remember where it is you want to go and why you want to go there—sometimes the long view can cloud the short view.

Instead, you can fight fear and resistance simply by narrowing your focus. Put your blinders on and focus on nothing but that first tiny step. Don’t think about the end goal; don’t worry about what comes next. Just do the first small thing you need to do to get started on a project.

This quickly takes your focus away from your long list of to-dos and pending projects and zeroes it in on one tiny action, so you can immediately stop feeling overwhelmed at work.

But this first step is likely much smaller than you think. It’s not “write the first chapter” or “respond to emails” or “draft the report.” The first step is the smallest possible building block of a task—the very first action you must take to get started.

Often, the very smallest step is simply to create time and space and quiet. Once distractions are stripped away, your mind settles down and squirms away from the task less frequently.

4 examples of the smallest step
& how it can help you stop feeling overwhelmed at work

  1. Turn off your wifi. Open a Word document. Write one sentence.
  2. Close the windows on your computer. Open a spreadsheet. Add one line.
  3. Turn off the TV. Pick up a book. Read one page.
  4. Close your email program. Open a Word document. Write one sentence of a difficult email.

Most of the time, you’ll keep going. It’s the getting started that trips us up, but once we’ve jumped that hurdle, we start gathering momentum to keep going.

It sounds simple, but it’s changed the way I look at intimidating projects. It’s helped me stop feeling overwhelmed at work all the time, so that I have fewer deer-in-the-headlights moments and more productive, relaxed moments.

So next time your brain wakes up and goes right to the OVERWHELMED channel, remind yourself that you only need to take one teeny tiny step forward. And that is something you can handle.

(Credit goes to Leo Babuata of ZenHabits, who first introduced this idea in this piece on how to form the habit of starting.) 

For more reading on creative productivity, try:

how to get more writing done

How to get past writer's block

guided meditation for writers with anxiety

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What I’m Reading This Week

Zadie Smith on Optimism and Despair (Maria Popova of Brain Pickings): If you’re despairing about making progress on a difficult project, I’ll allow you one 5-minute break to read this piece. But after that: get to work!

20+ Dorothy Parker Quotes for Your Daily Routine (Sarah Ullery for Book Riot): “When Your Alarm Goes Off: ‘What fresh hell is this?’” Yes, exactly.

Have You Chosen the Right Main Character to Tell Your Story? (Kristen Kieffer of Well-Storied): “Main characters can make or break a story’s success. Oftentimes, the doubts we face as we work to bring our main characters to life can seem endless. Are our protagonists’ well-rounded enough? Are they interesting? Will readers root for them to achieve their goal?”

28 Parenting Blogs and Magazines That Pay Freelance Writers (Brianna Bell for The Write Life): Freelance writing is one of the best ways to start building your platform and inching your way toward making a living from your writing, so it always makes me happy to see people generously sharing leads like this.

The Strange and Twisted Life of “Frankenstein” (Jill Lepore for The New Yorker): “After two hundred years, are we ready for the truth about Mary Shelley’s novel?” A deep and fascinating article about Mary Shelley and her famous monster.

35 Books To Build Your Character: The Definitive Reading List on Humility and Ego (Ryan Holiday on Thought Catalog): A great reading list from the author of Ego is the Enemy.

What We’re Eating This Week:

Remember last week when we played the Imaginary Menu Game because no real cooking was happening around here? Well, this week I finally get to cook like mad from Stonesong client Coco Morante’s book The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook. Happiness ensued!

(And as luck would have it, as I was drafting this post, Coco’s ebook went on sale for $2.99! I am trying very hard not to buy ten of them as gifts. But you can get one here.)

coco morante cookbook cover instant pot

Sunday: Coco’s Whole Chicken with Mushroom Sauce, plus roasted broccoli and beet salad. Every person that I know in real life (and likely you, too) would like me to shut up about this chicken recipe but I WILL NOT.

I made it again this week and if you hate me for not sharing the recipe, I am here to redeem myself: it’s coming in my February cookbook column for The Kitchn! I advise you to buy your town’s entire inventory of whole chickens.

Monday: One-Pot Roast Dinner, which we’re making with venison from The Farm instead of beef. And also, brussels sprouts instead of carrots, plus artichokes, because I am very bad at following recipes.

Tuesday: The Cajun Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya on page 66, but with pheasant from Jarrett’s Christmas hunt in place of chicken. See above re: very bad at recipes.

Wednesday: We’re going to Peter Chang’s for Valentine’s Day!! It’s our favorite hole-in-the-wall Chinese place, run by America’s most elusive chef, says The New Yorker. But The New Yorker has not seen how elusive I am when I don’t feel like cooking.

Thursday: Spaghetti with something from the pantry? A vegetable of some kind? Cheese? Hiding under the kitchen table until tomorrow? (See? Elusive. Where is my New Yorker profile?)

Friday: Well, it’s Friday so…  (That is my canned excuse for getting out of most things on Fridays. You can borrow it if you want.)

Cheers!

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how to have the best writing year

by Maria

Why a goal setting system is more important than the goals you set, and my favorite realistic and easy goal-setting system for writers who want to publish books. Affiliate links may be included below.

I keep looking at it in my calendar. It’s highlighted, in bold type, and has way too many exclamation points. It says:

Goal-Setting Day!!!!!

It’s the most wonderful day of the year.

We spend so much of our time in the thick of things, so busy getting everything done, that we straight forget what we are actually trying to accomplish across our whole life.

We see the immediate to-dos looming today and tomorrow. We see the tasks waiting for us at home and at work. When we look into the future, it’s a blur of vague hopes. When we look back, it’s a blur of already-forgotten days. Man, it’s stressful.

And the busier life gets, the harder it is to remember what we already accomplished and what we are trying to accomplish.

This is especially true of writers and creatives who work for ourselves or have a side hustle. There’s no boss to sit you down at the end of the year and grade your performance. And there’s no mandated time to set goals for next year and think about the big picture of your career and life.

literary agent blog goals for writers lon

That’s why you need to take goal-setting time for yourself.

Because the truth is, no one is going to tap you on the shoulder and nag you until you schedule in goal-setting time. (I’ll nag you a little right now, but only because I love ya!)

I can’t stress enough how important this is for writers, bloggers, everyone. If you’re involved in any creative endeavor, even if it’s just a side project, then you owe it to yourself to be intentional about how you spend your time.

Even more, you owe it to yourself to celebrate your accomplishments of 2017 and get excited about the adventures of 2018.

Your creative life will feel richer and more meaningful if you can see the big picture of why you do what you do. It’s an easy way to become mindful of your strengths and weaknesses, and to be thoughtful and intentional about what you want to accomplish and what you will set aside.

Do you know how to set goals the right way?

The problem is: most of us have no idea how to set goals the right way. (And yes, there is definitely a right way.)

Yet, goals are high-stakes. We feel awful when we don’t meet them, and we feel amazing when we crush them.

So setting them at all becomes a highly emotional process. How do we know our goals aren’t too easy? How do we know if they’re unrealistic? How many goals should we be setting? And the big one: how do we actually accomplish those goals? (Because we all know it’s not as easy as making a list of things we’d like to do.)

The truth is: no one is born knowing these things. Just because you’ve successfully knocked out goals in the past doesn’t mean 2018 won’t throw you some curve balls. Just because you’ve missed some goals in the past doesn’t mean 2018 won’t be the year you hit it out of the park.

But as I talked about here, books and classes pull us off the isolated island of our own experience and immerse us in the stream of collective learning. There’s no reason we have to struggle on our own when there are hundreds of resources out there for learning important life skills. And you betchya that goal-setting should be one of them.

So this year, I highly recommend making “Set up a system for making and meeting goals” as one of your goals.

Yes, a goal about goals. It’s weird. But I promise that it’ll be fun to learn a new goal-setting process, and it’s going to lay the foundation for many, many years of accomplishments.

Personally, every year I get excited all over again about one goal-setting system: Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever. I’ve been a huge fan of all things Hyatt for many years (he was the former CEO of Thomas Nelson at HarperCollins), and he builds better resources for advancing your career and creative life than anyone out there.

The thing that really amazes me about BYE is the success stories: you hear everything from people losing 30+ pounds, to tripling their income, to finally setting things right in their relationships. This is hard stuff we deal with, and if you ask me, we can use every bit of help we can get.

I’ll let Michael tell you more about the class here (reading that makes me excited all over again!), and if you feel like it’s right for you, you can sign up here. Enrollment closes this Monday, December 19th, so check this off your to-do list now! And at least that will be one goal you’re already crushing. 😉

Click here to sign up for Best Year Ever!

 

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What I’m Reading

How to Land a Book Deal (Me on the Food Blogger Pro podcast): The nice folks at Food Blogger Pro (one of my favorite resources!) invited me to be on the podcast to share the inside details of how to get a book deal. As much as I find the sound of my own voice weird (are we all wired to think that?), I hope you’ll at least find it a helpful listen!

7 Crazy Successful Instagrammers You Should Pay Attention To (Deidra Romero for Platform University): I loved this list because I, for one, learn by watching. I instantly followed some of these Instagrammers so I could be inspired by the best.

How to Find and Attract Editors for Pitching Articles (Devra Ferst and Dianne Jacob): One of the best ways to build your author platform is to start building your writing portfolio and collecting bylines at top media outlets. This is a great piece with practical insider tips on how to start getting “yeses” on those pitches.

Printable bookplates for all your gifting needs (cooks & books): Here are two nice things to do this holiday: gift a book and donate a book. Either way, a nice inscription is always welcome, and I love using these free printable bookplates for it. (After all, some people are a little funny about writing directly in the book!)

A Book Launch Plan for First-Time Authors Without an Online Presence (Jane Friedman): Don’t know where to start and don’t have any online base? Well, Jane is here to walk you through what you can do, even if you don’t yet know your Instagram from your Twitter.

What We’re Eating This Week

We are hoommee! Thank you to all you sweet folks who wished us safe travels to El Salvador last week. I got a little sappy in an Instagram post about how much the trip meant to me and how grateful I am for the work Habitat for Humanity is doing in the world. I won’t prattle on about it, but if you’ve ever thought about doing a build with them, I’d love to talk your ear off about it!

nonfiction books blog

Now, let’s eat:

Monday: Well, the whole eat-less, work-more plan for El Salvador didn’t quite work out because pupusas and beer. So Monday we threw together a sheet pan dinner of brussels, mushrooms, and sausage and another one of drumsticks and cauliflower. All I could think about was pupusas.

Tuesday: Salad! We did it. A healthy thing. I’ll pat myself on the back for a month now.

Wednesday: The Stonesong team is off to celebrate two clients: Julie Gaines of Fishs Eddy who is hosting a signing for Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen. We love making connections, talking food, and doing dishes.

Thursday: Please send Chicken Lo Mein and Wonton Soup to Desk #4, Stonesong Offices, NY, NY.

Friday: Home and out to dinner with friends! We’re trying Jose Andres’s China Chilcano for the first time. Methinks me will likey.

Cheers!

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