How to Write When You Can't (A Love Letter)

Some hope and encouragement for the over-scheduled, over-burdened, and overwhelmed writer

Hello lovies,

I am at the beach on vacation with assorted family and friends and I am behind on everything.

Everything.

I have two full-length manuscripts to read, a student packet to finish, my own novels to work on, and ideas galore for more Substack posts.

And yet, here I am on the moody, gorgeous Oregon Coast (think pine, fir and spruce forests, rocky outcroppings, cold water) for two weeks ensconced with people I love, doing things I love, eating food I love (I’ve developed an alarming love for fudge) and drinking alcohol I love (red wine and gin and tonics, but not at the same time). It doesn’t get much better than this.

Except that I’m having trouble getting my writing done.

I’m experiencing a writer’s existential crisis—I have projects I love, I know where I need to go with them, I have notes to transfer, ideas popping, and yet I have little time or space to get to it. (Please note: this is very different than my usual garden-variety writer’s crisis, which involves having plenty of time to write but being paralyzed to do so.)

What’s a writer to do? Say to hell with it and commence enjoying vacation without worrying about writing? Remind herself how lucky she is to get to do this? Go with the flow? Or be grumpy and growly and yell at people to leave her alone so she can get some work done?

I’ve chosen a path through the middle of the above options.

I’m lowering expectations and reminding myself that this, too, shall pass. That next week I’ll be in hot Portland, at my desk next to a construction zone (my daughter is having her kitchen redone and new floors laid), wishing I had my view of the ocean back. That I get to have both crazy family time on vacation and a career that I love. And that every once in awhile, I can nab myself some time to write.

My hope is that you, too, are lowering expectations and happily carrying on. As Susan DeFreitas says, when life is big, write small. Good advice for us all to heed.

Love, light and good writing,

Charlotte

P.S. You’ll notice one way I lowered expectations of myself is by writing a shorter newsletter this week.

P.P.S. How is your writing faring with all the distractions of summer? How are you?

---

Articles and Resources

Who cares? What makes a reader care enough to read your book?

A book publicist’s thoughts on book trailers.

Let's Talk About Book Trailers.

Inspiration is all around you.

Find your true story. I finally made my coaching website! It’s incomplete, and I have lots of ideas of how to improve it, but I’m pleased with myself for doing it.

---

Books

Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo. Another local find, this one at the Cannon Beach Book Company. Main character Hestia is alone and lonely in a near-future America that is at war—civil war. The story mostly follows her dating experiences, tempered with great character sketches of the old people who live in the retirement community where she works. I’m not over the top about it, but I am enjoying it, despite the depiction of the civil war sounding alarmingly realistic.

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman. I’ve never read a book by her, either, but this one was 50% off and it enticed me, too. So I bought it. It’s good to read out of my wheelhouse once in awhile. Big echoes of Stephen King’s Misery in this one. Update: Slow start and build but I couldn’t stop turning the pages by the end. I’m interested to read more of Lippman’s work. She’s a good writer stylistically as well as story-wise.

---

Other places to connect with me:

Buy my books

Instagram

My website (badly in need of an upgrade)

Our workshop website

My original blog (now for archive purposes only, no longer updated)

---

Ways I can help you:

Book coaching

Manuscript evaluation

---

This newsletter contains affiliate links. Thanks for clicking them.